After hearing about my quest to play on the PGA Tour, most people are interested and quickly ask what specific qualifications are required for me to live my dream. The short answer is playing well, and the long answer is a description of a complex system for qualifying for individual tournaments and the PGA Tour.
Beginning in 1983, the PGA Tour switched to an all-exempt tour. Prior to that year, only the top 60 players were automatically exempt for the following year, and other spots in tournament fields were filled through open qualifying tournaments. Today, the top 150 players from the 2009 official money list are fully-exempt for the 2010 season.
According to PGATour.com, a player can become a member of the PGA Tour and be eligible to compete in events in the following five ways:
1.) Finish within the top 25 and ties at the annual PGA Tour National Qualifying Tournament to be exempt for the following year.
2.) Win a cosponsored or approved PGA TOUR event to become exempt for the following two calendar years.
3.) Finish among the top 150 players on the official money list in a year (through Sponsor Exemptions, Foreign Exemptions, Open Qualifying or Section Qualifying, etc.) to be exempt for the following season.
4.) Win an amount of official money (by playing in PGA TOUR events through Sponsor Exemptions, Foreign Exemptions, Open Qualifying or Section Qualifying, etc.) equal to the amount won in the preceding year by the 150th finisher on the official money list to become a member for the remainder of the season.
5.) Finish in the top 25 on the official Nationwide Tour money list to earn a PGA Tour card for the following season.
Beyond these qualifications, each PGA TOUR player earns a position on a priority ranking system with 33 different categories that is used to select individual tournament fields. The positions of the Nationwide Tour and q-school grads are reshuffled five times during the season based on official money earned.
“These Guys are Good” is the PGA Tour motto, and qualifying to become a member of the all-exempt PGA Tour may be the most difficult barrier to break in all of professional sports.
Up Next: How to Qualify for a PGA Tour Open Event.
