Jay Monahan is trying his best to bring new changes to the PGA Tour. But they seem to be controversial. Getting heat is something Monahan is not new to. According to a report by No Laying Up, he was asked to resign back in December 2023. That was when the PIF merger deadline was scheduled, and there were no final calls to it. Well, it is almost a year and the status remains the same.
Among several other proposed changes, some of them are reduced field size, fewer golfers with full status on the PGA Tour, and reduction of the Monday qualifiers. This is what has gotten him into hot waters. While other members of the PAC like Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, and Patrick Cantlay are yet to react to it, it turns out Peter Malnati comes to Monahan’s rescue. Although the chances are that these changes are discussed with them, but golf world has yet to hear about it from them.
Peter Malnati appeared as a guest on the Sirius XM PGA Tour, snippets of which were posted on their official Instagram account. When asked about the newly introduced policies, he said, “I just think the direction that they’re going is toward magnifying the value of having a PGA Tour card.” He added that the transition might turn out to be hard in the initial days; however, with time, the Tour will only turn out to be a better product. Earlier, 125 players got a full exemption on the Tour, and now it will be only 100, which, according to him, will increase the value that the Tour card holds. Mathematically, it makes sense.
“The membership of the tour is too big. Our events are too big. And there are people at the bottom who are supposed to be fully exempt players on tour who don’t know the value of the card,” he added. He believes that the decisions are rightly made, and they are indeed headed in the ‘right direction.’ This is not just for the PGA Tour pros but for the golf fans too since they deserve the best version of the America Tour after all the tricky times that have been going on. All that is needed now is patience to see the results.
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The proposed changes have indeed managed to bring about a storm in the golf world. While Michael Kim is one of the players who is not happy with the decision but thinks it is in the best interest, PGA Tour Pro Billy Horschel goes south on the decision.
Billy Horschel raises his concerns about the new rule
Billy Horschel appeared on the Any Given Monday podcast and shared his views on the Tour getting smaller. He also addressed the easy concerns of removing Q-school and said, “When I came through it in 2009 to get my card for the first time. Now there’s only Q school gone away, which I thought was the dumbest thing the tour could have done.” He added how it would deeply affect the Tour, killing opportunities for young players coming out of college who are good enough to get through the Q-School and directly be a part of the league.
He stated that the PGA Tour acknowledged its mistake early on, which prompted the creation of the PGA Tour University for top collegiate golfers. The highest-ranked players will receive a PGA Tour card, similar to Ludvig Aberg in 2023, while the other nine in the Top 10 will either earn Korn Ferry Tour cards or conditional status.
What are your thoughts on the changes that the Tour will have in effect from 2026? Let us know in the comments section below!
