The Korn Ferry Tour is expanding fields for their first two events of the 2025 season in The Bahamas, responding to oversubscribed fields and a new reality for the path to the PGA Tour.
The tour is expanding the field for The Bahamas Golf Classic at Atlantis Paradise Island and The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club to 144 players. The changes were made after several players who were guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour starts from the results of PGA Tour Q-School found themselves on the alternate list for the opening events. The top 40 players and ties after those who earned PGA Tour cards at Q-School are guaranteed a spot in at least the first eight tournaments of the season, as well as medalists from the second-stage sites of Q-School.
The players found themselves alt-listed because more players who finished Nos. 126-200 in the 2024 FedEx Cup points list wanted to get in the field, and they have priority order favor compared to those Q-School players who earn guarnateed starts. As a result, the PGA Tour expanded the field to accommodate nine players for The Bahamas Golf Classic at Atlantis Paradise Island and 11 players for The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club.
“We closely monitored the fields for the first two events of the season and, as we approached the commitment deadline, it became evident a variety of factors were impacting the field list, which saw 20-plus additional commitments due to less withdrawals compared to last year’s fields,” KFT president Alex Baldwin said in a message to players on Friday. The story was first reported by MondayQ.com.
“We felt factors such as a new, championship-caliber golf course in an easier-to-access location in Nassau, an earlier and combined commitment deadline alongside changing dynamics of both the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour schedules, contributed to this change.”
The PGA Tour chose to expand fields for three tournaments -- the Valspar Championship, Texas Children’s Houston Open and Valero Texas Open -- to allow exempt players more opportunities to play. They expanded beyond the stated field size to do so. The Korn Ferry Tour will keep the field sizes for both of these Bahamian events at 144 players and then replace withdrawn players from those on the new alternate list.
After the two events in The Bahamas, the Korn Ferry Tour moves to a quartet of events in Latin America. All but one of those events have 156-player fields, so getting exempted players in should be no issue.
There are multiple reasons for more clamoring for spots in Korn Ferry Tour fields.
The biggest is that the PGA Tour has announced eligibility changes for the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour. Instead of offering PGA Tour cards to the top 30 players on the final points list after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing and Finance at French Lick Resort in Indiana, the tour will now offer just 20 cards.
Additionally, the PGA Tour has reduced the number of fully exempt players for 2026 to the top 100 players in the final FedEx Cup standings in 2025. That's down from the traditional 125-player cutoff.
This should all create a trickle-down effect, with more PGA Tour players taking more opportunities to play in an effort to assure themselves a spot in the top 100. Players who finished 126th through 200th in last year's FedEx Cup will subsequently see fewer playing opportunities, leading some to play on the Korn Ferry Tour, particularly early in the season.
How this all plays out over the course of the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour seasons still very much remains to be seen, but the squeeze feels real now.
