Unsurprisingly, there has been plenty of debate concerning the proposals which could result in big changes to the PGA Tour from 2026.
While the future of the game appears as difficult to predict as ever, it seems that the PGA Tour are making plans in case the landscape does not change significantly by the time the 2026 season arrives.
Field sizes are set to get smaller in almost every single tournament, while the top 100 players in the FedEx Cup standings will be in line to keep their cards. Meanwhile, just 20 players will be promoted from the Korn Ferry Tour rather than 30.
Some have reluctantly backed the proposals, but clearly, there will be a worry about the PGA Tour becoming a closed shop, particularly in the short-term. There are obviously going to be fewer spots for players on the PGA Tour, but that may also present more opportunities for players further down the food chain.
What Camilo Villegas has said about the PGA Tour proposals
And it seems that one of the key figures behind the proposals is prepared to be amongst those who suffer in the hope of taking the tour forward in the future. Speaking on Golf Channel, Todd Lewis suggested that Camilo Villegas recognises the importance of change.
“Not only is Camilo Villegas the chairman of the Player Advisory Council, he was voted onto that position by his peers, but also, he is going to elevate the cause of his position in 2025, in January of 2025 to be on the PGA Tour Policy Board. So he helped draft this memo and also will be voting on it next year,” he said.
“And I asked him to break down the reasoning why this proposal was put out there, and he said there were a couple of reasons: number one, and probably the biggest to him in my conversation, was what does a tour card mean for the players that graduate from the Korn Ferry Tour, graduate from Q School? They are not going to get a lot of starts, especially early in the PGA Tour season.
“They ran a lot of metrics and they said the average start for those players are maybe four in the first 15 events, so they wanted to shrink the size from the Korn Ferry Tour from 30 to 20. Also, if you look at historically, the Korn Ferry Tour graduates in the Korn Ferry Tour standing positions 21 through 30, those players generally do not retain their card. And positions 100 through 125 in the FedEx Cup standings, they have a tough time retaining their card too, so that was in play. Secondly, it became a big giant traffic jam in some events on the PGA Tour with these 156 man fields, players not able to finish on Thursday and Friday. And so, they decided to come together – they being the PAC – to create this memo that is now out there.
“I will say that Camilo Villegas, he won last year, he is exempt on the PGA Tour season this year and he is exempt next year. But if it goes through, this could actually affect him. But he told me that despite being in my early 40s and I’m a five-time winner out here on the PGA Tour, and yes I would love to have more playing opportunities, the game is more important. Let’s streamline it, let’s make it better for the fans, let’s have play ending on the day it’s supposed to. And that was very critical for the PAC.”
A lot of uncertainty
Ultimately, the end goal for the PGA Tour has got to be to produce the best product which also works for the best player in the world, as well as those fighting to keep their cards.
Obviously, the PGA Tour has had to fight to keep many of their top names in recent years, and that has perhaps taken priority. But the tour needs to make sure that they look after those further down the standings too.
Clearly, they will hope that these proposals take the PGA Tour closer to ticking both boxes. But you could understand if many had real concerns about the future.
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