Galleri Classic field finds 78 players with various criteria
Go to the web page of the Galleri Classic and navigate to the players page and you’ll count 73 golfers committed to the PGA Tour Champions event in Rancho Mirage next week.
By the time the tournament tees off for the $2.2 million purse March 29, that number has to be 78 players. So even one week from the event, the field for the second annual Galleri Classic is still taking shape.
While most golf fans are familiar with the ways a player gets into the field of a regular PGA Tour event, they may not know that many of those same criteria are used to fill PGA Tour Champions events, even if the number of players in a senior event is vastly reduced from a PGA Tour tournament.
Here’s a look at how the field for the Galleri Classic and other PGA Tour Champions events are filled:
Exempt players
The bulk of players in a tournament each week, whether it be on the PGA Tour or the PGA Tour Champions, is made up of golfers who are fully exempt for that tour and who can play pretty much any tournament they want. There are several ways to be fully exempt on the PGA Tour Champions, from what a player did in terms of wins or earnings on the regular tour to performances on the PGA Tour Champions to working your way through senior tour qualifying. Names like Steve Stricker, Steven Alker, Ernie Els, David Toms, Fred Couples and others are among this group.
Word of mouth
The inaugural Galleri Classic drew rave reviews from PGA Tour Champions players for the condition and design of the golf course at Mission Hills to the weather to the fact that the seniors were back in a golf-heavy market like the Coachella Valley for the first time in decades. For a few players who didn’t play in the tournament in 2023 – for some legitimate reasons – what other players were saying about the experience certainly pushed them to get in the field this year. That includes names like Mark Calcavecchia, who was injured in 2023, and Justin Leonard, who had made family plans for that week.
Senior rookies
Since the PGA Tour Champions is only open to players 50 and over, a 49year-old can’t make the field. But that also means that each year there is a new crop of senior tour rookies able to compete in tournaments. This year, the most notable of those players in the Galleri field is Notah Begay III, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour and a long-time golf announcer as well. Another golfer who turned 50 since last year’s Galleri Classic, Stewart Cink, will not be in the Rancho Mirage field, because he’ll be playing in the PGA Tour event that same weekend
Exemptions
You might recall that when Nick Dunlap won The American Express in January
as an amateur, he was in the field on a sponsor’s exemption. That a wild card entry that most PGA Tour events hand out under certain guidelines. PGA Tour Champions events have the same option, and the Galleri Classic should hand out its sponsor exemptions by Friday, the day the field for the tournament is finalized. There not much way of knowing who the Galleri Classic will invite, but exemptions generally are given to big names who somehow aren’t in the field already as a way to sell a few tickets
The qualifying
Just like at many PGA Tour events where Monday qualifying is a ritual for those not otherwise eligible for the tournament, The Galleri Classic has a qualifying path for players. Thursday at Soboba Springs Golf Club in San Jacinto, a pre-qualifying event will be played. On Tuesday, the actual qualifier will be played at Bermuda Dunes Country Club. In 2023, two players who made it through the qualifier, Harry Rudolph and Jeff Gove, both played well in the 54-hole event at Mission Hills.