There are ten players who failed to qualify for the Genesis Invitational but have made it into the Arnold Palmer Invitational. They are Matthieu Pavon, Jake Knapp, Austin Eckroat, Erik Van Rooyen, Will Zalatoris, Sami Valimaki, Min Woo Lee, CT Pan, Stephan Jaeger and Justin Lower. Ten new golfers between one Signature Event and another thanks to their performance. Ten golfers out of a total of 69 who will compete this week at Bay Hill. A variation of almost 15 percent.
Thus, one of the big doubts that loomed over these new elite tournaments of the PGA Tour is beginning to clear up. They were accused of being very closed, even comparing them to those of LIV Golf. Well, they are certainly not that closed, or at least it does not seem so at the beginning of this year. The systems created by the American circuit (Aon Next 10 and Aon Swing 5) are working.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational has been the first occasion in which the rotation of players that will occur in the designated tournaments has really been verified. Remember that for the first two of the season, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am and the Genesis Invitational, the top ten golfers of the FedEx Cup 2023 who had not been in the BMW Championship were exempt. That is, those who had scored more points once the final autumn series was over. Those ten were Beau Hossler, Ludvig Aberg, Ben Griffin, Taylor Montgomery, Matt Kuchar, Nick Hardy, JJ Spaun, Sam Ryder, Luke List and Alex Smalley. They made up the Aon Next 10.
From the Genesis, this ranking of ten players has changed. The last season no longer counts and it is made up of the top ten of the FedEx Cup who were not already exempt for the Signature. That is, performance during the current season is rewarded. Right now, in this Aon Next 10 are Matthieu Pavon, Jake Knapp, Ludvig Aberg, Austin Eckroat, Luke List, Erik Van Rooyen, Grayson Murray, Christiaan Bezuindehou, Will Zalatoris (he played the Genesis by invitation and has qualified for this one) and Justin Thomas. Of all of them, the only ones who repeat are Aberg and List, which means they have started the season as well as they finished the previous one. There is rotation. Eight different golfers. The next designated is the RBC Heritage, in just over a month, we will see how many changes occur in this Aon Next 10 compared to the Arnold Palmer.
The other list that serves to qualify for the Signature, the Aon Swing 5, has also completely changed. This ranking identifies the golfers who score the most FedEx Cup points between designated and designated and are not exempt to play them. In the Genesis they were Grayson Murray, Bezuidenhout, Charlie Hoffman, Kevin Yu and Justin Thomas and now they are Valimaki, Min Woo Lee, CT Pan, Jaeger and Lower. Just as the Aon Next 10 continues to add up each week, the Aon Swing 5 starts from scratch after each elevated tournament.
Remember that, in addition to these two classification systems that we could qualify as immediate performance, the top 50 of the FedEx Cup in 2023 (this week Tony Finau is out) are exempt to play all the Signature, as well as the winners of tournaments that are not exempt by any of the aforementioned rankings (this is the case of Nick Dunlap). To all of them, we must add four invitations to members of the PGA Tour and one free of disposition in the invitational tournaments like the Genesis or the Arnold Palmer.
