Success Solves Everything: How Four PGA Tour Stars Stacked Their 2026 Schedules
For most professional golfers, the only constant in golf is change. Whether it be injury, swing changes, caddie changes, or even tour/status changes, the world of professional golf features a constantly revolving door; those who cannot cut it are kicked to the curb, while those who earn their way to the top are granted exemptions and opportunities. Not everyone can combat the playing inconsistencies that come with time, like Justin Rose, who has withstood the test of time, tallying his 13th PGA Tour win earlier this month at the Farmers Insurance Open. To add on to the already-challenging task of being a PGA Tour member, the Tour recently cut 25 full-time memberships after the 2025 season. After perennial PGA Tour standout Rory McIlroy told GolfDigest in early 2024 that he is “all for making the PGA Tour more cutthroat, more competitive,” the Tour adhered to McIlroy’s call to action.
Around November of the same year, the PGA Tour announced that this year’s season would only have 100 full-time membership cards offered to its players. With this cut in full-status offerings for this season, last year’s events and placements in said events were of utmost importance to almost everyone in the field. FedExCup Points, Aon Swing Five rankings, and Aon Next 10 rankings were and continue to be top-of-mind for those battling for regular season Tour starts. Thankfully, for anyone trying to make it in professional golf, winning and success will always equate to more high-level opportunities and exemptions.
Ryo Hisatsune
After grinding in each of the seven FedExCup Fall events this past season, Ryo Hisatsune finished in 84th place in the FedExCup Standings, securing a full-status PGA Tour card by about 100 points. To capitalize on his full-time status, Hisatsune is off to arguably the best start of his PGA Tour career, making four out of five cuts and placing in the top 10 in each of his past three starts. Due to his tied-second and T-10 finishes in the Farmers Insurance Open and Waste Management Phoenix Open, respectively, the young Japanese phenom placed second in the Aon Swing Five standings through the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The Aon Swing Five awards the top-five, non-exempt players in the FedExCup Standings exemptions into the next two Signature Events. For Hisatsune, those two events are the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational.
After earning exemptions into the aforementioned Signature Events, Hisatsune posted a round one-leading 10-under-par opening round at Pebble Beach. While he did not win the tournament, he did finish in a tie for eighth place, placing him in eighth place on the FedExCup Points List. Hisatsune’s game is firing on all cylinders heading into The Genesis Invitational, and he will need that trend to continue as his busy season unfolds. If Hisatsune continues to post low scores and high finishes, Signature Event exemptions and FedExCup points will take care of themselves.
Pierceson Coody
Unlike Hisatsune, Pierceson Coody did not place within the top 100 on this past season’s FedExCup Points List; his 248 FedExCup points were good enough for 139th place. After being relegated back to the Korn Ferry Tour for the 2025 season, Coody earned his way to a full-time PGA Tour membership thanks to his dominant season-long performance this past year. Coody’s play enabled him to place within the top 20 on the prior season’s Korn Ferry Tour Points List. That finish has allowed him to tee it up in every full-field PGA event to date.
Like Hisatsune, Coody has posted some low numbers to begin the season. In fact, he was the only person to top Hisatsune in the Aon Swing Five standings. Coody has yet to miss a cut this season, placing within the top 20 in his first four events of the year. However, he hit a little bit of a wall in his first Signature Event of the year, posting a mediocre T-48 finish at Pebble Beach. Despite a lackluster beginning to his Signature Event campaign, Coody is also in the field for The Genesis Invitational, aiming to log yet another top 20 finish and propel himself into more elevated events as the season progresses.
Alex Noren
Alex Noren’s journey back to a full-status membership on the PGA Tour looks different from those of his youthful peers. Since finishing the 2016 season as the ninth-best golfer in the world, Noren has been on a fairly steady downward slide. He has almost been a non-factor in most events he has played in since then, but this past season presented him with a new opportunity. Noren’s T-17 finish at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, as well as his wins at the Betfred British Masters and BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour, had the elder Swede up to 11th in the Official World Golf Rankings at the end of 2025.
In addition to bolstering his world ranking, Noren’s two international wins this past season earned him a spot in the prestigious Hero World Challenge hosted by Tiger Woods. Despite losing in a playoff to Hideki Matsuyama, Noren has found his way into more elevated events during this year’s PGA Tour season. He placed in a tie for 29th place at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and has already qualified for every major championship except for the PGA Championship. The 43-year-old Noren is out to prove to the world that he still has more than enough in the tank to compete with the big dogs on Tour, despite his increasing age.
Max McGreevy
Max McGreevy’s venture back to the PGA Tour is a combination of Hisatsune’s and Coody’s. After earning his way back to the PGA Tour for last year’s season, McGreevy, like Hisatsune, did everything he could to sneak into the top-100 in the FedExCup Points List. He played in all seven of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Fall events; McGreevy also placed in a tie for 12th at the Japan Open Golf Championship last fall. Thanks to a tied-third finish at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship and a second-place finish at The RSM Classic, McGreevy locked up a full-status membership for the ensuing season on Tour. Like Coody, McGreevy was demoted back to the Korn Ferry Tour, but played his way back to the PGA Tour for this season, and is now exempt from at least the first two Signature Events of the season.
While McGreevy has not logged any top-20 finishes to begin the season, the opportunity to tee it up in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational is a huge step toward a more secure membership in the future. He has the Aon Next 10, which grants the top 10 players in the current FedExCup standings, excluding those in the top 50 from the prior season’s standings, a spot in the ensuing Signature Event, to thank for that. Total prize money and FedExCup points mean a lot to every professional golfer, particularly those like McGreevy, who are still looking to cement their legacy. The University of Oklahoma alum is not showing any signs of slowing down from his solid performance this past fall, and will need to keep up his solid play if he has any hopes of entering his name into any more Signature Events this season.
The PGA Tour has become more cutthroat since McIlroy and other professionals’ verbal expression to tighten up the requirements necessary for a full-time membership. The insecurity that most professional golfers face year in and year out haunts them throughout the season, forcing them to play in FedExCup Fall events, off-schedule events, and even events on other tours. For the small percentage of those who can earn their way back to the pinnacle of golf, the PGA Tour, they want to do everything in their power to stay there. For Hisatsune, Coody, Noren, and McGreevy, they are more than on track to maintain their status on Tour, thanks to their recent finishes and Signature Event participation.
