PGA Tour to overhaul schedule for 2024

The PGA Tour is set to unveil a new schedule for 2024 that will include significant changes to its designated events.

It will mean a number of big events with large purses for better and fewer players, and without a cut. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan told players of the alterations in a memo sent on Tuesday.

“In 2024, select designated events will be between 70 and 80 players, with no cut and with opportunities for players from full-field events to qualify and compete,” wrote Monahan. “These smaller designated event fields will not only deliver smaller, substantial can’t-miss fields to our fans at important intervals throughout the season, but they will also enhance the quality of full-field events.”

There will be 16 designated events that won’t have restricted fields, including The Players Championship, the four majors and three FedEx Cup playoff events. The others are likely to include the Memorial, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and other high-profile tournaments, several of which were designated events this year. Monahan said the tour hopes to spread the limited-field events out to provide a flow to the season.

There will also be plenty of opportunity for golfers from full-field tournaments to earn spots in the designated events as they move through the schedule. In other words, the designated events won’t have fixed fields; golfer will have to play their way in.

Reaction from the top golfers was, not surprisingly, positive.

“I think it's exciting because you’re going to have the top guys in the world playing against each other more often,” said world No. 2 Scottie Scheffler. “You're going to be able to guarantee the sponsors that those guys are going to be there four days. If you're coming out to an event to watch on Saturday and Sunday and, you know, if I'm imagining myself as a kid, I would like to get out there early. Let's say I'm having a bad week, some kid can come out and watch me play early in the day and you can guarantee that Rory McIlroy's going to be there on Sunday, Jon Rahm is going to be there on Sunday. I think that's a lot of value added to TV and for sponsors.”

On social media, the setup drew obvious comparisons to LIV Golf, where every event has 48 players and there is no cut. Those are the primary reasons why players have struggled to get points from the Official World Golf Ranking system.

But small-field, limited-cut tournaments have been on the PGA Tour schedule for years. The World Golf Championship events had that format as do tournaments such as the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Unlike LIV’s format, the PGA Tour’s events will have a different field for every stop. That, in essence, is what’s driving the move.

“It's trying to get the top guys versus the hot guys,” stated Rory McIlroy, one of the driving forces for building the change. “I think that creates a really compelling product. But in a way that you don't have to wait an entire year for your good play to then get the opportunity. That opportunity presents itself straight away. You play well for two or three weeks, you're in a designated event. You know then if you keep playing well you stay in them.”

What’s yet to be determined is just how this will affect the non-designated tournaments. This year, the events without that designation have suffered in field strength and had limited star power. Top players rarely played the non-designated stops, using them as a week off.

One such tournament, last week’s Honda Classic, still managed to produce a great story in winner Chris Kirk, who overcame alcohol dependency to return to the winner’s circle, but that may not happen every week. Everything from sponsorship sales to attendance can be affected by a field without many of the top names.

What it will mean for the RBC Canadian Open is also open to question. There was some speculation that the tournament might get elevated status in 2024, but that was when the designated events were full fields. It would be unlikely to have a national championship with just 70 golfers and no cut.

Of course, RBC can always count on its ambassadors to play in its sponsored tournaments, meaning the likes of Cam Young, Sam Burns, Sahith Theegala, Webb Simpson, and the Canadian contingent will be there if it’s just a regular stop. It’s also likely that two-time defending champion McIlroy will tee it up.

There could also be more coming on this as the PGA Tour and RBC have been in discussions about next steps, but those are being kept under wraps.

For now, the tour is trying to build its product based on star power, which isn’t a bad formula. Getting the best together more often seems like a smart move.