Ryan Palmer has been around the PGA Tour for a long, long time.
The 48-year-old turned pro in 2000. He has played in 518 PGA Tour events, notching four wins.
Palmer watched the game explode during Tiger Woods’ peak and is now watching as the PGA Tour adapts to try to grow and thrive in the attention economy.
The PGA Tour announced that several changes will take place starting in 2026, including shaving the number of exempt players from the top 125 to the top 100. The PGA Tour also plans to trim field sizes from 156 to between 120 and 144, depending on certain factors at the given tournament.
Palmer is in favor of these changes. In fact, he has been hoping for the Tour to become more cutthroat with cards for a while.
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“I’ve said it for five to seven years now: I’ve always been in favor of cutting cards,” Palmer said on the latest episode of GOLF’s Subpar Podcast. “I’ve always thought there was too many players with a card and not enough access.
“I’m not opposed to the shortening of fields. You know, 120 to 132 being the max field. Top 100 [keep their cards] doesn’t bother me at all. I think the game has gotten so deep and so strong. You want the best. To make the top 100, you have to have a pretty good year now. Top 125, it seemed like a lot of guys were finishing top 120, 121, keeping their card every year and playing OK. Those days are done. The days of playing average and keeping your card are done unless you’ve won in the past year or two.”
Palmer, however, isn’t giving the PGA Tour a pass on all of their changes.
The four-time winner would like to see some alterations to the Signature Event model, namely how many players can get in and the institution of a cut.
“I don’t think it’s a good product, in my opinion,” Palmer said of the 70-man, no-cut events. “I think 120-man fields with a cut is a great way to go. I could see Tiger’s event in LA, Arnold’s and Jack’s, their fields being 100 with a cut. There’s your Signature Events and make the purses even bigger. I think Memphis [FedEx St. Jude] should be top 100. If you finish top 100, 100 should play Memphis. Then you can go to 50 and 30.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with a 120-man field at Pebble and the other ones beside Tiger, Jack and Arnie’s.”
For the record, one change the Tour did make for the 2025 season was to institute cuts at the three player-hosted Signature Events: the Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial. All three tournaments will feature a 36-hole cut to the top 50 and ties plus anyone within 10 strokes of the lead.
To hear more from Palmer, watch the video above or check out all Subpar episodes on YouTube.
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