FLOURTOWN, Pa. – On Tuesday, Rickie Fowler was asked if he was among the 156-man field for next week’s PGA Championship. He wasn’t sure exactly how he qualified given that his world ranking has slipped to No. 125, which meant that he didn’t satisfy the criteria category for being on the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2023 – which stipulated top 100 or better – but he had registered and as he put it, “just give me a tee time.”
Turns out Fowler had received a special exemption into the major at Quail Hollow, the Charlotte course where he won his maiden Tour event in 2012. That’s also how he got a tee time for this week’s Truist Championship, his fourth sponsor exemption into a limited field, $20-million signature event. Once again, both selections came with the requisite scrutiny.
“A number of exemptions this year, which I’m very, very happy for and appreciate it from the sponsors and the tournament directors,” Fowler said on Thursday after shooting 63. “You want to come out and play well. So off to a good start and looking forward to keeping it rolling.”
Keith Mitchell left CJ Cup, got Truist invite
Keith Mitchell, another pro who didn’t earn his way into the 72-man field, did two better, shooting 9-under 61 to grab the first-round lead. This is Mitchell’s second sponsor invite into a signature event and first since being selected co-chair of the Tour’s Player Advisory Council. He’ll be elevated to a player-director position on the policy board in 2026. Last year, several players were up in arms over the fact that Tour policy board members Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Peter Malnati in some cases received multiple invites to signature events. While hiding behind anonymity, they used words like “fishy” and “shady” to describe their displeasure with the invites and insinuated that the choices either were payback for their unpaid board work or, even worse, a payoff for their future vote.
Mitchell was fifth in the Aon Swing 5 heading into the CJ Cup, the last counting event for a spot into Truist, but withdrew, which could fall into the category of fishy. Truist didn’t disclose its sponsor invites until the last minute, but at least Mitchell fessed up when asked when he got word of his sponsor invite: “Good question,” he said. “Give or take a week-ish ago.”
Jordan Spieth got another sponsor’s exemption
Jordan Spieth, a former board member, is also competing this week on a sponsor’s exemption, his fourth free pass into a big-money/elevated points event. He’s a box office star who suffered an injury and missed the entire fall portion of the schedule and is trying to win for the first time in more than three years.
The Tour left a few ways to let players who haven’t played up to their usual high standard have a back door so they still can participate. This wouldn’t be such an issue if fields for the signature events hadn’t been reduced to 72. Erik van Rooyen, one of the AON 5 into this week’s event, touched on this issue when he was asked if he liked the signature event model on Sunday.
“How honest do you want me to be? I hate it,” he said. “I strongly believe that the strongest fields are the ones with the most players in them. The guys on the PGA Tour are so good. It’s so deep. I get that you’ve got the Scotties of the world, the Rorys of the world, and people want to see them, it’s entertaining. Like the PGA Championship coming up, for example, I think it’s the strongest field in the game, similar to The Players. I love competing, so selfishly I want to compete against those guys. Again, really proud of playing my way into it.”
Gary Woodland in, but what about Hayden Springer?
These sponsor invites being given to the same stars who are suddenly in need of a ticket to the big dance diminishes the Tour’s claim that it is the ultimate meritocracy. It’s become a divisive subject in the locker room with complaints of the Tour’s elite events are becoming too much of a closed shop. There’s no denying that there are intangibles some players such as Fowler and Spieth bring that don’t show up in the stat sheets. And it shouldn’t be forgotten that the Tour still is running a business and Spieth and Fowler draw fans and help TV ratings.
Woodland, the 2019 U.S. Open champ and final sponsor invite to the Truist, has a compelling story as he attempts to mount a comeback from brain surgery in 2023. But he’s not the only sentimental pick on Tour – perhaps it is time to give young Hayden Springer, who lost a child just weeks before earning his Tour card and is playing this week for a purse of $4 million and 300 points to the winner of the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic instead of $20 million and 700 points. Golf needs a mix of underdog stories. Only Sam Saunders and the Arnold Palmer Invitational have had the guts to say no to the likes of Fowler, Spieth and Woodland and give a chance to a player such as Rafael Campos. Fowler had heard some of the negative backlash to his sponsor’s exemption and isn’t letting it bother him.
“The negative stuff, I would say, kind of helps me in a way because it fuels me to kind of go out and prove people wrong,” Fowler said.
For anyone who has forgotten how Fowler keeps receipts, he recalled a 2015 Sports Illustrated player poll that named him one of the most overrated players on the tour. He proceeded to win the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
“That worked out all right that week,” he said.
