Tour Exemption

[Cheesehead42]

Does anyone have a simple answer to how players get into tournaments without status, Monday qualifier, or sponsors exemption?

 

For example, there are several players like Hunter Mahan. He has made $1.2M total since 2016 with no victories and (1) top 10.  He is playing in his 4th event of the 2021 season.  I have always liked Hunter so I'm not criticizing him. I am just curious how all of that is calculated. 

[jvincent]

Search for "PGA Tour priority list". It gives all the details of the order of how you can get in.

[PureStrikes54]

https://www.pgatour.com/inside-the-field/2020/11/13/how-they-qualified-field-the-rsm-classic.html

 

Edited November 20, 2020 by PureStrikes54

[golfandfishing]

Isn’t Mahan using his 1 time exemption for being top 50 all time money list?  

[jholz]

If you've had any success on tour and are a known name, they will find an exemption for you - pretty much. Look at Vijay Singh. Guy hasn't been relevant for years but he's out there pretty much every weekend. 

[Creedo77]

3 hours ago, Cheesehead42 said:

Does anyone have a simple answer to how players get into tournaments without status, Monday qualifier, or sponsors exemption?

 

For example, there are several players like Hunter Mahan. He has made $1.2M total since 2016 with no victories and (1) top 10.  He is playing in his 4th event of the 2021 season.  I have always liked Hunter so I'm not criticizing him. I am just curious how all of that is calculated. 

I'll add to whats already been said

 

sponsor invites are based on a few things. Where the event is, past champions (who aren’t currently exempt), players who have accumulated special temporary status and are trying to play events (since they aren’t members yet). It’s up the agents to get their players these kinds of spots. This week Jonathan Byrd got a sponsor invite to the RSM because he's a local and has played the event a lot but his status on the tour isn't great (he's somewhere in the 220's in the fedex). 
 

Normally there are 2 sponsor invites based on the KFT finals (although this can depend on the event) where players who have played in those the previous years and aren’t in the current event can be eligible to get them. 
 

the sponsor of the tournament usually has about 6 spots (2 restricted to PGA pros, 4 others to give them out to whoever i.e. Tony Romo) open to who they want to use them on. 

 

sponsor invites on the KFT are typically paid for by players sponsors that have a good relationship with that tournament. These spots normally go for around $20,000+. 
 

There are also players who are playing on a medical exemption, they have a number of tournaments to gain enough points through these starts. For instance, Villegas is playing on a medical this fall, his finish this week at the RSM will be huge for status. 

Edited November 20, 2020 by Creedo77

[cdnglf]

4 hours ago, jholz said:

If you've had any success on tour and are a known name, they will find an exemption for you - pretty much. Look at Vijay Singh. Guy hasn't been relevant for years but he's out there pretty much every weekend. 

 

So nice of the tour to find Vijay a lifetime exception. 

[jvincent]

There are several people who have lifetime exemptions. That category isn't even the top of the list.

 

The first list in the exemption includes winners of the US Open or PGA prior to 1970. If Lee Trevino, Gary Player, Raymond Floyd, Al Geiberber, or Jack Nicklaus wanted to tee it up in a regular event they would be at the top of the list.

 

Here is the link to the list of categories.

 

https://www.pgatour.com/news/2020/priority-ranking-2020-21-season.html

 

 

 

[grm24]

8 hours ago, jholz said:

If you've had any success on tour and are a known name, they will find an exemption for you - pretty much. Look at Vijay Singh. Guy hasn't been relevant for years but he's out there pretty much every weekend. 

Yeah that lifetime exemption VJ earned for winning 34 times on the PGA Tour is so undeserved. DL3 earned the same exemption. Soon Phil will be playing off his earned lifetime exemption. And at some point so will Tiger. And further down the line DJ will use earned exemption as well. 

 

Not difficult to find this information. 

Edited November 21, 2020 by grm24

[grm24]

8 hours ago, golfandfishing said:

Isn’t Mahan using his 1 time exemption for being top 50 all time money list?  

Yes.  Click on his profile tab for that information.

 

https://www.pgatour.com/players/player.24781.hunter-mahan.html

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by grm24

[mizuno player]

On 11/20/2020 at 10:56 PM, jvincent said:

There are several people who have lifetime exemptions. That category isn't even the top of the list.

 

The first list in the exemption includes winners of the US Open or PGA prior to 1970. If Lee Trevino, Gary Player, Raymond Floyd, Al Geiberber, or Jack Nicklaus wanted to tee it up in a regular event they would be at the top of the list.

 

Here is the link to the list of categories.

 

https://www.pgatour.com/news/2020/priority-ranking-2020-21-season.html

 

 

 

I had never heard that about the pre 1970. Interesting. Thanks for sharing that.