Is the PGA Tour’s No-Cut Designated Event 2024 Plan Too Similar to LIV Golf? Jay Monahan Weighed In
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Among the controversial aspects to the PGA Tour’s revamped schedule starting in 2024 is the introduction of more no-cut events with limited fields.
There will be 11 of them next year, including the eight “designated" events and the three season-ending FedEx Cup playoff tournaments.
While there have always been no-cut events in various forms on the PGA Tour—Tiger Woods counts 26 among his 82 PGA Tour titles—the idea of adding them, especially in light of the criticism directed at LIV Golf for staging nothing but no-cut, limited-field tournaments, will continue to be a point of debate.
“I would ask you, do you think we really look the same?" said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan when asked during a news conference Tuesday about the LIV influence and format. “The players that are competing in our events in this new format next year will have earned the right to compete in them and they will have earned it through top-50 position in the FedEx Cup this year as well as their performance in the fall and ultimately in these swings."
Monahan spent a majority of his one-hour news conference answering questions about the Tour’s new designated-event format that will be tweaked in 2024 to have eight designated events with fields from 70 to 80 players without a cut.
With $20 million purses, it means significant guaranteed income for players who qualify. And it also means that some very good players could be on the outside looking in—although there will be opportunities to play your way in throughout the season.
Monahan made it clear that no-cut, limited-field events have always been a part of the PGA Tour and stressed that you still need to qualify for the designated events.
Those eight tournaments will be the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the three legacy events (Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial) and four more tournaments to be determined, although they will remain the same after next year.
Getting into them will require being in the top 50 in FedEx Cup points after this year, or: being one of the top 10 players in FedEx Cup points leading up to a designated event, being one of the top five players in a mini-points race among the most recent non-designated events, top 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking, a current-year Tour winner, or one of four sponsor exemptions.
“There was and there still is a lot of discussion and debate on whether or not there should be no cuts," Monahan said. “But for us to be able to have our stars assured to play for four days is a really important element to this model going forward. We think that's what fans want, particularly given the players have earned their right and their ability to play in those events. So that's first and foremost.
“And I think that when you look at the competitive integrity of the competitions, with the strength of these fields, I think it further warrants that you have the players, not only from a media standpoint but from an on-site standpoint, and one of the real takeaways for me is if you think about a field size of 70 to 80 players, and if you think about a higher reward for a top-10 finish, which is what we're talking about in the FedEx Cup going forward and in these events, FedEx Cup points, any player that is near the bottom of the cut line in what is already a reduced field has the chance to come back and finish inside the top 10.
“In fact, I think you'll probably see over the next couple years a player in that spot come back with a chance to win. For us I think that that's very compelling for our fans, and I also think it's very compelling competitively for our players."
Among the changes next year will be no requirement to play in any of the tournaments, including dropping this year’s rule that stipulates a player compete in at least three events outside of the designated tournaments.
“When you think about starting the season, and whether you're a player that's qualified to play in designated events or not, you're going to have to get off to a fast start," Monahan said. “You're going to see players try and get themselves well-positioned at the start of the year, adjust their schedules.
"We maintain that flexibility, which has always been so important, there aren't rules from which to play and then when you get to the back end of the year where everything's at stake going from late June to the Wyndham Championship, you've got six or seven events there that are not going to have designated events, and our players are going to be really running hard to the end of the season to finish out the year and get themselves hopefully into the Tour Championship top 50 or in the FedEx Cup Playoffs themselves, and if not, preparing for the fall and retaining their card."