The PGA TOUR is the premier meritocracy in professional sports.

Shoot the scores, earn a spot at the game’s highest level, and compete for the game’s most prestigious prizes.

So, how does one earn these opportunities?

PGA TOUR-sanctioned competition is built on a metaphorical ladder with several rungs, as players move up and down the ladder based on competitive results across a qualifying series or season.

PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry is the most direct way to earn status, offering PGA TOUR cards (for the top five finishers) in addition to Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR Americas status. Q-School entails four separate stages of qualification, conducted across the fall season.

PGA TOUR Americas feeds into the Korn Ferry Tour, which feeds to the PGA TOUR – with 20 TOUR cards awarded after each Korn Ferry Tour season.

What are the qualifications for membership on each circuit? How do players earn tournament access? How does one move up and down the ladder?

Keep it here for insight into all levels of the PGA TOUR’s qualification process. This is your guide to all things PGA TOUR-sanctioned status and eligibility. This is how it works.

FedExCup Playoffs

The FedExCup Playoffs brings unique drama in professional golf, with a starting field of 70 players whittled down to one FedExCup champion.

The Playoffs kicks off at the 70-player FedEx St. Jude Championship, followed by the 50-player BMW Championship. The final 30 players remaining will proceed to the TOUR Championship, which features a Starting Strokes format to reward the highest-ranked players on the season-long FedExCup standings, a cumulative race but with quadruple points awarded at the first two Playoffs events.

The player with the lowest score after 72 holes at East Lake, handicapped by Starting Strokes, will earn the FedExCup title.

Priority Ranking

The PGA TOUR uses a standardized system for determining event fields, based off the current season’s Priority Ranking while also including additional exemption and qualifying categories.

Field sizes can vary by event, as can the number of event-specific exemptions. PGA TOUR exempt members are guaranteed access to all Full-Field Events, with various categories subject to periodic reshuffles based upon FedExCup Points accrued throughout the season.

The 2025 PGA TOUR Priority Ranking features 44 categories.

How it works

• There are eight Signature Events in 2025, limited-field events featuring top players with increased prize money ($20 million) and FedExCup points (700 points to the winner).
• The Sentry is the season’s first Signature Event and includes PGA TOUR winners from the previous calendar year as well as the top 50 players from the 2024 FedExCup Points List through the TOUR Championship (i.e., those who qualify for the BMW Championship, the second FedExCup Playoffs event).
• The 2025 schedule cadence connects events through the Aon Next 10 and Aon Swing 5, two eligibility pathways that allow trending players to earn access to Signature Events and compete alongside the game’s best.
  • New in 2025, each Signature Event following The Sentry has a minimum field size of 72. If necessary, tournaments use an alternate list from the next available player(s) in the Aon Next 10 standings.
  • The three player-hosted Signature Events – The Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday – feature a 36-hole cut to the top 50 and ties plus any player within 10 shots of the lead. The player-hosted Signature Events feature a redistribution of prize money that allocates 20 percent to the winner ($4 million).
  • The remaining five Signature Events do not have a cut and allocate 18 percent to the winner.
• Players qualify for Signature Events via the highest category for which they are eligible on the Priority Ranking, which can be found below.

Eligibility criteria, Priority Ranking for Signature Events after The Sentry

1. Top 50 in the prior season’s FedExCup standings

• The top 50 players from the previous season’s FedExCup standings through the TOUR Championship (i.e., those that qualified for the BMW Championship).

2. Aon Next 10: Top 10 in the FedExCup standings (not otherwise exempt)

• The top 10 players in the current FedExCup standings that did not finish in the top 50 in the previous season’s FedExCup standings, through the tournament leading up to the next Signature Event.
• Nos. 51-60 in the prior season’s FedExCup Fall standings make up the Aon Next 10 for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational.

