The PGA Tour is merging its developmental circuits. Here’s what you need to know
A PGA Tour Latinoamerica event in Mexico in 2020.
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You thought the Designated events and all the other scheduling changes at the top were all the PGA Tour was working on for 2024? Think again.
The Tour announced Tuesday that it will merge the PGA Tour Latinoamerica and PGA Tour Canada, creating the PGA Tour Americas, which will begin play next season.
For the last decade or so, the Latinoamerica and Canada tours have operated separate 12- and 10-event schedules, respectively, with distinct memberships, both rewarding the top-5 finishers for the season Korn Ferry Tour cards for the following season.
But starting in 2024, those two circuits will be rolled into a unified PGA Tour Americas with a 16-event schedule consisting of a Latin American swing and North American swing, with events in both the United States and Canada. The top 10 finishers will gain full status on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Here’s what you need to know:
16-event schedule
Instead of two separate tours, the PGA Tour Americas will consist of two swings; one in Latin and South America from February to May and another in the United States and Canada from June to September. There will be a total of 16 events.
Currently, the Latin American tour begins in December while the Canadian tour doesn’t start until June.
The new system will avoid the overlap between the two tours that currently exists from June to early-July.
Only the top-60 players on the PGA Tour Americas points list will be guaranteed to move on from the Latin America swing to the North America swing. In between the two legs will be a midseason Q School.
The full schedule for the 2024 season will be announced in September. Purse sizes and point distribution will come close to the start of the new tour in February 2024.
Who will play?
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Complete eligibility criteria for the new tour are not yet outlined, but the PGA Tour announced the top-60 finishers on both this year’s Latinoamerica Tour and Canada Tour points lists will be exempt for the Latin America swing.
From there, eligibility criteria would be similar to that of the current tours and include finishers from beyond the 40th spot in PGA Tour Q School. There’s also an exemption for the top finisher on the APGA Tour who is a member of the APGA Development program. The Latinoamérica Dev Series will also offer access to the first swing.
When the Tour shifts to North America, the mid-season Q school will offer access both to players without status and those who did not finish in the top 60 of the first swing. This is also when finishers 6-20 in the PGA Tour University ranking will be added to the membership after graduating college.
Korn Ferry cards and Q-School exemptions
At the end of the North American swing, the top-10 finishers on the PGA Tour Americas points list will be granted Korn Ferry Tour cards for the following season and exempt through the third reshuffle.
But there are also five additional conditional Korn Ferry Tour cards available to the top-two finishers from the Latin America swing and the top-three finishers on the North America swing, if they were not in the season-long top 10.
All of those players will then be exempt to the final stage of PGA Tour Q School where, starting again this year, the top-5 finishers and ties will be awarded PGA Tour cards. The next 15 finishers on the season-long list, along with the remainder of the top-10 performers in each swing will be exempt into the second stage of Q-School. All PGA Tour Americas members will be exempt into the first stage.
Still with us?!
What do players think?
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When the PGA Tour held a meeting with players on the Latinoamerica Tour Tuesday evening from this week’s event in Peru to discuss the changes, feelings were somewhat mixed, said Josh Goldenberg, who has played on both tours since turning pro in 2019.
“It’s nice that now there are going to be 15, more or less, cards for Korn Ferry, whereas for Latin and Canada this year there’s only five,” Goldenberg told GOLF Tuesday evening. “But at the same time, the competition is probably going to be better because they’re taking the best — top of both [tours] — and you have to play well on that first series of events to then get to the second part of the season.”
Ryan Davis, who holds conditional status on the PGA Tour Canada for the upcoming season, told GOLF he also felt “indifferent” toward the changes. He said a lot of the downside could be from increased travel. Many aspiring pros previously picked one tour or the other, while those with means could attempt to play both.
“It’s pretty much the same because now there are 10 spots for Korn Ferry Tour up for grabs and it was five for each tour before,” Davis said. “It’s nice to have something to play in all year long now, though. Hopefully, the purses are increased because, with that much travel, it’s going to be hard to make any money.”
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Purses for this season’s Latinoamerica tour were $175,000 with the Tour Championship offering $200,000. The Canada tour’s purses are slightly larger, between $200,000 and $225,000, depending on the event. Winner’s shares range from $31,500 for most Latinoamerica events while the winner of the Canada tour’s final event will take home $40,500.
Goldenberg, who’s 17th on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica points list, said those purses have been the same since before he turned pro. Higher purses could make the difference for players who were only expecting to play on one tour.
Overall, Goldberg said, the path to the Korn Ferry Tour becomes just a little bit more efficient and easier to understand with the new Tour.
“You have the ability to plan your schedule better,” he said. “Whereas before you had one season or one tour you played on and then you had to either go to Q school for the other tour if you didn’t have status from the year prior. So your season wasn’t as clear as to what events you would play in.
“I think this allows you the ability to do that if you play well. And I think at the end of the day playing well takes care of everything.”
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