{"id":437148,"date":"2025-10-20T01:43:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T01:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=437148"},"modified":"2025-10-20T01:43:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T01:43:12","slug":"tour-card-reductions-are-already-effecting-hopefuls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/tour-card-reductions-are-already-effecting-hopefuls\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour Card Reductions Are Already Effecting Hopefuls"},"content":{"rendered":"

As most committed PGA fans know, 2025 was the year that the league decided that it was time to address the issue of slow-play<\/a>.\u00a0 This has led to several measures taken during the tournaments.\u00a0 Those are penalties, tools for the players<\/a>, and leaderboards of shame<\/a>.\u00a0 There is one additional method that has been considered and is being implemented at the time of writing.\u00a0 That being a reduction of Tour Cards from the decades-long standard of 125 to 100.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Tour Cards History<\/span><\/h2>\n

The Tour Card, as it is known today, is a system that is only just a little over forty years old.\u00a0 It was first implemented in 1983 after Gary McCord pushed heavily for an all-exempt tour.\u00a0 The idea was that the original system of the Monday qualifiers was grueling for the golfers.\u00a0 Specifically, those who would travel to the venue a week ahead of the tournament, only to miss their chance anyway.\u00a0 The Tour Card reduced the need for the qualifying rounds greatly.\u00a0 The number of cards was based on how many players it took to fill out a field.\u00a0 It became so popular that every pro league has a system similar to it.\u00a0 Now, however, the number of Tour Cards being handed out is down to 100 in an effort to reduce the field size and bring down tournament time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tour Cards, Q School, And Korn Ferry<\/span><\/h2>\n

Right now, the PGA Tour Q school<\/a> is going through its first phase.\u00a0 It is scheduled to wrap up in mid-December.\u00a0 At the end of the final stage, five cards will be given out to the top five.\u00a0 The competition is a bit more intense due to the card reductions, with the idea being that the players who earn their cards are more likely to keep them.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the Korn Ferry Tour has concluded its 2025 season with 20 players earning their tour cards.\u00a0 As opposed to 30 in previous years.\u00a0 The decision to reduce Tour Cards is still controversia<\/a>l.\u00a0 Ben Griffin sees how it can hurt a player’s chance as he got in through the Korn Ferry.\u00a0 He explained the issue<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Korn Ferry players that are in the top 20 are going to have a much better opportunity than maybe the past few seasons to play well and keep their PGA Tour cards. Now, as for going from 30 to 20, that\u2019s 10 less guys that would have had a chance to play in a PGA Tour event.\u00a0 So in a way, you\u2019re limiting the amount of players that are now going to be on the PGA Tour.\u00a0 The new and up-and-coming players, maybe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Griffin does remain supportive of the idea.\u00a0 He went on to say that the reduced number of players now has a better chance of getting into tournaments and playing with the top players.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Reductions And Slow Play<\/span><\/h2>\n

Reducing the number of Tour Cards being handed out will work to reduce the time it takes to finish a tournament.\u00a0 Fewer players available means a greater chance that the field won\u2019t be completely filled.\u00a0 However, it does mean that hopeful players need to work even harder to squeak by if they want to play for the Tour.\u00a0 Now the question will be whether the players will tolerate the reductions in the years to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Corey Perrine\/Florida Times-Union \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As most committed PGA fans know, 2025 was the year that the league decided that it was time to address the issue of slow-play.\u00a0 This has led to several measures taken during the tournaments.\u00a0 Those are penalties, tools for the players, and leaderboards of shame.\u00a0 There is one additional method that has been considered and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":437016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[8076,341],"class_list":["post-437148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-ben-griffin","tag-korn-ferry-tour"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437149,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437148\/revisions\/437149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}