PGA Tour's exemption system under fire after 'full status' players miss Phoenix Open

Dylan Wu sat around all day on Thursday at TPC Scottsdale, hoping against hope that there would be a spot for him in this week’s WM Phoenix Open, an event played in the backyard of the Scottsdale, Arizona resident. But it was not to be. Marcelo Rozo, who finished fourth at Q-School, was the last man in the field when J.J. Spaun withdrew.

“Only fully exempt player on Tour not to get in the event. I guess #playbetter,” he wrote on X. “Full field PGA Tour events don’t include players with ‘full status.’ ”

Bummer to not get into WMPO this week in my backyard. Waited around as first alternate all day. Only fully exempt player on Tour to not get in the event. I guess #playbetter 🤷‍♂️. Full field PGA Tour events don’t include players with “full status” @acaseofthegolf1@Daniel_Rapaport

— Dylan Wu (@dylan_wu59) February 6, 2026

Wu, who won a playoff to earn the fifth and final card available at Q-School in December, has every reason to be mad. It's hard to play better when you can't even get a tee time. He forgot one thing – he wasn’t alone. The three PGA Tour U grads – Luke Clanton, David Ford and Gordon Sargent – didn’t get in either. It begs the question: are PGA Tour U players really ‘exempt?’ They are re-shuffling in the same category as the Korn Ferry Tour grads, but if Phoenix is any indication, they aren’t getting an equal number of starts. 

Then there's Lee Hodges, who was behind Wu and the PGA Tour U trio despite fulfilling his medical at the Sony Open. Full major medicals is back of the bus of exemption categories, which can't sit well for Will Zalatoris and others trying to come off the injured list. Hodges couldn’t get into the WM Phoenix Open…but he’s in the Players Championship. Try explaining that one!

The Tour targeted more access for ‘full members’ as a key initiative in 2026, but there are still holes in the system and it’s plain as day this week. When exempt players can’t get in every field that isn’t a signature or a major, there is a problem. And yet, promising access to players graduating Q-School and the Korn Ferry Tour was the main reason given for reducing field sizes and getting rid of many of the Monday Qualifiers.

The number of exempt players failing to earn a spot would’ve been a few worse at the WM, but the field expanded to accommodate the return of Brooks Koepka, going from 120 to 123. Yet the field didn’t expand to include exempt players as was done at Valspar, Houston and San Antonio last year. 

Adding insult to injury for Wu and the others who didn’t get to play this week is the fact that the field still couldn’t finish play before darkness. Nine players had to come back on Friday morning to complete their first rounds. Alejandro Tosti, in the last group, was on the eighth tee with two holes to play.

Expanding the field for Koepka was the right thing to do, but a field of 123 is unbalanced off each tee; the tournament should have gone to at least 126. Regardless, it’s likely the cut will be made on Saturday – same as when it was a field of 132 and had a Monday qualifier for three spots. It is stuff like this that has players such as Ryan Moore openly questioning if the competitions department has any clue what it’s doing.

In addition to killing the Monday Q, top 10s from the previous week didn’t get in either. Joel Dahmen, a conditional player this season who is playing out of the Nos. 111-125 category, was the lone finisher at the Farmers Insurance Open in the top 10, who otherwise would’ve gotten a spot. Technically, that gets him into the Cognizant Classic a month later because of back-to-back signature events. Luckily for him, as widely reported, it didn’t matter for Dahmen because he got a sponsor’s exemption this week after writing a letter to the tournament director on a golf shirt. Sahith Theegala needed an exemption, too. He and Adam Scott, who are both exempt from finishing top 30 in the 2024 FedEx Cup standings (earning a two-year exemption), are behind the PGA Tour U category as fully exempt players and would’ve otherwise been on the outside looking in.

There’s an easy fix to this problem – besides the obvious of doling out penalty strokes so play speeds up – and that is make Phoenix the last event of the West Coast Swing when a few more weeks on the calendar would provide additional daylight. But reading the tea leaves of the Future Competitions Committee, it sounds as if the WM Phoenix Open will be batting leadoff on whatever is left of the West Coast Swing, likely held the week after the Super Bowl to make a giant splash. 

As for Wu and his clan of hard-luck 'full exempt' players, the takeaway is it’s time to get creative when sending a letter requesting an exemption because full status is apparently full of something else in Phoenix. 

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: PGA Tour exemption issues: Why players missed Phoenix Open