Next week’s PGA Tour event, the Cadillac Championship, is the latest in the Signature Event series — limited-field, $20 million tournaments that 99% of pros desperately want to play in. Technically, two sponsor exemptions have not yet been finalized.
Normally, fields are set by the prior Saturday, but four sponsor exemptions are often decided last minute. If a player qualifies on his own, it’s better optics than using an exemption. For sponsors, this allows them to invite additional players.
This happened with RBC’s Heritage tournament: Max Homa initially had a sponsor exemption but qualified via play, letting RBC invite another favorite. Now, for the Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral, only Joel Dahmen and Max Greyserman are listed as exemptions. Two more spots will be decided Sunday evening.
Several top-15 players — Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Bob MacIntyre, Ludvig Aberg, and Matt Fitzpatrick — will skip the event. This is the most significant voluntary talent departure for any Signature Event. The reason: most pros avoid playing a major championship in the third consecutive week.
The scheduling dilemma stems from the Cadillac Championship being a new event, placed before another Signature Event and the PGA Championship. Top pros typically play 22-26 events annually, and fitting this tournament into their schedules is challenging.
Future scheduling will likely avoid placing a Signature Event the week before another Signature Event that precedes a major. Until events are sensibly placed, top pros will voluntarily skip. This creates an intriguing reality: between the Masters and PGA Championship, three Signature Events will be played, but McIlroy and Scheffler will never compete against each other.