PGA Tour pros who miss top 125 now have a new landing zone

More tweaks are on the way for pro golfers, and the latest one will allow for certain FedEx Cup finishers to find membership on a different tour. And no, not just the Korn Ferry Tour, like you might be thinking, but across the pond on the DP World Tour.

The PGA Tour and DP World Tour announced Monday a new eligibility category for PGA Tour players who might otherwise lose their full cards. Beginning with the 2024 season, players who finish between Nos. 126-200 in the FedEx Cup can now accept full membership onto the DP World Tour. Additionally, any PGA Tour member can also take up affiliate membership on the DP World Tour when competing in an 2024 Race to Dubai ranking event.

Both affiliate members and non-members will now appear on a new “Non-Member Race to Dubai Points List,” which would help them qualify for the DP World Tour playoffs and season-ending bonus pool (as long as they play four or more counting tournaments). Affiliate members can also earn full-time membership on the DP World Tour through their performances throughout the year.

What it means

According to the release, the PGA Tour members who accept the full membership option will play from a newly created Category 12 in the DP World Tour Exemption Category list, although only five players from this category can play in a weekly DP World Tour event.

The PGA Tour and DP World Tour announced a “Strategic Alliance” in November 2021, and this is just the latest example of the two bodies working together to promote the other. It also comes months after the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund announced their shocking merger proposal.

This latest move follows last year’s announcement that the top 10 players in the DP World Tour’s season-ending Race to Dubai points list (if not already exempt) will earn PGA Tour cards for the following season.

The PGA Tour just finished the fourth of its seven FedEx Cup Fall events, a revamped series that helps decide PGA Tour membership and player priority for the following season.

Only 70 players qualified for the recently completed FedEx Cup Playoffs, which guarantees full PGA Tour status for 2024. (The top 50 of those 70 — those who made it past the first of three playoff events — got exemptions into 2024’s big-money signature events.)

Those who finished outside of the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings compete in the new fall series to battle for points to stay or earn their way inside the top 125, receiving guaranteed status for next season.

Josh Berhow

Golf.com Editor

As GOLF.com’s managing editor, Berhow handles the day-to-day and long-term planning of one of the sport’s most-read news and service websites. He spends most of his days writing, editing, planning and wondering if he’ll ever break 80. Before joining GOLF.com in 2015, he worked at newspapers in Minnesota and Iowa. A graduate of Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn., he resides in the Twin Cities with his wife and two kids. You can reach him at joshua_berhow@golf.com.

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