The perks of winning on the PGA Tour: Tournaments, exemptions
PGA Tour

The perks of winning on the PGA Tour: Tournaments, exemptions

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There are a lot of perks that come with winning on the PGA Tour.

Aside from the first-place prize money, which is 18 percent of the total purse, a PGA Tour winner earns FedEx Cup points and entry into a number of big tournaments, including a pair of major championships.

Let's lay out all the benefits of winning on the PGA Tour.

Benefits a PGA Tour winner gets

  • A PGA Tour win comes with a multi-season extension of playing privileges, aka a Tour card. For a regular PGA Tour event, a win means a two-season extension which starts after the current season. For The Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial Tournament, as well World Golf Championships, wins there come with three-season exemptions. In The Players and the major championships, wins come with a five-year exemption.
  • A PGA Tour win comes with first-place FedEx Cup points. At regular PGA Tour events, that's 500 FedEx Cup points. It's 550 for World Golf Championships. It's 600 points at a major and The Players. It's 300 points for an opposite-field event.
  • A PGA Tour win in an event that isn't an opposite-field tournament gets a player into the next Masters Tournament.
  • Winning the Zurich Classic does not get a player into the Masters Tournament.
  • A PGA Tour win in any individual PGA Tour event, as well the Zurich Classic, gets a player into the PGA Championship.
  • A PGA Tour win in any events get the winner into the next edition of The Players Championship, the Tournament of Champions, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Charles Schwab Challenge, the Memorial Tournament, The Genesis Invitational, the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational (if the field ranking is above 115) after their win.

However, winning on the PGA Tour does not guarantee a player a spot in the FedEx Cup playoffs. A player has to finish in the top 125 in regular-season points to qualify for The Northern Trust, the opening event of the playoffs. Winners of opposite-field events on the PGA Tour have sometimes not qualified for the playoffs.

 

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Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is the founder, owner and operator of Golf News Net.

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