19th Hole
‘I don’t love the changes…but it was needed’ – Tour pro shares his reaction to proposed PGA Tour changes

On Tuesday, in an email sent to players, the PGA Tour outlined significant changes to several long-standing structures that will be voted upon by the Tour’s Policy Board on November 18.
Some of the biggest changes that will be under consideration including changes to the field and card eligibility going forward:
- Adjusting the maximum number of players in a starting field of an open tournament played on one course from 156 to 144 players, with a reduction to 120 or 132 as required by circumstances such as daylight.
- Changing exempt status from top 125 to top 100 in the FedEx Cup and add a conditional category for finishers 101-125.
- Decreasing the number of PGA Tour cards coming from the Korn Ferry Tour from 30 to 20, maintaining 10 from the DP World Tour and capping the Q-School at five.
- Reallocating spots in the field currently used for restricted sponsor exemptions (two PGA Tour members and two DP World Tour/Korn Ferry Tour/Q-School category) to the next eligible member on the Priority Ranking.
In response, PGA Tour pro Michael Kim took to X to share his thoughts on the proposals. Here’s what he had to say:
Why he doesn’t love the changes:
“To be honest, I don’t love the changes but that’s probably because I feel threatened by the number of cards going down from 125 to 100. It’s my job to improve and continue to get better and make sure I’m not in the situation I am this year.”
Why the changes were needed:
“But if I’m looking at it objectively, it was needed. I’m a real believer that our slow play problem is a traffic/too many people problem more so than an actual slow play problem. Getting the field sizes down is a crucial part of that.”
Why events are currently bloated:
“There were times when I was playing from the past champ status a few years back where even I felt that I shouldn’t be able to play these events. There absolutely was some bloat.
Why it’s a GOOD thing for Korn Ferry Tour graduates:
“I think the most important part of this is that the KFT graduates get a real fair chance at keeping their cards. When you promise a tour card but you’re only getting in oppo field events and barely full field events, a bad start to the year and you are so behind the 8 ball it’s unfair. It does suck for those in KFY that it’s going from 30-20 but you have to make sacrifices somewhere.”
More room for maneuver:
“If the tour feels that too many jobs were cut, it can always add cards. Taking away cards is always harder than adding in.”
On the reduction of slow play fines:
Promise you, no player on tour sees this and is adjusting their pre shot routine for better or worse.
— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) October 29, 2024
Summarizing his thoughts after receiving some criticism, Kim added:
“I guess I should have written it out a bit differently. These changes were to get KFT guys a fair chance and into more events. Plus, a better chance for everyone to finish their rounds on the day they started. The slightly smaller fields is probably not going to make a drastic change in pace of play. I was making the point that just getting guys to play a bit faster isn’t the end all be all for the problem. Just because you get people to drive a bit faster isn’t going to change rush hour traffic.”
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19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.