The PGA Tour is considering sweeping changes that would eliminate 25 cards through the FedEx Cup and shrink the size of fields, part of a plan to make golf’s biggest circuit even more competitive while reducing the time it takes to play and making it easier to watch.
Proposed changes include reducing by 10 the tour cards awarded to Korn Ferry Tour players and limiting the four Monday qualifying spots for fields smaller than 144 players. There would be two open spots for 132-man fields, none for regular tournaments of 120 players.
The proposal sent to players Tuesday, and obtained by The Associated Press, was developed by the 16-member Player Advisory Council that has been crafting the changes since May. The driving force was to make a full PGA Tour card have real value.
With so many eligible players — 125 from the FedEx Cup (or money list) had been the standard since 1983 — newcomers from the Korn Ferry Tour or Q-school often had to wait to see if there was room for them in tournaments.
If approved by the PGA Tour board at its Nov. 18 meeting, changes would start in 2026.
It would be the latest significant adjustment to the tour since the disruption of Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which began in June 2022. In the last two years, the tour has created $20 million signature events with limited fields and a postseason for only the top 70 players.
“The reality is that we’re all playing under different circumstances than we were four years ago,” PAC Chairman Camilo Villegas said in a telephone interview. “We had no competition. We were the best. All of a sudden we have competition and there are little shifts. The changes we’re proposing make a better product. What does having a PGA Tour card mean?”
The tour currently gives priority to tournament winners and the top 125 in the FedEx Cup, with greater perks depending on a player’s ranking. The proposal would give full status to the top 100 in the FedEx Cup, the 10 players eligible players from the European tour, the top 20 from the Korn Ferry Tour and five from Q-school.
There would be an additional spot lower down the priority list — behind such categories as PGA Tour University, life members and career money — for those who finished from Nos. 101 to 125. They are estimated to get in about 15 or so tournaments.
Villegas said the PAC was divided into four subcommittees, which he said allowed for more ideas and easier communication. Key to two main meetings was leaving behind self-interests.
PAC members range from Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas to Nick Hardy and Adam Schenk.
“Obviously there’s going to be casualties along the way,” Villegas said. “It is going to be harder. There’s not going to be 125 cards, but 100. There’s not going to be 30 Korn Ferry cards, but 20. I’m 190-something in the FedEx Cup. All these proposed changes can affect me, but it’s not about me. It’s about the game.
“We want to make the product as strong as possible for the sponsors, for the fans, for the players,” he said. “If we perform, there’s an opportunity to make an unbelievable living. You just keep working on your dream like you did when you were a kid.”
There also was the ongoing problem of slow play, which rules officials for years have argued was due primarily to too many players on the course. The field sizes would be 120 players before Daylight Savings Time, then up to 132 players and a maximum of 144 in the summer.
That’s for regular tournaments. The eight signature events with the $20 million purses would remain capped at 72 players, filling the field, if necessary, based on current form.
The proposal also suggested changes to the FedEx Cup points distribution, which Villegas said was inspired by a detailed analysis of board member Maverick McNealy. That mainly would reduce points awarded from the middle of the pack.
If approved, that still might not be the end of changes. The PGA Tour is in negotiation with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — the financial backing of LIV — to become a minority investor in the commercial PGA Tour Enterprises.
Villegas has not been involved in those meetings. He joins the PGA Tour board next year, replacing Jordan Spieth.
“If we do a deal with PIF, there are more changes to come,” he said. “I don’t know how those would affect the schedule, how that will affect the pathways.”

NEW YORK: Anthony Volpe smashed a grand slam as the New York Yankees avoided being swept in the World Series on Tuesday with an 11-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Volpe’s third-inning blast gave the Yankees a 5-2 edge, their first lead since game one, and later homers by Gleyber Torres and Austin Wells sparked New York’s rout.
“The win has hit me. Nothing else has hit me yet. It was great,” Volpe said. “I was trying to get on time for a heater, see the ball and be easy. I didn’t know I made it and then I blacked out.”
The Yankees pulled within 3-1 in the best-of seven Major League Baseball championship showdown with game five on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.
“We showed what we’re capable of doing as a team,” Torres said. “We’ll just try to continue that. Go tomorrow like there’s no tomorrow.”
No team has ever recovered from a 3-0 deficit to win the World Series, but the Yankees became the first team in 54 years to force a fifth game when down 0-3.
“It’s going to take a lot,” Wells said of the Yankees making a miracle fightback. “A lot of what happened today, a lot of good (at-bats), a lot of moving the lineup over (on the bases), just trying to get through their pitching staff.”
New York denied the Dodgers an eighth World Series title and first since 2020 while keeping alive hopes of the Yankees winning their first crown since 2009 and 28th overall.
Wells, 25, became the youngest Yankees catcher to homer in the World Series after going 4-for-43 in the playoffs before his 2-for-3 night.
“I just said screw it, we’re down three and just went out there,” Wells said. “I just blacked out. I don’t really know what I did.”
It was a record-shattering night for Los Angeles first baseman Freddie Freeman, who smashed a two-run homer in the first inning to become the first player with homers in the first four games of a World Series.
Freeman, who blasted a walk-off grand slam to win game one, also moved past George Springer to set a record with homers in six consecutive World Series contests, counting the last two games from his 2021 title run with Atlanta.
Mookie Betts doubled in the first inning and scored on Freeman’s homer then made a great grab for an out later in the first. The Dodgers’ right fielder made a leaping catch by the wall in foul territory despite a Yankees fan trying to pull the ball out of his glove.
New York answered in the second when Volpe walked, stole second base, took third on a Wells double and scored on Alex Verdugo’s ground out.
The game turned in the third as Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, a woeful 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the Series, was hit by a pitch and reached third on Jazz Chisholm’s single.
Giancarlo Stanton walked to load the bases for Volpe, who blasted his grand slam into the centerfield stands for a 5-2 Yankees edge.
It was the sixth grand slam of this year’s playoffs, an MLB record.
Will Smith bashed the Dodgers within 5-3 with a solo homer in the fifth and Los Angeles drove in another run thanks to a video replay over-rule.
Tommy Edman walked, took second on a Shohei Ohtani single, reached third when Betts hit into a fielder’s choice and scored when Freeman hit into what was first called a double play before replay showed Freeman beat the throw to first, allowing Edman to score to make it 5-4.
But Wells answered with his homer in the sixth and the Yankees added more insurance in the eighth when Volpe doubled, Wells walked, both advanced on stolen bases and Volpe scored on a ground ball by Verdugo, racing home and beating the throw home from second base.
Torres followed with a three-run homer to centerfield and the Yankees stretched the lead to 10-4 — the first time New York had scored 10 runs in a World Series game since 1978.
Juan Soto doubled and scored on a Judge single for New York’s last run.