The PGA Tour has been plagued with the topic of slow play significantly. And with the controversy reaching a boiling point, the Tour, back in January 2025, announced several measures to speed up the play. And not only that, the organization also laid out plans to significantly improve its broadcasts. Now, back in November 2024, the Tour announced that they will be reducing the size of the field from now on. This move, according to the officials, will help to space out tee times significantly. 

Moreover, a reduced field was also expected to make it a lot simpler to identify slow groups or individual players. Unfortunately, all such radical changes did not sit well with the fans. The field sizes were reduced to 120, trimmed down the Monday qualifiers, and also limited the full-time membership to only the top 100 players. Immediately, while the fans took offense to the same, several PGA Tour pros also blasted Jay Monahan and his team for ringing in such rapid changes. 

Meanwhile, despite the extensive backlash, the Tour has somehow found some support. Recently, commenting on the matter, Michael Kim pointed out that the decision to reduce the field size is not a bad one after all. He stated how, by trying to opt for a smaller field, the Tour is trying to do something abnormal. Taking to his X account, Kim wrote, “If speed was the only thing that mattered, a much smaller field. I don’t think the tour really needs to become ‘normal.” 

Surely, such strong words of support will do a world of good to the Tour front office. Because otherwise, they have been constantly facing the wrath. In fact, apart from the Tour pros and fans, a member of the PAC, Maverick McNealy, too, spoke out against the seemingly ‘necessary’ changes. Speaking with Smylie Kaufman, McNealy shared his honest take about how it was a pretty hard task to defend the change of rules. “Where I can’t defend 120 if you are only letting 72 players into Signature Events. That’s 400 playing opportunities over the year. You can’t tell me that 72 is a better product than 120,” commented McNealy. Surely, while the decision has been taken, the ripple effect is looking pretty concerning for the PGA Tour. And to make matters even more complicated, Viktor Hovland, too, sounded unconvinced on the same. 

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Viktor Hovland weighs in on the PGA Tour’s new rules and reduced fields

Amid this, Viktor Hovland has shared his take recently on the changes in rules brought in by the PGA Tour. In this 2026 season, the PGA Tour has introduced several major changes that might have a major impact on the careers of multiple golfers. Jay Monahan has decided to reduce the size of events. And following such an announcement, Hovland has voiced his opinions on the change in scenario.

The Norwegian golfer is well-placed, as his name shows up among the top 100. Despite being in a secure corner, he chose to share his take on the matter with EssentiallySports. The 28-year-old shared, “Man, it’s tough. At the end of the day, I think we just want to play in the biggest tournaments, the best tournaments against the best field.” 

Back in October 2025, while in conversation with EssentiallySports, he also reflected on the Tour’s stance on balancing the bigger and smaller events. Hovland added, “I think the Tour is obviously trying to do that, I honestly don’t even know. I think having more cards is obviously good for competition, but at the same time, I think they’re trying to get to a place where you have obviously Memorial and Bay Hill and these bigger tournaments and then you also have a lot of smaller events, and trying to get both of those tournaments to work in the same league is tough, and I think they’re trying to mitigate some of that.”

Hovland recognizes that the PGA Tour now has a very crowded schedule, with many tournaments happening throughout the season. Even more so, because there are so many players who hold PGA Tour cards, the Tour sometimes needs to limit how many golfers can enter certain events or create alternate events for those who don’t qualify. Referring to the matter, the Norwegian stated, “I don’t know if reducing the amount of cards is the way to do that. I don’t really know. But I can see both sides of the argument. I just don’t really have too much of a strong enough opinion to say much more than that, to be honest.” 

Hovland had a smooth path because he performed exceptionally well during the 2022 DP World Tour season. Still, he didn’t seem to like how few chances there are for up-and-coming golfers to earn their way onto the PGA Tour and compete against the best players.