PGA Tour: What are the requirements to earn a PGA Tour Cards?
Follow Us
PGA Championship
Golf is one of the most expensive sports in the world, and has quite a prestigious place amongst players. By having a PGA Tour card, a golfer can play in PGA Tour events. Getting a Tour Card however, to play on the grand stage is quite a challenge with the odd being against the player.
To be a member of the PGA Tour, one must have a PGA Tour card. There are several requirements of achieving this tour card, but several ways of acquiring it too- all which have their own set of challenges along with them. The first and most direct path to get a Tour card is to play the Korn Ferry tour; but getting to the tour itself is quite a challenge.
Once players do make the tour however, there are several avenues to get a card, with the first avenue through points and playoffs. There are a total of 50 Tour cards up for grabs at the Tour. The top 25 players from the regular season points list, known simply as “The 25”, earn cards. The other 25 cards are given out to the top 25 players after the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
What ways can a golfer get a PGA Tour Card?
Another way of utilising the Korn Ferry Tour to play a PGA tour is through something called the Three-Win Promotion. This is when a player gains his Tour card after three Korn Ferry Tour wins in one season. The three-win promotion has proven to be a tough one, since only 12 players have managed to get them since 1997.
Another way to play in the prestigious tour is through a PGA Tour Special Temporary Membership, which can later be converted into a PGA Tour card. The PGA reserves a small number of seats for non members through sponsorship exemptions and Monday qualifiers. Non members who compete in the PGA can get a temporary membership through accumulating the amount of FedExCup points equal to the player who finished 150th on the FedExCup list the previous season. They can then convert that into a Tour card by finishing in the top 125 of the FedExCup points list during the regular season.
The last but hardest way to get a Tour card seems the most straight forward- win a PGA Tour event. Anyone who wins an event immediately gets a two-year Tour exemption. This means that any non member who gets into an event via a sponsor exemption or Monday qualifier and goes on to win the event will get a Tour Card. Major champions get even more luxury, securing a five-year exemption to both the PGA Tour and European Tour.
Stay Updated!
Saivee Phatak
(1164 Articles Published)