Brian Harman 'not numb' to impact of reduced fields

(Photo credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images)

Brian Harman has grinded through just about every level since turning professional in 2009, so he empathizes with those who will be directly impacted by the reduced field sizes approved by the PGA Tour Policy Board for the 2026 season.

As a member of the Player Advisory Committee, Harman was partof the group of players charged with evaluating the pro and cons of reducing the field sizes for several tournaments.

"I can't even begin to elaborate on how many discussions that we had and ideas going back and forth," Harman said on Tuesday ahead of this week's season-ending The RSM Classic. "It's so nuanced and it's so detailed that it's not like a short interview about it isn't going to do it justice, but we were in the room, we discussed every possible scenario and this is kind of what everyone came up with."

That scenario includes a reduction in fully exempt players on tour in a given season. Beginning in 2026, players who finished in the top 100 of the prior year's FedEx Cup standings will keep full status, down from the top 125 this year. Players finishing Nos. 101-125 in the FedEx Cup standings would receive conditional status.

Only 20 PGA Tour cards will be awarded to Korn Ferry Tour graduates rather than 30, among other minor changes to membership policies.

The fields at standard tournaments, currently at a maximum of 156 players, will be reduced to 144, with consideration for certain fields to be cut to 132 or 120 players based on daylight and pace of play. The Players Championship, the most prestigious non-major tournament in golf, will go from 144 players to 120. These changes also will not take effect until 2026.

The changes have stirred debate among the rank-and-file, with Lucas Glover among them. The former major champion said earlier this week that the policy board "think we're stupid," and suggested the tour enforces its pace of play issues rather than cost professionals their jobs.

"I'm not numb to the fact that we're cutting opportunities, right? It's not something that sits well with me and it doesn't sit well with anyone that was in any of those discussions," Harman said. "But all these decisions that get made, they're all not good or all bad.

"We're looking at every single kind of pro and con to every piece that moves around and trying to figure out the most equitable, fairest way to have a great product at the same time providing enough playing opportunities for everyone.

Harman said the PAC was broken into separate subcommittees to each evaluate different potential pathways. At the end of the day, the math simply doesn't work out for 156-player fields on one course during times of the year with limited daylight hours.

"Daylight's a big thing, can't finish," he said. "The Tour's been expanding for the last I don't know how many years and just we're trying to come up with the best possible product for television, for the players and to make sure that people have pathways to get in.

"I feel as though when we get into some of these 156-man fields, you can look at the parking lot out here, there's nowhere to park and (Sea Island) is two golf courses, thank goodness. But 156 on one golf course, it's hard to navigate a practice round, it's hard to navigate where to get food.

"I mean, logistically it just makes it a lot, a lot tougher."

Harman has three victories since joining the PGA Tour 12 years ago, highlighted by his win at The Open Championship in 2023. At just 5 feet, 7 inches tall, he's one of the shorter hitters on tour and is a noted grinder who has carved out a lengthy career with excellent iron play and a strong short game.

Currently 24th in the Official World Golf Ranking, Harman has been as high as eighth but was also 123rd to begin the 2020 season and 141st to open 2017. So it's safe to presume Harman doesn't classify himself as among the "cool kids" Glover said are driving the decisions that most benefit them.

"If you're one of the guys that you feel like you're going to affected by it, you're very upset by it and I understand that, I would feel the exact same way," Harman said.

"They're really hard conversations to have because for me, I've been on every side of that token. I've been 100 to 125, I've been 70 to 100, I've been 1 to 20. I understand how all those blocks feel and for me to, like, having to discuss how that stuff gets moved around, it's extremely, extremely difficult and it's not comfortable."

On the flip side of the debate, Harman believes that playing well throughout a season is now more rewarded than ever before on the PGA Tour.

"There's a ton of different ways to look at it," he said. "For the first half of my career, I finished top-50 two or three times, right? Two of three times out of four or five times, and what you were rewarded for that was essentially not much. You got to start your season the same time two weeks later at zero, you weren't in any World Golf Championships, you weren't in any majors, you weren't in any bigger tournaments.

"Now if you go out and you have a nice year on the PGA Tour, you finish in the top 50, you're in the elevated events, you have an incredible opportunity and that opportunity is because you've had a great year.

"You've never been more rewarded for playing great golf right now and I think that's a really cool place for the Tour to be in.

"You look at all of the information that's presented and you do your best to make the best possible decision for the most amount of people."

--Field Level Media