Roundtable: Wells Fargo Championship, PGA Tour exemptions, Policy Board | Golf Today | Golf Channel

Johnson Wagner and Rex Hoggard join Golf Today for a roundtable about the final year of the Wells Fargo Championship and whether the PGA Tour needs to be more stringent on exemptions for those not on the Policy Board. #GolfChannel #PGATour #WellsFargoChampionship
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Roundtable: Wells Fargo Championship, PGA Tour exemptions, Policy Board | Golf Today | Golf Channel
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listen Johnson I want to start with you you’re at Quil Hollow you live at Quil Hollow member how critical is this week as a tour stop for the PJ tour as a new suor and sponsor is on Deck uh yeah I don’t want to talk about the new sponsor I’m a little disappointed with the PGA Tour announcing that uh Wells Fargo’s had such an incredible run going back to the wacovia days since 2003 I think we’re here to celebrate Wells Fargo’s final year it’s a it’s a big week it’s exciting with the field that we have here being now just 69 players but uh the weather’s holding out today hopefully we’ll get lucky and it’s going to be the best Wells Far Fargo Championship we’ve had to dat Rex somebody else who lives at Wells Fargo or sorry who lives at qu Hollow with Johnson is in the field this week web Simpson who’s on a sponsor exemption as is Adam Scott and you can make a case for all of these sponsor exemptions that they’re eminently deserving on the basis of their record their reputation all of that but they are also to members of the PGA tour’s policy board and starts are considered pretty Precious on the PGA tour this year does the tour need to be a little bit more stringent when it’s giving out sponsor exemptions or the rules governing those sponsor exemptions into these particularly lucrative events Aman I want to leave some time for Johnson on this one because my guess is he’s got a lot of thoughts I I read your column Aman this weekend and I agreed 100% with the point you made it’s it’s not as though let’s make this a blind taste test shall we take webson sy’s name out of it everyone knows really good guy really accomplished player and he is a policy board member however when you look at the way these are playing out this year with a greater portion of player directors getting these exemptions into these big events I think it is going to become a problem because you have sort of the the rank and file class who don’t like sitting back and not having access to these events which give out so many points and so much money and they’re so important to how well you play that season and not having access to it other than the A on five or 10 we can sit and talk about that as well I guess the point that I kept coming back to is there’s always been restrictions on these exemptions if you’re a member you could take unlimited but if you weren’t a member you were only allowed to take seven so why couldn’t we just limit these into these these exemptions into these Signature Events limit it to two that’s 25% of eight Signature Events that’s more than enough for a player to make their hay what do you think Johnson is it too much of a closed shop especially when you have so many halves versus have knots even on the PGA tour well I I’ve been a I’ve been saying that it’s been too closed of a shop for a long time but to talk about Webb and Adam specifically we’re talking about two players Champions they’re also both major Champions Webb is a member here and lives on property so when you talk about those guys getting spots into this week specifically Adam Scott has supported this tournament over the years I know they both got spots at Pebble Beach they’re both incredible in Pro AMS they have been supportive of the tour and tournaments for a long time and yes they’re on the policy board do you guys have any idea what’s been asked of these policy board members over the last couple Seasons I I don’t think I I understand all the arguments made against them getting spots but let’s not forget the most important thing is there sponsor exemptions and the people that are putting on these tournaments have the right to give them to any member of the PGA Tour that they want they just so happen to be giving them two two of the greatest guys that the PGA Tour has ever seen time and time again and that’s because of the character and the values that these both those players share yeah but come on Johnson be nice guy is not a good enough excuse to take four of these sponsor exemptions when there there are many deserving guys out there who support golf tournaments all the time and yes a lot is been asked of policy board guys but the Optics of this are lousy when it comes to policy board members taking maxing it out at four of these I mean that’s half the starts Webb has actually made this year and I get why web Simpson’s considered a good candidate for that and why he’s there I don’t have a problem with web Simpson R Adam Scott being there the issue is the fact that policy board guys are seeming to be gaming the system in their benefit even if they’re not that’s the perception that’s taking root out there yeah and I I understand that perception but it’s it’s up to the tournaments as individuals I don’t think there is at any point the tour strong arming any of these tournaments to get policy board members in there’s a reason these guys were vot voted to be on that board is because they care about the PGA Tour they’ve got uh qualities that other players like in them and that’s why they were voted that position those are the same reasons why sponsors Adam Scott’s been playing the PGA tour for 20 plus years there are reasons why these sponsors here at Wells Fargo Championship want him in the field and it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s a policy board member I I get you with the Optics but that has nothing to do with any of this Rex I’m curious your thoughts because I went to the Mexico open at Vidant earlier this year and spoke to some players in caddies you know away from the cameras quietly uh with no notepad but and there was some discontent maybe as much discontent that I never heard from the rank and file in my 20 years of covering this event are you sensing the same thing Rex in your conversations about the split between the players competing in the Signature Events and those who aren’t yeah I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Divide this wide two year point I there’s always been two classes on the PGA tour there’s the stars and then there’s the rank and file and I think they they’ve always been able to mix and match pretty well throughout the history of the PGA Tour the difference now is you have created a class system with the Signature Events doesn’t events last year where you’re suddenly struggling to get into starts we’ve talked about this the last few weeks about players who simply haven’t been able they have a tour card but they’ve only got a handful of starts I think that divide is only going to get wider last week to your point I spoke with a lot of players about the player Equity program which everyone got letters last week or the 192 players who received equity in PGA Tour Enterprises got letters I heard a lot from players who didn’t get letters and that’s only going to make the Divide wider and I don’t know how you can Circle back around now I understand where Johnson is coming from and that’s why I wanted to take Webb out of it and Adam Scott out of the conversation because those are two of the the best players on the PGA tour and two of the most like players on the PGA tour but that doesn’t change the Optics