PGA Tour accused of ‘collusion’ with ‘shady’ sponsors exemptions

The PGA Tour has come under fire over controversial sponsors exemptions at this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. 

This week’s tournament on the iconic links is the second signature event on the US circuit’s reimagined schedule and includes an 80-player field with no cut.

The $20million tournament will host plenty of big names, with the top 50 from the 2023 FedEx Cup included in the limited field.

But it appears there is some disdain amongst some players on the range about how the rest of the field is completed.

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Golfweek‘s Adam Shupack reports that some players are frustrated with the validity of the new ‘Aon Swing 5’ category, which allows the top five FedEx Cup points scorers between signature events to qualify for the next one.

Farmers Insurance Open champion Matthieu Pavon, Sony Open winner Grayson Murray, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Kevin Yu and Stephan Jaeger will all be teeing up at Pebble Beach after starring in the last three full-field events.

However, players have complained that they were previously told that tournament winners, like Pavon and Murray, would already be exempt for signature events and that the inclusion in the ‘Swing 5’  category allows less rank and file players to qualify.

And that’s not the only concern.

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The AT&T sponsors have handed out three of its four invites this week to members of the Tour’s independent Board of Directors – Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Peter Malnati.

Simpson and Malnati are both outside the top 200 in the world rankings and their invites, at a time when they are due to vote on a possible deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, have not gone down well with some colleagues.

“It seems like collusion, a political game that should never happen on Tour,” one unnamed player told Golfweek. “It’s very shady, if you ask me.”

Another player said that it “doesn’t pass the smell test” and questioned the PGA Tour’s meritocracy.

Local player Maverick McNealy is the other sponsor’s invite at Pebble Beach. Tyrrell Hatton withdrew from the field on Tuesday after his move to LIV Golf was confirmed.