Jordan Spieth received five sponsor exemptions in 2025, and Rickie Fowler got six of them. Their horrid form and lack of success didn’t hinder their status in golf as sponsors continued to push them into their events. It got so outrageous that even the fans started complaining that they were practically stealing spots from much more deserving candidates.

Even Spieth and Fowler started feeling guilty for getting into events for free just because of their reputation. Well, Johnson Wagner knows how to solve that problem, but it might be a bit too harsh for them.

He joined Trey Wingo for a podcast where the host asked him for his thoughts on how he would handle the situation on the PGA Tour. Wagner told Wingo, “If you keep your card on the PGA Tour, it’s a 100-man field, if it’s 20 weeks plus the majors, if you have this PGA Tour season where there are no sponsor exemptions. So the guy that doesn’t get in that top 100, he’s got to go back down. So if there’s a 20-week PGA Tour schedule, play big purses, but all 100 players that keep their cards get into those events. That’s what I would like to see.”

With the field size being cut from 125 to 100 in 2026 already, this will be a great time for Brian Rolapp to execute such a strategy. Making every event in the PGA Tour not only a fight for victory, but also to earn a place within the Tour, will make them more exciting. The pros will push harder to try to win or at least remain consistent enough to stay within the top 100.  However, that won’t be their only goal at the end of the season, according to Wagner.

“Half of those 100 that play in those events, maybe the top 70 keep their card for that top 100 next year. Give 10 spots from the Korn Ferry Tour, give 10 spots from the DP World Tour, and have a Q-School. Maybe 15 from the DP World, 15 from Korn Ferry, and then everybody else has to go back to Korn Ferry.” 

Having an elimination-style format where the worst-performing players on the Tour get demoted to KFT immediately will keep everyone on the edge. Eventually, the play-off events become less relevant and the battle will be focused on who will jump up the bottom of the table. In fact, Wagner also shared a great example of how that would work.

“A guy like Rickie Fowler is a bad example, but last year, he was outside the top 100. Rickie Fowler would then have to go back down to the Korn Ferry Tour. You’d have a really interesting secondary Tour, and you would have the top 100 players in the world playing week in, week out. With some changeover, having those 15 fresh people from both the DP World Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour every year.”

Rickie Fowler is certainly a great example to explain the situation. And Wingo really liked the idea and advised Rolapp to listen to it. To be honest, that’s how most professional sports leagues run these days. Whether they are playing team events or individual leagues, the ranking and seasonal elimination system is followed in the world of football, soccer, basketball, and many other sports.

So it won’t be a difficult concept for the fans to adapt to, nor will it be challenging for Rolapp to execute, considering his experience with the NFL. Having said that, Wingo raised another question towards Johnson: how will they deal with the sponsors who would want something in return after having the right to give exemptions taken away from them?

Johnson replied, “They’re spending $20-25 million/year for a single tournament at this Signature level scale. So, are TV ratings enough? Is advertising enough? No. AT&T sponsors Pebble Beach. Jordan Spieth’s been an AT&T guy for his entire career. You can be rest assured Jordan Spieth will be playing the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am next year.”

Even Wagner couldn’t answer how to satisfy the sponsor in this situation. With Jordan Spieth’s ties with AT&T and how Rickie Fowler always played the Rocket Classic in the past because he was sponsored by them, it’s difficult to convince those sponsors not to push for their players to play in their Signature events. It will be up to Brian Rolapp to figure out the business strategy behind talking them out of it.

Having said that, Brian Rolapp already seems to be cooking something up that might resemble the NFL. What makes us think that? Let’s tell you why.

Could Brian Rolapp be working on a strategy that might put Jordan Spieth’s future at risk?

As Johnson Wagner suggested, Brian Rolapp needs to build a fluid channel progression and demotion between the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour. That is something that the NFL has followed using its football academies and training grounds. It also has college football leagues for developing young stars at a young age. And Rolapp is quite familiar with such concepts. Plus, coming from another sport, he would have studied formats of MLB and soccer to understand how progression leagues work.

However, the most compelling evidence that suggests Rolapp is transitioning away from the traditional strategies in golf is through his latest hirings. He brought in Dhruv Prasad and Dhruv Prasad, two individuals he has closely worked with in the NFL. Moreover, the new CEO has also not commented on the changed field size implemented by Jay Monahan for 2026. So it’s a possibility that he may be planning on building on that.

And if it is anything like what Johnson Wagner has recommended, then it will be a welcome change for the golf community, but something folks like Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth certainly wouldn’t appreciate.