“We have a commissioner who is a chicken sh*t”: Nate Lashley criticizes PGA Tour commissioner about the field in signature events

The PGA Tour's Memorial Tournament, the seventh of eight Signature Events of the season, is underway at the Muirfield Village Golf Club and has players yet to tee off for the third round. The 120-player field saw only the top 65 players, including ties, make the cut.

With the introduction of Signature Events into the PGA Tour, the decision has left the golf world in splits. Nate Lashley, who isn't playing in the Memorial Tournament this week, spoke out about the new format.

The World No. 125 went on to criticize the Tour's commissioner Jay Monahan for the Signature Events field size. He said (as quoted via Golfweek):

" Our No. 1 event is the Players and it’s a 144-man field. If that’s the best field all year, then why are these signature events that are supposed to be so good 70 (man fields)? It makes no sense. Look at how good the Players was this year. When you have more competition, things stay tighter, more compact. When you’ve got fields with no cuts it spreads things out. But we have a commissioner who is a chicken shit and won’t stand up to a handful of guys, that’s what happens. You can’t tell me finishing top 10 in a limited field is similar to a 144- or 156-man field. It’s not even close. There’s no comparison. This is way harder. ”

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PGA Tour Signature Events - All you need to know about The Field and Purse

The PGA Tour decided to conduct eight Signature Events (known as Designated Events in 2023) for the 2024 season. These events feature a limited field size that includes only the Tour's top players with an inflated purse prize and a whopping 700 FedEx Cup Points.

Out of the eight events, the Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, and the Memorial Tournament are the only events hosted by players. These three events feature a cut after 36 holes played where the top 50 players on the leaderboard including ties and players within ten strokes of the lead proceed to play the weekend. The winners of these events will receive an incredible 20 percent of the purse, a two percent increase from 2023.

The other five events, however, feature no cut and will have the standard 18 percent of the purse allocated to the winners. Here is the list of requirements that determine a player's eligibility to play the Signature Events.

• Top 50 players in last season's FedEx Cup Rankings
• Aon Next 10 (top ten players on the current season's FedEx Cup Rankings)
• Aon Swing 5 (top five players on the FedEx Cup Rankings in between Signature Events)
• Current year tournament winners
• Top 30 players ranked on the Official World Golf Rankings (only members of the PGA Tour are permitted)
• Sponsor exemptions