Adam Scott is 99th in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings with just three fall events to go, and yet he is not expected to play in any of them. He has no worries. He secured a little-known two-year PGA Tour exemption when he made the 2024 Tour Championship. So he’s safe for 2026.
In previous years, he would have been clear of concern anyway, but for the first time since 1983, the PGA Tour made a significant change to its qualification criteria, dropping the number of fully exempt players from 125 to 100.
And that is playing out now as the final three events of the FedEx Fall schedule, starting with this week’s World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico, followed by the Bermuda Championship and the RSM Classic.
David Lipsky is in the 100th position. Billy Horschel is 101st but he’s exempt for next year based on a 2024 victory. A finish this year inside the top100 would provide exempt status for the Players Championship, which is not yet assured for Horschel, who missed much of this year due to hip surgery.
There is plenty to play for higher up the points list as well. Anyone who finishes in the top 60 in FedEx points will get starts at the first two signature events, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational. Wyndham Clark, who is 60th and has played just once previously this fall on the PGA Tour, is in the World Wide Technology field.
The change to a smaller number of exempt players has understandably come with considerable debate. The Tour has reduced the size in many of them to combat slow play, as well as strengthen the fields. For example, the WM Phoenix Open will have just 120 players, down from 132. The Players Championship will also be just 120 after being at 144.
In reducing the number of fully exempt spots from 125 to 100 and then cutting the number of Korn Ferry Tour exemptions from 25 to 20, that’s 30 fewer spots. Throw in a number of tournaments cutting back or eliminating Monday qualifying and there has been a good bit of justified concern.
But all is not lost. A byproduct of the field reductions and field sizes means that players who are coming onto the PGA Tour via the KFT and via five Qualifying School spots (as well as 10 players who come from the DP World Tour) will all get in nearly every regular full-field event, save for perhaps the WM Phoenix Open. So, too, for players who come to the Tour via PGA Tour University as well as lifetime members.
If any of those players are left out, the Tour will add players to the field (except in Phoenix) to accommodate them.
Even players who finish outside of the top 100 and have conditional status will play more than a dozen events during the regular season, perhaps more, and then they will still have the opportunity to play in the fall as they are doing now.
The fully exempt categories (aside from Tour winners and major winners) include the top 100 in points, the top 20 from KFT, the top 5 from Q-School and the top 10 players (not otherwise exempt) from the final DP World Tour Race to Dubai standings, which will be determined after next week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
From there, those players who finish 101–110 are in a conditional category that will not be subject to a reshuffle along with players who are part of a medical extension category.
Following that is another conditional category of players who made 300 career cuts along with those who finished 111th to 125th in points. That group will reshuffle at various points in the year, so even those who fall outside of the top 100 at least will want to get into the top 110 to assure a higher priority.
Add it all up, and there is a lot of maneuvering still to come over the next three weeks.
Kai Trump Is the Latest Example of the Sponsor Exemption Conundrum
Sponsor exemptions into professional golf tournaments typically have a way of rankling, regardless of the circumstances. A couple of recent examples certainly fall into that category.
Three-time major winner Jordan Spieth received one for Tiger Woods’s Hero World Challenge in December. Kai Trump, the granddaughter of President Donald Trump, got one for next week’s Annika LPGA event.
Spieth, who had wrist surgery late in 2024 and battled the injury into the 2025 season, was awarded six invitations to signature events this year. Invites into the limited-field events remain a subject of contention since the concept was first put into play by the PGA Tour in 2023.
For Spieth, the subject takes on more meaning because he’s elected to not play in any fall events that could have solidified a spot in the first two signature events in 2026—the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational—which gave him spots this year.
It’s not exactly like Spieth took advantage of all his opportunities. In the six events he was given invites, he missed a cut at the Genesis, withdrew from the Travelers and had just a single top-10 finish, a tie for seventh at the Memorial. There’s an argument to be made that he’d have finished in the top 50 and not needed to worry about it with more success in the events he played.
Still, it raised the question as to whether the signature events should have a cap on invites—or even give them at all. The signature events have $20 million purses with limited fields, thus skewing the playing field considerably compared to a regular, full-field event with a purse likely less than half. Spieth, clearly, remains a popular player whom sponsors believe is worth having in the field. Which remains a reason to allow sponsors to offer those invites.
And his invite to the Hero—which he won in 2014—comes with an element of good fortune. The 20-player field is chosen based on the Official World Golf Ranking. A player (aside from Woods as tournament host) must be in the top 50 at the close of the qualification period, which was Aug. 23, the ranking date after the Tour Championship.
The field is determined by inviting the year’s major winners and then down the OWGR list until 17 players are committed. Then there was the discretion to invite three more, with Spieth, Billy Horschel and Akshay Bhatia getting the last invites.
Spieth, who is 62nd in the OWGR now, was 48th on Aug. 23 and actually moved from 51st to 48th without playing the Tour Championship. That allowed him to be considered for a spot.
