As it trims its number of full cards and playing opportunities on the main tour, the PGA Tour is bolstering support for those in its pathways.
The PGA Tour notified its players via memo on Tuesday morning that starting next year, it will roll out two financial initiatives for its former fully exempt PGA Tour members and fully exempt Korn Ferry Tour members.
The first initiative is the Member Support Program, which will award $150,000 in earnings assurance to Nos. 126 and beyond on the prior season’s FedExCup points list who were exempt during that season. Players will receive this money at the end of the season provided they satisfy the 12-event minimum across the PGA and Korn Ferry tours. If players do not reach $150,000 in earnings across all tours, they will not have to repay the difference.
The second program is the Pathways Player Achievement Grant, which will give exempt Korn Ferry Tour members $15,000 grants at the start of each season that players can use for anything they wish. Players eligible for these grants are Nos. 21-75 in the previous year’s KFT points list, Nos. 1-10 in PGA Tour Americas points and the top five available players out of PGA Tour University. Players do not have to play a certain number of events to be eligible for this grant.
The funds for these programs were redistributed from the Earnings Assurance Program, which was created three years ago and provided fully exempt PGA Tour members with $500,000 advances at the start of each season. With fewer exempt players beginning in 2026, the PGA Tour will give out fewer of those advances.
The PGA Tour policy board approved these decisions with the goal of “rewarding strong performers and supporting both players who are ascending through the system and those returning from the PGA Tour.”
The Korn Ferry Tour will also permit distance-measuring devices for the entire 2026 season while also adopting the revised pace-of-play policy that it rolled out last spring. The policy stipulates that when a player is being timed, the first bad time recorded will result in a one-shot penalty, the second in a two-shot penalty and the third in disqualification. Last season, three players received one-shot penalties for bad times.