PGA Tour Event Player Selection Process

Greetings ....

Many of you probably wonder about the selection process for most regular full-field PGA Tour events (excluding the Players, the four Grand Slam majors, the Fed Ex Cup events, plus any event with a no-cut limited field)

The process involves the PGA Tour Exemption Categories . Category-1 (US Open, PGA Championship) is the highest ranking of all. Next comes Category-2 (Players Championship), then 3 (Masters), 4 (British Open), and so on in that order.

Presented below are unofficial number counts for most of the 34 current exemption categories. A key point is this -- the weekly fortunes of those consigned to the lower categories will depend upon those in each of in the upper categories who choose to play or not to play in a given week.

True, the SUM of players in the first 19 categories is at least 111. And, when you add the 52 players in Category-20 (Top 125 Money Winners), the sum becomes 163. But not all will play each week. Let's say that in a given week, only 88 players exempt within the first 20 categories play. If this is a 156-man event, then just about everyone down to and including Category-25 (Nationwide Tour/Q-School Graduates) should get in. Of course, not all of the 57 Category-25 players may play, which means that those in Category-26 or lower may get a chance to play.

Keep in mind that full-field invitational events like the Arnold Palmer, The Memorial, The Colonial, The Heritage and AT&T; DC-National have criteria slightly different from the norm, designed to fill fields of 105 to 120 players.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Sport

Category ... Count (Comments, Other Info)
1 ... 11 (Pre-1970 champions excluded)
2 ... 5 .... 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 Majors, Players, WGC's and Leading Money Winner
3 ... 2
4 ... 4
5 ... 0 ... 1997 World Series winner Greg Norman has left the regular links
6 ... 1
7 ... 3
8 ... 0

9 ... 59 (Tournament Winners)
NOTE: Fred Couples is erroneously listed in Category-9, and is supposed to be listed in Category-10

10 ... 5 (2-USA / 3-Intl)
11 ... 2 (1-Top 50/1-Top 25)
12 ... 8 (sponsor invites)
13 ... 2
14 ... 1
15 ... 1
16 ... 2
17 ... 4 (Open Qualifying: reduced to 2, late September; to NONE during October-November)
18 ... ??
19 ... 1

SUM of Categories 1 to 19 ... At least 111

20 ... 52 (Top 125 2006 Money List) ... now the SUM is at least 163
21 ... 0
22 ... 9
23 ... 2
24 ... 10+ (Top-10 and ties of last open event, number will vary)

SUM of Categories 1 to 24 ... At least 184

25 ... 57 (2006 Graduates of Q-School and Nationwide Tour)
Current order of selection for Category-25 based on most official money earned at most recent re-shuffle point.
Now the SUM is at least 241

26 ... 1
27 ... 2
28 ... 16 (126 to 150 on 2006 Money List)

29 ... 1
30 ... ?? (Certain players beyond 150 on 2006 Money List)
31 ... ?? (Past PGA Tour Event Winners)
32 ... 3 (Special temps) ... Henrik Stenson, the 2007 WGC Accenture champ, is listed here by mistake
33 ... ?? (Team Championship winners - why, why?)
34 ... ?? (Veteran Members w/150+ cuts)

Great post.

So where is my exemption category (i.e. category 435: guy who really likes to play golf, posts on the sandtrap, and shot an 83 with rental clubs last weekend)

And I thought physics was complicated.