How to Get Into the PGA Championship

Are you an avid golfer? Read on to find out how you get an invite to the prestigious PGA Championship.

How to Play in the PGA Championship

Getting into the PGA Championship and playing with and against some of the biggest pros in the world is any golfer’s dream. There is so much history and prestige surrounding the competition that playing in it once can be a life-changer.

The question is, how can you join? How can you try your luck on the PGA tournaments? Surprisingly, you don’t necessarily have to be a pro to play, as there are many ways to get in. This is how you can play in the PGA Championship.

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Win a selected tournament

Getting into a PGA tournament doesn’t require you to be a high-ranking professional. There are obviously ways to play in the tournament on the pro tour, but there are also ways to join if you are still an amateur.

There are a select number of tournaments where, if you win, you will gain a spot at the PGA tournament. The biggest tournament is the US Amateur, where the winners will not only be able to play the PGA Championship but gain a spot at the Masters, the US Open, and the British Open.

The next tournament, which would be for European Amateurs, is the British Amateur. The winner gains a spot at the Championship and the British Open, and the Masters and US Open the following year.

The Asia-Pacific Amateur was introduced to further the development of golf in the East. The winner of the tournament also wins an exemption to the Masters and the British Open. While not as famous as the others, it has opened avenues for Asian players.

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Much like the Asian-Pacific Amateur, the Latin America Amateur opens up avenues for Central and South America players. Winners are able to enter the Masters, and recently, a British Open berth was added.

There is only one junior tournament that allows for entry into another major tournament and plays for the PGA Championship. The US Junior tournament is open to under-18 players, and a win will gain the champion exemption into the US Open.

There are other tournaments where a Championship entry is part of your winnings, but these are the biggest amateur events that are held around the world.

Play as a professional

To play in the Championship as a pro, the process is just as tricky. You need to tick the boxes for specific criteria, as there are eleven main ways to get into the championship, twelve if you include winning one of those 16 designated tournaments mentioned above.

If you’re a former PGA Champion, you will be automatically invited to the tournament as long as you are still an active player. If you are a winner of any of the past five Majors before the tournament is held, you will also be invited.

Any player who is a winner of the previous five US Opens before the Championship also gains an invitation. Winners of the last five Open Championships are also invited, like Brooks Koepka who won the Open and then went on to win the Championship.

With regard to the Players Championship, only the past three winners are invited to play. If you played in the PGA Championship the year before, the top 15 finishers are all automatically entered into the next one.

The top twenty finishers at the PGA Professionals Championship and the top 70 players with the most points between the Players Championship and the Wells Fargo tournament will also get an invite.

If you were a member of the Ryder Cup team, the tournament before the Championship, that would also gain you an invitation. There are also special invitations where a player can not meet any of the above criteria but still be invited, which usually applies to ex-professionals.

Sponsor exemption

Every tournament is given a number of sponsor exemptions, which can be used to invite players who don’t meet the criteria stated above. These exemptions can be handed out to anyone, and although they are usually given to celebrities such as businessmen or athletes, players do earn these through merit.

Qualifiers

If you aren’t able to win one of the 16 automatic qualifier tournaments, there is still a way to get an invite to the Championship. Some tournaments, usually invitationals, compete in 18-hole shootouts to win a spot in the Championship. These are held the week of the tournament and are usually your last chance at winning a place.

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Do something special

While almost every entrant at the Championship has won a major tournament or has won a qualifying or amateur tournament to gain entry into the Championship, there are ways to still get an invite, barring the special invite.

There are multiple awards handed out each year. These range from being the number 1 ranked amateur to being the Best Male Golfer of the Year, and even a prize for the top senior collegiate player with the best record in college.

The Arnold Palmer Cup is a Ryder Cup-style tournament where collegiate players from across the United States play against their European counterparts. At the end of the tournament, each team nominates one player.

This player then wins an invitation to the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where a win would secure their spot in the PGA Championship.

Final thoughts

As you can see, getting a spot in the PGA Championship is one of the hardest things to do in golf. If you ignore getting a special invitation, you are still going to have to beat some of the best players in the world at some of the biggest tournaments.

However, it is very unique that there are so many opportunities for amateurs and young players to have a shot at entering. It isn’t often that a 15-year-old can win a Junior tournament and then be in a championship for 20 of the top 30 golfers in the world.

In the end, the PGA Championship is one of the biggest tournaments in the world, and simply being invited is the highlight of many golfers’ careers.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)