When One Is Greater Than Two

In the ever-changing world of professional golf, more change is on the way. This time the changes are coming to the developmental tours that fall under the PGA Tour umbrella. The Latinoamerica Tour and PGA Tour Canada will combine next year into one circuit that will be renamed PGA Tour Americas and will play 16 events across South America, Canada and the U.S. The 10 players with the most points at the end of the season will earn Korn Ferry Tour cards. Those Korn Ferry cards will be good through the third reshuffle, so players will be guaranteed 16 starts.

The Americas Tour season will consist of two parts. The first segment will be staged in South America and will be played from February through May. The second half of the season will be played in Canada and the U.S. from June through September. According to a press release, the Tour “expects the purses to rise compared to the current levels,” although no details were offered about how much they might increase.

 Another significant change will be that PGA Tour Q school will be used to determine the status for all Tours to begin the ensuing season. Five PGA Tour cards and 40 Korn Ferry Tour cards will be available to players who make it to the final stage, and the rest will not only have conditional KFT but also be ranked for the Americas Tour. Also, medalists from the first and second stages will have status on the Americas Tour, regardless of their finishes in the subsequent stages. 

A Q school will be held between the two parts of the Americas Tour season, and eligibility for the second half will include the top 60 players in points in the first half, along with players earning status at Q school.

The 10 KFT cards being good through the third reshuffle is a monumental (and much-needed) change. As it stands, the top five from the LatinoAmerica and Canada tours get status on KFT, but only the top player gets a full card. 

Among the other changes: 

• The top 10 point-getters on the Americas Tour will advance directly to the final stage of Q school.
• The top two finishers from South America swing (if they are outside the top 10 at the end of the season) will earn conditional KFT cards and a spot in the final stage of Q school.
• The top three finishers from the North America swing (if they are outside the top 10 at the end of the season) will earn conditional KFT cards and a spot in the final stage of Q school.
• Players finishing 11th to 25th (and the top 10 from each half) will be exempt into the second stage of Q school.

I love the changes. The move to award 10 (basically) full Korn Ferry cards is long overdue. Having one international tour will help produce deeper, more talented fields. Although there will be fewer playing opportunities abroad, more players will be teeing it up at mini-tour events in the U.S., and hopefully field and purse sizes will increase. 

The full press release is below: