The PGA Tour is changing its financial structure to help developing players get paid.
In a memo sent to players Tuesday morning — first reported golf channel Brentley Romine — The PGA Tour announced the launch of two new financial programs for its fully exempt Korn Ferry Tour members and former fully exempt PGA Tour members designed to help ease the financial burden of life as an aspiring PGA Tour pro.
The two initiatives — called the Member Support Program and the Pathways Player Achievement Grant — provide a financial safety net for professionals playing full-time within the PGA Tour system.
The so-called “Member Support Program” is the most important of the two programs, providing a $150,000 “earning guarantee” to players who finished 126th or lower in last season’s FedExCup standings. To be eligible to receive a salary, players must compete in 12 events throughout the season between the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours.
It’s helpful to think of “earning guarantee” simply as a guaranteed base salary of $150,000, paid to all players via tournament checks or at the end of the PGA and Korn Ferry Tour seasons. For those making more than $150,000 in a single season, “guaranteed income” is a moot point: As the season progresses, they receive cash in the form of tournament checks. However, for relatively rare players No For those earning more than $150,000, the balance of the $150,000 “earning guarantee” will be paid out at the end of the season, effectively providing a compensation “floor” for players struggling to compete in the future.
The second program, the Pathways Player Achievement Grant, is essentially a $15,000 stipend for Korn Ferry Tour players. The grants, which will be available to players on the Korn Ferry Tour and top players on the PGA Tour of the Americas and PGA Tour collegiate programs, have no tournament stipulations and can be used for any expense, whether as compensation or to cover player travel and hotel expenses.
The two projects represent an expansion of the PGA Tour’s development efforts in the increasingly fragmented world of professional golf, helping to shore up the PGA Tour’s growth path and fend off outside competition from the LIV, Asia Tour and DP World Tour. They are similar to the compensation measures introduced by the tour in 2022, providing a similar “salary floor” for Grand Tour participants and expanding subsidies to help cover travel costs. Romine said the PGA Tour Policy Committee cited the importance of a strong PGA Tour growth path as a key reason for the new plan.
The changes enacted Thursday by the PGA Tour Policy Committee come during the same offseason that has made the PGA Tour’s dream even more elusive. In 2026, the tour will offer 100 “cards” for the first time, down from the traditional 125, a competitive shift that has profound implications for those chasing coveted spots on the Grand Tour.
The changes have drawn strong criticism from many quarters of the professional game, particularly those on the fringes of the PGA Tour who may be vulnerable to the size of prize money or broader competitive opportunities offered by other major tours.