He remains 56th in the FedEx Cup standings which means he’s in line to be eligible for the first two signature events without an invite. (The top 60 following the fall are considered the AON Next 10 and get those starts.) But Spieth knows that if he falls out, he’s all but assured of getting an invite at Pebble Beach—he has a sponsorship deal with AT&T—and at the Genesis, where Woods is also the tournament host.
Certainly it would do Spieth some good to play in the fall to lock up a spot without taking an invite. And now with a spot at the Hero, he’s got a chance to improve his OWGR, which could be another entry point into signature events, as the top 30 in OWGR earn a place if not in otherwise eligible.
Trump’s Invitation Has Already Paid Off
As for Trump, the fact that she is even being discussed is exactly the point of sponsor invites: It brings attention to the tournament. It’s good for the title sponsor as well as the TV network televising the event. But that doesn’t make it right, especially in the last event of the year where exempt status for 2026 is on the line and where players are trying to qualify for the season-ending event. This is always among the talking points when these invites are given, weighing what is proper against the desire to bring attention to the tournament.
Trump brings a hefty social media following—again, the reason for the invite—but her playing credentials suggest this is a huge reach. Although she’s earned a scholarship to the University of Miami, she is ranked 461st in the American Junior Golf Association ratings. At one of the biggest events earlier this year at Sage Valley—an event to which she got an invite—she finished last.
Obviously for an 18-year-old aspiring player who has further golf aspirations, a spot in her first LPGA event where she can rub elbows with some of the game’s elite and get a taste of the competition is coveted ... if not earned.
The Problem With Graeme McDowell's Ryder Cup Aspirations
Graeme McDowell would like to be considered for the 2027 European Ryder Cup captaincy, a desire he knows is complicated greatly by his LIV Golf League association. His comments at the Hong Kong Open undoubtedly offer plenty for proponents and detractors to discuss.
In an interview with bunkered.co.uk, McDowell acknowledged the difficulty of the situation but also said he believed the LIV dilemma is not of his doing.
“It’s on my mind, but being honest with you, I don’t know what to do about it,” McDowell told the website when asked following the second round of the International Series event, where he missed the cut.
“I don’t know whether it should be on my mind at all, as in if it’s something that’s not possible politically. If that’s the case, clearly I’ll be disappointed, but I’ll obviously understand why. The world is where it is. People will say I’ll get what I deserve, which, you know, I’m not really sure I totally agree with that, right?
“People will say I don’t deserve it and I’m responsible for a lot of what’s happened. But I’m a very, very small cog in this big wheel.”
McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion who played on four European Ryder Cup teams, would have been considered among the favorites to get the captaincy in 2027 at Adare Manor in Ireland prior to going to LIV Golf. McDowell, 46, who is from Portrush, Northern Ireland, will be in the desired age window for the position.
But players who have gone to LIV Golf have seen this avenue basically shut down. The two-time winning captain Luke Donald only got the job in 2022 when Henrik Stenson, the named captain, joined LIV. Now Donald could be asked to do it again. Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, locks to be captains before going to LIV, are also seemingly out of the running.
Then there is the issue of giving up his DP World Tour membership. In 2018, the tour enacted a rule that said any player who gave up their membership at any time would forfeit the right to be a future captain or assistant captain. That is an issue that is a subplot of his LIV Golf decision.
“The divisiveness has come from the best players in the world,” McDowell said. “It hasn’t came from the 40-somethings like myself that are just trying to eke out a living and staying competitive on an opportunity that was presented to us, which would have been crazy to say no to from a business point of view.
“I don’t know if it’s something that’s going to be unachievable. I’m not sure if it’s something that’s potentially on the radar. I only saw a couple of comments where Luke said maybe he doesn’t want to do it a third time.
“Justin Rose doesn’t want it because he wants to play. Rory [McIlroy] is obviously not even close, right? He doesn’t want to be playing captain. So it’s kind of like, ‘who’s it going to be?’ And why couldn’t it be me? I would love to be the olive branch that potentially puts some of this back together again.”
One Comment by McDowell Has Struck a Nerve
The “eke out a living” comment is causing McDowell some angst since the publication of the story. His intent has been overshadowed by the poor choice of words. Clearly anyone who went to LIV and has played there for four years should be set on the money front. But his point was that his decision to go was not the breaking point in any divisiveness.
Still, McDowell faces several hurdles. He has given up his DP World Tour membership after paying his fines, saying he didn’t want to incur any more while playing a limited schedule. He plans to play for LIV Golf in 2026 and would certainly need to be more of a presence on the DP World Tour if he takes on the role.
There is also the matter of a DP World Tour rule that stipulates any player giving up membership at any time would forfeit the right to be a future captain or assistant. That is something that Jon Rahm will have to face as well if he elects to give up membership in a non-Ryder Cup year.
“I don’t want to be presumptuous by putting my hat into the ring. Because it may be something that the powers that be within Ryder Cup Europe are saying, well, that’s just not possible,” McDowell said. “If it is possible, I will certainly do everything that I can to be the best Ryder Cup captain I can be. And obviously, I’d love to sit down with Ryder Cup Europe and, if it’s a possibility, find out what they would need me to do.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Final Three PGA Tour Events Will Be Packed With Drama.
