Woods has a lifetime membership on the PGA Tour thanks to his incredible career winning total.
But that status doesn’t allow him to play in the tour’s Signature events, which have their own criteria.
The only way Woods can currently play there is to earn one of four sponsor exemptions for each event;
that’s how he played in February at the Genesis Invitational, a tournament he organized and benefiting the Tiger Woods Foundation.
Those exemptions have been controversial, however, as several high-profile players have written in hoping to play in Signature tournaments
(with bigger prize money) despite not qualifying for them. So instead of letting Woods use one of the four sponsor exemptions,
a proposal has been floated to create a separate exemption for Woods, based on his stellar career performance.
Golf.com’s report cited the PGA Tour’s Greensheet newsletter, which is sent to players to update them on various tournament news, which stated that the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council supported the additional special exemption, stating:
“The sponsor exemption is intended to accommodate players who are important to a tournament sponsor but otherwise ineligible. To maximize these slots for members and provide optimal flexibility for tournament sponsors, the PAC supports the addition of a sponsor exemption, recognizing Tiger Woods as a golfer who has reached a special achievement threshold of 80-plus career wins.”
Woods is one of six members of the 11-person Policy Committee. Whether he recused himself from voting on the exemption remains unclear. The discussion about Woods’ exemption will be part of the broader discussion about PGA Tour Signature events in 2025.
Another unanswered question at this point is how often Woods might use the exemption in the future. Since his car accident in 2021, Woods has played in just eight official PGA Tour events. Woods said in late 2023 that he hoped to be healthy enough to play every month in 2024, but that hasn’t happened. Woods withdrew from the second round of Genesis in February due to illness. He also withdrew from the 2023 Masters and missed the PGA Championship last month.
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Source: New York Post
