Q-School leader criticizes PGA Tour card rules that could take advantage of him

Last fall, the PGA Tour ratified major changes in membership rulesreducing the total number of PGA Tour Cardsas well as the amount awarded to the top players on the Korn Ferry Tour.

With this week’s PGA Tour Q-School Final Stage halfway through, pro Trevor Cone is in line to win one of five PGA Tour cards up for grabs.

But in the comments for Golf week after his second round on Friday, Cone criticized the Q-School rules about PGA Tour cards that could help him get back to the big leagues on Sunday.

Surprisingly, Cone argued that no PGA Tour card should be awarded this week.

Here’s what you need to know.

Major PGA Tour changes affect Q-School for the first time

The 2026 PGA Tour season will be the first affected by the major Tour changes that took effect this year.

First, only 100 full PGA Tour cards will be awarded, down significantly from the previous 125 cards.

The Korn Ferry Tour was hit hardest by this change.

Through the 2024 season, the top 30 finishers on the points list during the Korn Ferry Tour season would earn PGA Tour cards. But under the new rules, only the top 20 finishers on the Korn Ferry Tour received Tour cards for the 2026 season, a 33% reduction.

There were direct but less dramatic impacts for Q-School. Previously, the top-5 finishers and ties in the Q-School Final Stage would receive their next season’s Tour cards. Starting this year, only the top 5, not including ties, graduate to the PGA Tour.

And Cone, the 36-hole co-leader in this week’s Q-School Final Stage, knows it all too well.

Trevor Cone says no PGA Tour card should be issued at Q-School

The intense struggle to earn a PGA Tour card is all too familiar to Cone. This is not his first shot.

He initially earned full Tour status for the 2022-23 season, but finished 162nd in the FedEx Cup to lose his Tour card for 2024. But Cone was undaunted. He returned to the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024 and played well enough to finish 27th in the year-end rankings.

As previously mentioned, the 2024 season was the last in which the top 30 Korn Ferry Tour finishers earned PGA Tour cards. Now the number is 20. If the rules had been in place a year earlier, Cone would not have earned his 2025 PGA Tour card.

Unfortunately for Cone, his second stint on the PGA Tour did not go well. He missed 15 cuts to finish 178th in the FedEx Cup standings, again losing all PGA Tour status.

His last chance to get back on the PGA Tour is at Q-School, and so far he’s made it count. He followed up an opening round of 68 at the Dye Valley course with a five-under 65. That put him at one five-way tie for the lead with 36 holes to play. In other words, he is now in a position to earn his PGA Tour card for the third time.

But if it were up to him, he wouldn’t be handed a PGA Tour card this week. This is it what he explained Golfweek’s Adam Schupak on friday evening.

“As much as it pains me to say it considering the position I’m in this week,” Cone said Golf week“I think if you were to go back to the 25 (PGA Tour cards awarded on the Korn Ferry Tour) and make this tour strictly for Korn Ferry status, that would be a better option in my mind.”

In other words, Cone is arguing that a fairer system would have the top 25 finishers on the Korn Ferry Tour earn PGA Tour cards, rather than the top 20 under the new rules. As a result, Q-School would not issue any Tour cards and instead would only award status for the upcoming Korn Ferry Tour season.

“I think there should only be cards for Korn Ferry Tour status,” he said, repeating his point.

Interestingly, Cone is speaking from a place of authority. He was a member of the PGA Tour Players Advisory Council during the 2025 season, a year after the new rules were established.

You can read all of Cone’s comments about Schupak in his Golf week REPORT here.

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