Quid Pro Golf

With full status into the PGA Tour’s 2026 signature events determined by the outcome of this week’s tournament, it’s an appropriate time to check on how sponsor exemptions impacted the 2025 season. As a refresher, those who finish in the top 50 (i.e. qualify for the BMW Championship) of the FedEx Cup standings earn guaranteed spots in all signature events the ensuing PGA Tour season. Those who finish outside the top 50 must earn their way into signature events through another pathway, like ranking in the top 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking or playing well in non-signature events. Or, if they’re unable to earn their spots on merit, they can get bailed out with a sponsor invite if they’ve curried favor with the right people and don’t mind swinging by hospitality tents to slap on a smile and take a few selfies with the corporate partners who put them in the field. A nice little back-scratching system with millions of dollars at stake. You gotta love meritocracy.

Jordan Spieth, who entered the week 48th in the FedEx Cup standings, played on five sponsor exemptions in signature events this year. He earned 254 points across those five starts, 29% of the 865 total points he earned all regular season. For reference, you needed 620 points to finish in the top 70 and qualify for the playoffs this year. I won’t go as far as to say Spieth’s sponsor exemptions put him in the playoffs – if he hadn’t received those exemptions, he would have added other point-earning opportunities to his schedule that he skipped like the Rocket Mortgage Classic – however, the gifted points clearly provided a massive safety net for Jordan this season.

For much of this past weekend, some of those 254 points were nearly the difference in making the top 50 and securing status in the signature events in 2026. Instead, he finished T-38 on the leaderboard to fall to 54th in the standings, ending his PGA Tour season and severely damaging his chances of making the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Looking ahead to next season, Spieth will need to play his way into signature events via another pathway. Unless, of course, he is once again gifted more sponsor invites next year. Spoiler alert: that will happen.

For as distasteful as the Spieth invites have been, the situation with Rickie Fowler is magnitudes grosser. Fowler barely snuck inside the top-70 cutoff to make the playoffs, finishing the regular season in 64th place. Of the 665 points Fowler earned during the regular season, 319 (48%) were earned through the six sponsor exemptions he received into signature events. After four legitimately strong days in Memphis this weekend en route to a T-6 finish, Fowler has officially parlayed his sponsor invite points into 48th place in the FedEx Cup standings, just inside the top-50 cutoff that ensures a spot in all of the PGA Tour’s signature events next season. Considering the narrow margin Fowler squeaked by to both get into the playoffs and then into the top 50, it is very difficult to argue that the sponsor invitations he received into signature events this year aren’t directly responsible for his pathway to signature events in 2026.

Try to spin sponsor exemptions any way you want. I’ve heard the arguments. “Sponsors fund the Tour. They can do whatever they want.” Sure, they can. It is an accepted practice within the current structure of the PGA Tour. Is that how the Tour should run, though? How do you message to Tour membership that the only thing standing between the players and full access to the top tier of PGA Tour events is strong performance, while also allowing sponsor invites to dictate careers? “Play better.” Yeah, tell that to Chris Kirk, who finished 51st in the FedEx Cup standings on zero sponsor invites since he qualified for every signature event this season on merit.

The best version of the PGA Tour is the most competitive version. Eliminating sponsor exemptions at signature events would be an effective step in that direction.