Tiger Woods Granted Special Exemption to Allow Him to Play in More Tournaments

Tiger Woods watches his tee shot on the fifth hole during the first round of the U.S. Open golf tournament in Pinehurst, N.C., on June 13, 2024. (George Walker IV/AP Photo)

Tiger Woods needed a special exemption to compete in last weekend’s 2024 U.S. Open, which saw Bryson DeChambeau emerge victorious, while Woods shot seven-over-par and missed the cut. Now, Woods is getting another special exemption, but one that would allow him to play in more than just a single tournament. The PGA Tour announced on Tuesday that it was introducing a Sponsor Exemption for Lifetime Achievement for Woods—and only Woods—that will allow him to compete in the eight annual signature events held on the PGA Tour.

These signature events, introduced last season in response to the rise of LIV Golf, are limited-field tournaments with a bevy of benefits for those competing. The perks include increased Official World Golf Ranking points, higher point distribution for FedEx Cup rankings, and most importantly, bigger prize pools. The eight signature tournaments for the 2024 PGA Tour season offer $20 million purses, which is just $1 million less than what the U.S. Open offered and equal to the amount distributed by The Masters.

There are certain criteria in which one can compete in these events, but due to Woods’ inactivity as a golfer since his Feb. 2021 car crash, he doesn’t normally qualify for any of these tournaments. Woods has competed in just nine events since that accident, including seven majors. By comparison, top players like Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy have all played in at least 14 PGA Tour events this season alone.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan explained the reason for this special exemption during a media session at the Travelers Championship, which is where the tour’s next stop is this weekend.

“It was important to our membership. It’s something we talked about with the [Player Advisory Council]. It was important to our player directors. It was important to our board,” stated Monahan. “It’s important to me because the man, as the exemption says, has won more than 80 events. And I think being able to give him the opportunity to compete in these events, any event he’s ever played in, he’s made it bigger, he’s made it better. He’s drawn more eyeballs to it. I think just as an organization, we wanted to celebrate his exceptionalism in that manner.”

Monahan cited Woods winning more than 80 events as he’s officially won 82 PGA Tour events. That’s tied with Sam Snead for the most all-time and is nine more than Jack Nicklaus, who holds the all-time record of 18 major victories. The only active golfer with half as many victories is Phil Mickelson (45) but he no longer competes on the PGA Tour as a member of LIV Golf.

While Woods has been offered this special exemption, there’s no guarantee he’ll commit to playing any of the signature events. He’s often cited his multiple injuries and surgeries to explain why he can’t play as often as he would like and usually sticks to just the major events. Before this exemption was even made public, Woods was asked after the second round of the U.S. Open on Friday if playing in more tournaments would increase his sharpness.

“I’ve only got one more tournament this season,” Woods said. “Even if I win the British Open, I don’t think I‘ll be in the [FedEx Cup] playoffs. Just one more event and then I’ll come back whenever I come back.”

This exemption could change things, but golf fans won’t find out until 2025 at the earliest. This week’s Travelers Championship is the final signature event of the season, and the first for next year is The Sentry, held every January. The other six signature events—per this 2024 PGA Tour season—are AT&T Pebble Beach, the Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the RBC Heritage, the Wells Fargo Championship, and the Memorial Tournament. The Genesis Invitational—run by Woods’ own Tiger Woods Foundation—is the only of those tournaments he’s played in over the last four years.

Woods mentioned that his final tournament of the season will be the British Open, which takes place July 18-21 in Scotland. While the 15-time major champion has no playing plans after that, he’ll likely have coaching plans through his son Charlie. The day after the British Open ends, Charlie will compete in his first-ever USGA championship event in the Detroit area. He qualified for the event on Wednesday after posting the leading score among qualifiers for the U.S. Junior Amateur.

The 15-year-old Charlie Woods is one year older than his father was when he qualified for the same tournament in 1990. While the elder Woods wouldn’t win his initial U.S. Junior Amateur tournament, he did win in each of the next three years and is the only player to win the event three times in a row. As amateur events, those are not included in the 82 PGA Tour victories that helped enable Tiger Woods to receive this first-of-its-kind exemption.