"Exempt players don't know the value of their tour card"- PGA Tour Policy Board member keen on increasing exclusivity from 2026

The proposed changes to the PGA Tour are the biggest story in golf right now. Everyone, including Policy Board member Peter Malnati, has their take on the matter and why the changes are or aren't good for the sport.

Malnati didn't say whether they were inherently good or bad, but he did say he thinks this is all indicative of the direction the Tour and the sport as a whole are heading. All told, it's not a bad direction to be heading in, in Malnati's eyes.

Via Golf Monthly, the golfer said:

“I think the direction that they're going is towards magnifying the value of having a PGA Tour card. That's exactly in the discussions of what we've talked about."

The 2024 Valspar Championship winner went on to say that he anticipates a "rocky transition" which is typical in "times of change." He added:

“But if you can fast forward two or three years into the future here when … the dust settles, if you're a rookie on tour who just earned his PGA Tour card, you're going to know what that means. It's going to mean that you're going to get to play 17 or 18 full-field events, four or five opposite-field events, and if you play well in those, you will have the opportunity to earn your way into signature events."

He contended that the Tour has grown too big:

“As of right now, the membership of the tour is too big, our events are too big, and there are people at the bottom who are supposed to be fully exempt players on tour who don't know the value of their tour card because they don't know what they're going to get in."

Malnati said ultimately, the golfers who do scrape onto the tour are going to know it means something and that they're going to get the chance to routinely compete with the best golfers in the world. It just might be at the cost of a few overall membership cards.

---

Peter Malnati says PGA Tour product will get better

Peter Malnati is on board with the changes to the PGA Tour. They're just proposals now, but the general consensus is that it's only a matter of time before they're voted on and approved for 2026.

Peter Malnati likes where the Tour is going (Imagn)

This is a good thing in Malnati's eyes because the size of the PGA Tour has gotten out of hand. Peter Malnati said per Golf Monthly that this is all about "making the product" better and making a "card mean more for the athletes who earn one."

Some have criticized what this will do to golfers who are around the 100 and 125 rank in the FedEx Cup, but Malnati believes it will make them feel better about what they've earned.