3. Aon Swing 5: Top five FedExCup points earners between Signature Events (not otherwise exempt)

• The top five players, not exempt via a higher category, who accumulate the most FedExCup points during the tournaments between Signature Events.

4. Current-year tournament winners (full FedExCup points events)

• Players who win a PGA TOUR tournament during the current year (excluding Additional Events), not exempt via a higher category.
• These tournament winners are eligible for the remaining Signature Events in the current year, as well as The Sentry in the following season.

5. PGA TOUR members in the top 30 in the OWGR

• PGA TOUR members in the top 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), not exempt via a higher category, through the tournament preceding the Signature Event.

6. Sponsor exemptions

• Each event will offer four sponsor exemptions restricted to PGA TOUR members.
• New in 2025, one additional sponsor exemption will be available for players with 80 or more wins on the PGA TOUR (Tiger Woods).
• There will be one tournament host exemption available for each of the player-hosted Signature Events
  • Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard: Palmer Cup Exemption
  • The Genesis Invitational: Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption
  • the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday: Jack Nicklaus Award Exemption

2025 Signature Event schedule

FedExCup Fall

The FedExCup Fall is when top-100 eligibility, which provides exempt status into full-field events and a spot in THE PLAYERS, is finalized for the following season.

After the conclusion of the FedExCup Playoffs, players ranked 51st and beyond in the FedExCup will continue to compete for points in the fall. They will begin the fall with all points earned in the Regular Season and the first FedExCup Playoffs event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Nos. 51-70 in the FedExCup at the start of the fall have already clinched their top-100 eligibility for the following year but are competing for spots in the first two Signature Events following the season-opening The Sentry.

Nos. 71 and beyond can earn one of the 10 spots available in those Signature Events but they also are competing to finish in the top 100 of the FedExCup standings at the conclusion of the fall.

Special Temporary Membership

High-achieving players without TOUR status can earn Special Temporary Membership by earning equivalent non-member FedExCup points to No. 150 on the prior year’s standings. Special Temporary Members then can accept unlimited sponsor exemptions through the remainder of the PGA TOUR calendar, including the fall portion, upon crossing the STM threshold (non-members can accept up to seven sponsor exemptions in a season). Players who earn Special Temporary Membership also secure a spot in a conditional category on that season’s TOUR Priority Ranking.

PGA TOUR cards via DP World Tour

Beginning in 2023, top finishers on the DP World Tour’s season-long points list, the Race to Dubai, at season’s end earn status for the following PGA TOUR season, rewarding their excellent play with the opportunity to compete on both tours.

Ten PGA TOUR cards are available to the highest-ranked players in the final Race to Dubai standings who don’t already hold PGA TOUR status for finishing in the top 100 of the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List or above. For example, if Rory McIlroy or another player already exempt on the PGA TOUR finishes fifth in the Race to Dubai, then No. 11 in the Race to Dubai standings earns PGA TOUR status.

The top finisher in the Race to Dubai who is not already exempt on the PGA TOUR will be fully exempt for the following TOUR season, similar to players who finish in the top 100 in the FedExCup. That player also earns a spot in THE PLAYERS Championship.

The other nine DP World Tour players will start the season positioned directly above the 30 Korn Ferry Tour graduates and the top five finishers from Q-School in the PGA TOUR Priority Ranking.

Monday qualifying

Several PGA TOUR events offer four spots via an 18-hole qualifying event, which usually occurs on Monday of tournament week. Several players must advance through a pre-qualifier to earn a spot in the Monday qualifier, while others gain direct access to the Monday qualifier based on various merit-based categories.

Corey Conners won the 2019 Valero Texas Open as a Monday qualifier, the most recent to accomplish the feat on TOUR.

PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry

Beginning in fall 2023, the top five finishers at Final Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry will earn PGA TOUR membership for the following season.

Players who finish below the top five at Final Stage will earn Korn Ferry Tour membership to varying degrees, with lower-level finishers also earning PGA TOUR Americas membership.