The PGA Tour will be changing. Not now, not tomorrow, but at the start of the 2026 season. For instance, the PGA Tour will reduce the number of PGA Tour cards given to the Korn Ferry Tour players. From 30 in the past, it will be down to 20. There will also be changes in sponsors’ exemptions and Monday qualifiers, and overall, the PGA Tour will become a bit smaller. This threatens the dreams of many golfers to make it to the PGA Tour.

With few opportunities, only some will get a chance to tee up at any PGA Tour events. Unlike a decade ago, the PGA Tour used to offer membership to the Q-School top golfers and the Korn Ferry Tour (Nike Tour or Ben Hogan Tour), whatever it was known as previously. Billy Horschel spoke about the gnawing issue and the rationale of the PGA Tour behind the decision at Any Given Monday’s podcast. He agreed that the Tour would get smaller while also talking about the PGA Tour removing Q-School. He said, “When I came through it in 2009 to get my card for the first time. Now there’s only Q school went away, which I thought was the dumbest thing the tour could have done.”

The 8-time PGA Tour winner expressed that he told the PGA Tour how negatively it would affect the league. He noted, “You guys are killing opportunities for guys coming out of college, players that are good enough to get through the Q school and get on the PGA Tour.” However, per Horschel, the Tour recognized its mistake early enough, and that was the push for the Tour to start the PGA Tour University for the top collegiate golfer. The best on the rankings will get the PGA Tour card like Ludvig Aberg did in 2023, while the nine others on the Top 10 will either get Korn Ferry Tour cards or a conditional status.

Horschel explained how this “created a pathway for those guys now to go to the Korn Ferry Tour, get status right away, and be able to play their way onto the PGA Tour. So that’s a great opportunity.” While the decision to remove Q-School backfired on the PGA Tour, the 37-year-old argued that the introduction of other things was a part of recovering from that damage. He also shared that the PGA Tour was preparing better things for fans in the future.

So, now as the PGA Tour looks to shorten the PGA Tour and give fewer cards away, the reason is to make the league competitively a better one. And this decision, the PGA Tour didn’t take alone; Horschel revealed the actual minds behind this who agreed.

Tour’s decision, but it is decided by the pack, says Billy Horschel

Behind the PGA Tour’s decision to increase or decrease the field size or offer more or less membership, there is a 16-player directory-heading server decision. The Tour would not go and make a huge decision on a whim, which would potentially affect many golfers and their future. This was pointed out by Billy Horschel as he explained the PGA Tour wanting to reduce the number of golfers getting to live their PGA Tour dreams.

He clarified, “These changes that are being made are; they’ve all been talked about amongst the pack this current year, the 16 players on the pack, and you got the six other player directors.” The pack involves the six PAC directors, Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson, and Camilo Villegas. There are 10 other players like Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns, Brian Harman, Mackenzie Hughes, and others.

From the time he was on the player director board in 2022, Horschel revealed that the PGA Tour gives a sort of memo to these 16 golfers and asks them to look over it and get back to them. Unless and until the pack agrees, the PGA Tour wouldn’t mandate anything. Talking about fewer opportunities, Horschel said, “If it wasn’t agreed upon by the pack, the tour would not have done that.”

Nonetheless, the 16 advisory board probably believed that making it harder to get a membership will probably make the tour more competitive, and limiting the field to only top golfers would also allow more action. Has that decision benefited the PGA Tour? It remains to be seen if a smaller PGA Tour will hold the test of time.