We might call this current iteration of the PGA Tour “The Era of Signature Events” in part because of how transitional the league feels right now. It won’t look like it does now forever. So how will 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 (and possibly 2027 too, depending on the speed of change) be remembered? Mainly because of what they brought to the forefront – limited-field events, often without cuts, played for $20 million. They were an attempt to clarify the tournament’s “product,” as well as a wartime device designed to retain loyalty from the best players in the sport, and they were an intriguing answer to a fundamental question about what makes professional golf compelling. But they also made things very awkward for the PGA Tour.
Make enough institutional moves on behalf of the Tour Elites, Scottie Schefflers and Xander Schauffeles of the world, do enough to protect your brand names, and it can start to feel like you’re neglecting the midfield, the rising players. The tension of that ecosystem created a certain natural anxiety around these Signature Events, and never more so than with the four sponsor exemptions offered for each one.
These sponsor exemptions are, in theory, a boon to the events. They ensure that figures who may not have qualified can still have a positive impact on field strength, ticket sales, sponsor value, etc. But Signature Events were created during a time when the PGA Tour was struggling LIFE Golf and beating his metaphorical chest for being the elite golf tour’s most meritocratic. Giving away seats on a field to players while increasing interest is not pure meritocracy.
And so these exceptions have come under scrutiny. Sometimes they have been controversial. Companies and tour directors who choose these exemptions think a lot about decisionsbut tournament spots don’t always go to the best or fittest players not already in the field. They can go to a player who won that tournament years ago. They can go to a player who is universally loved and whose game has gone through a rough patch. They may go to one player lucky enough to be sponsored by the same company that sponsors the tournament.
So who’s getting those invites and how have they performed? By looking at the most recent 19 Signature Events and before this week’s 20th begins (we’re starting this countdown in 2024, when the current system really took shape), we can do a proper analysis of those exclusion decisions. Below is a floating table that includes each player’s World Golf Ranking at the time of their elimination, as well as their finish that week.
At this point, no player has received more snaps than Gary Woodland, who has received seven shutouts. He recently won the Houston Open in March, meaning he could enter the remaining Signature Events for 2026 without needing an exemption. Before that win, Woodland had collected invitations to more than a third of the Siggies.
And you know what? The golf world has felt pretty good about them. Woodland has been battling challenges with his health since before his brain surgery in 2023. The 2019 US Open champion is widely considered one of the kindest players on Tour. He recently came forward his struggle with PTSD after that surgery, too, and it remains one of the most impressive stories going around, especially in light of his recent Houston Open CONQUEST.
Greater scrutiny has followed exemptions given to players outside the world’s top 100. While they are in the minority, one thing is happening this week, with No. 441 Webb Simpson getting the nod. It’s not hard to see why Simpson is on the court this week. Simpson has been a member of the PGA Tour’s policy board, is among the most beloved figures at the sponsorship level and also happens to live on the property at Quail Hollow, host of this week’s event. But just know that not every Tour member on the outside has enjoyed seeing Simpson take these exemptions over and over again. He has received the second most exemptions, with six – along with Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott – but has never been in the world’s top 200 during any of those tournaments. To his credit, Simpson finished T24 with disqualification at the 2024 Truist – but hasn’t fared much better since.
Sixteen of the 76 exemptions so far have been awarded to players outside the world’s top 150 at the time, and only Brandt Snedeker – ranked 430th ahead of the 2025 Memorial – was able to crack the top 10 the week of that exemption. As with all explanations of who gets these invitations, there were many reasons why Snedeker earned that invitation, but one obvious connection is embroidered on the front of his hat: Workday, one of Snedeker’s most prominent sponsors, also sponsors the Memorial.
Kevin Kisner (then ranked 526), ​​Michael Thorbjornsen (then 710) and Tiger Woods (893) also all received exemptions while outside the world’s top 500, but each of these cases was remarkably different. Kisner was 40 and had gone a full year without a top-30 finish. Thorbjornsen, a Massachusetts native and top young talent, was invited to the Travelers Championship, widely considered the Northeast’s Signature Event. (He was 22 then, has since won on Tour and is now ranked 62nd in the world.) And then there’s Woods, who would get any sponsor exemption he wanted if he needed it, but in this case is the host of the Genesis Invitational and got the exemption before the tournament went so far as to produce one. the new exclusion category with 80 wins just for him.
How are these players performing? The results are all over the place. And maybe that should be the expectation. The average finish for sponsor exemptions has been around 38-40, right in the middle of these 72-80 man fields. There have been nine top-10 finishes from sponsor exclusions and 11 finishing 70th or worse – cuts and missed draws included. Everyone else falls somewhere between these two poles, which, again, may be exactly what is expected. Below is a list of players who have received waivers, ranked from most to least.
7 invitations: Gary Woodland
6 invitations: Webb Simpson, Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth
5 invitations: Billy Horschel
4 invitations: Tony Finau, Matt Kuchar
3 invitations: Keith Mitchell, Max Homa, Mackenzie Hughes
2 invitations: Min Woo Lee, Tom Kim, Shane Lowry, Max Grayserman, Brandt Snedeker
1 invitation: Peter Malnati, Maverick McNealy, Harry Hall, Sahith Theegala, Tiger Woods, Will Zalatoris, Nicolai Hojgaard, Rafael Campos, Justin Rose, Chris Kirk, Kevin Kisner, Wyndham Clark, Marco Penge, Alex Noren, Michael Thorbjornsen, Joel Clark
