2024 WM Phoenix Open set for Super Bowl week; will not be expanded-purse 'signature' event
The PGA Tour’s season of change will see a lot of date shifts, some new sponsors, plenty of no-cut events but a lot of familiarity, based on a copy of the 2024 schedule obtained exclusively by Golfweek.
The Tour will return to a calendar-year season for the first time in a decade with 39 regular season events and a further eight in the post-playoffs fall series. Twelve non-major Tour events have “signature” status, meaning lucrative purses and limited fields. The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am will become a signature event, as previously reported by Golfweek.
The event at Pebble Beach will be Feb. 1-4, one week ahead of the WM Phoenix Open (Feb. 8-11), which once again will conclude on Super Bowl Sunday. The Phoenix Open had signature status in 2023 when it offered a $20 million purse, with $3.6 million going to winner Scottie Scheffler. The 2024 purse is likely to be in the $9 million range, although the official purse will be announced at a later date.
Multiple sources say only four of the 12 signature Tour events will feature a 36-hole cut: the Players Championship, the Genesis Invitational, the Memorial Tournament and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Field sizes at the latter three invitationals will fluctuate with eligibility, but several sources say the maximum will be 80 players with a cut to 50 and ties. The Players remains a full-field event.
The schedule does not reflect any changes that might emerge from the PGA Tour’s negotiations with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which is not expected to impact the ’24 lineup. The Olympics will impact things though. Golf medals will be handed out on Aug. 4, which pushes the Wyndham Championship and the FedEx Cup Playoffs back one week. The 2024 season concludes at the Tour Championship on Sept. 1.
The fall events, in which players who don’t qualify for the playoffs will jockey for priority in the 2025 season, begin with the Fortinet Championship on Sept. 9.
A PGA Tour spokesperson declined to comment on the schedule prior to it being announced, which will be Tuesday.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 2024 WM Phoenix Open won't be PGA Tour expanded-purse 'signature' event
