Last fall, the PGA Tour ratified major changes to its membership rules, reducing the total number of PGA Tour cards, as well as the amount awarded to top players on the Korn Ferry Tour.
With this week’s Final Stage of PGA Tour Q-School at the halfway point, pro Trevor Cone is in line to earn one of the five PGA Tour cards up for grabs.
But in comments to Golfweek after his second round Friday, Cone critiqued the Q-School rules regarding PGA Tour cards that could help him return to the big leagues come Sunday.
Surprisingly, Cone argued that no PGA Tour cards should be given out this week.
Here’s what you should know.
The 2026 PGA Tour season will be the first one impacted by the major Tour changes that went into effect this year.
First, only 100 full PGA Tour cards will be awarded, sharply down from 125 Tour cards previously.
The Korn Ferry Tour was arguably hit hardest by that change.
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Through the 2024 season, the top 30 finishers on the season-long Korn Ferry Tour points list would earn PGA Tour cards. But under the new rules, only the top 20 finishers on the Korn Ferry Tour received Tour cards for the 2026 season, a reduction of 33%.
There were direct, though less dramatic, impacts for Q-School. Previously, the top-5 finishers and ties at the Final Stage of Q-School would get their Tour cards of the next season. Beginning this year, only the top 5, not including ties, graduate to the PGA Tour.
And Cone, the 36-hole co-leader at this week’s Final Stage of Q-School, know this all too well.
The intense struggle to earn a PGA Tour card is very familiar to Cone. This is not his first go-round.
He initially earned full Tour status for the 2022-23 season, but finished 162nd in the FedEx Cup to lose his Tour card for 2024. But Cone was undaunted. He went back to the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024 and played well enough to finish 27th in the year-end standings.
As previously noted, the 2024 season was the last in which the top 30 Korn Ferry Tour finishers earned PGA Tour cards. Now the number is 20. Had the rules been put in place one year earlier, Cone would not have earned his 2025 PGA Tour card.
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Unfortunately for Cone, his second stint on the PGA Tour did not go well. He missed 15 cuts to finish 178th in the FedEx Cup standings, thereby losing all PGA Tour status again.
His final opportunity to make it back to the PGA Tour is at Q-School, and so far he’s made it count. He followed up an opening-round 68 at the Dye Valley Course with a five-under 65. That put him in a five-way tie for the lead with 36 holes to play. In other words, as of now he’s in position to earn his PGA Tour card for the third time.
But if it was up to him, he wouldn’t be awarded a PGA Tour card this week. That’s what he explained to Golfweek’s Adam Schupak Friday evening.
“As much as it pains me to say it considering the position I’m in this week,” Cone told Golfweek, “I think if you went back to 25 [PGA Tour cards awarded on the Korn Ferry Tour] and made this tournament strictly for Korn Ferry status, that would be a better option in my mind.”
In other words, Cone is arguing that a fairer system would have the top-25 finishers in the Korn Ferry Tour earn PGA Tour cards, rather than 20 under the new rules. As a result, Q-School would not award any Tour cards and instead would only give out status for the next Korn Ferry Tour season.
“I think there should only be cards for Korn Ferry Tour status,” he said, reiterating his point.
Interestingly, Cone is speaking from a place of authority. He was a member of the PGA Tour Player Advisory Council during the 2025 season, one year after the new rules were determined.
You can read all of Cone’s comments to Schupak in his Golfweek report here.
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