• Search
  • News
    • Opinion
    • Tournaments
      • Emirates Australian Open
      • PGA Championship
      • The Open Championship
      • U.S. Open
      • The Masters
      • 2020 Olympics
    • Video
  • Equipment
    • Accessories
    • Balls
    • Drivers
    • Fairway Woods
    • Hybrids
    • Irons
    • Putters
    • Wedges
    • Fashion
      • Autumn / Winter
      • Spring / Summer
  • Travel
    • New Zealand
    • Australia
    • International
  • Top 50 Courses
  • Play Your Best
    • Instruction
    • Golf Rules
  • Magazine
    • Read past issues
    • Mailing List
  • Advertise With Us
 logo
Lost your password?
  • News
    • Opinion
    • Tournaments
      • Emirates Australian Open
      • PGA Championship
      • The Open Championship
      • U.S. Open
      • The Masters
      • 2020 Olympics
    • Video
  • Equipment
    • Accessories
    • Balls
    • Drivers
    • Fairway Woods
    • Hybrids
    • Irons
    • Putters
    • Wedges
    • Fashion
      • Autumn / Winter
      • Spring / Summer
  • Travel
    • New Zealand
    • Australia
    • International
  • Top 50 Courses
  • Play Your Best
    • Instruction
    • Golf Rules
  • Magazine
    • Read past issues
    • Mailing List
  • Advertise With Us
Getty Images

It’s going to be harder to make a cut in a PGA Tour event next season and here’s why

Brian WackerJuly 29, 2019
GolfNews

Making the cut in a PGA Tour event will get a little harder in the 2019-’20 season.

The PGA Tour policy board recently approved changes that will reduce the number of players who advance to play the final 36 holes of a tournament from the top 70 and ties to the top 65 and ties after 36 holes. Additionally, the secondary 54-hole cut, used if there are 78 or more players who advance after the 36-hole cut, has been eliminated.

When you’re tinkering with how you determine the cut, you’re tinkering with players livelihoods. Naturally, not everyone was in favour of the decision.

“I was a big proponent of not doing it,” said Brandt Snedeker. “I didn’t think the system was broken.”

The secondary cut was started in 2008 when pace-of-play issues arose over the final two rounds at events where more than 78 players advanced. At times it proved to be an issue, particularly during the FedEx Cup Playoffs or the Players Championship. By scaling back to the top 65 and ties, the tour should mostly eliminate the number of times 78 or more players advance to the final two rounds.

Doing so, though, would also do away with the opportunity for a player who might not have otherwise made it to the weekend to come back and win.

In 2010, Carl Pettersson did just that. Instead of missing the cut at the RBC Canadian Open that year, he made it on the number, shot 60 in the third round and followed with a 67 to win on Sunday. Ironically, Pettersson had been opposed to the change in policy two years earlier.

“The reasoning of three times a year we play in threesomes on Saturday and have a [secondary cut] is not enough of an excuse to knock out five or six guys who could move their way into the top 10 or even win,” Snedeker said.

There is, of course, a counter to Snedeker’s point.

“It’s a capitalist sport,” said Paul Casey, a member of the tour’s Player Advisory Council. “You play well, you do well.

“I’ve been on both sides of it, and I still firmly believe you make your own success, so I’m a fan of it. As long as we’re not taking away opportunities to get into events, and I don’t think this is taking away earnings or opportunities for players. This is the right thing to do. We have to protect the product. We have too many three-balls and two-tee starts on the weekend.”

Another change approved by the board included reducing field sizes in “opposite-field” events (official PGA Tour tournaments played the same week as a Major championship or WGC event) from 132 to players to 120, with an exception that fields can be expanded to accommodate players from the Korn Ferry Tour if need be.

Brandt SnedekercutGolfmaking the cutPaul CaseyPGA TourPGA Tour policy board

Related Posts

  • Watch Kevin Na blow up over the severity of Erin Hill’s rough

    Joel BeallJune 13, 2017
  • Cameron Champ’s chaotic finish, Louis Oosthuizen comes up just short again and a big name on the FedEx Cup bubble

    Christopher PowersJuly 26, 2021
  • Phil Mickelson refused to talk about one thing in his long-awaited press conference at LIV Golf

    John HugganJune 9, 2022
  • Olympic Golf 2020: IOC gives itself four-week window to decide fate of Tokyo Games

    Ryan HerringtonMarch 23, 2020
  • Danny Willett and Charles Howell III’s winning clubs

    Callaway Golf & Mike JohnsonNovember 19, 2018
  • The 9 features of an actually not terrible golf course

    Sam WeinmanAugust 30, 2018
  • The clubs Justin Rose used to win the Fort Worth Invitational

    Mike JohnsonMay 28, 2018
  • Morgan Hoffmann reveals he’s been playing on tour with muscular dystrophy

    Alex MyersDecember 6, 2017
Facebook 12,989Fans
Twitter 15Followers
Instagram 661Followers

Newsletter Signup

This form needs Javascript to display, which your browser doesn’t support. Sign up here instead

Latest Posts

How Jordan Spieth managed to get DQ’d from a pro-am (yep, a pro-am)

July 6, 2022

‘Hypocrites’: Billy Horschel blasts LIV Golf players

July 6, 2022

Social media

Search

Newsletter

This form needs Javascript to display, which your browser doesn’t support. Sign up here instead

  • Subscribe
  • Advertise With Us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • GolfDigest.com