Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler are two of the PGA Tour’s big names that won’t be teeing it up at the Arnold Palmer Invitational next week unless they can play their way in at this week’s Cognizant Classic, and Sam Saunders, who is a member of the tournament’s sponsor exemption committee and grandson of the King himself, has explained why.
“What our team did was try to pick players that, you know, it’s about protecting and growing the game of golf as a whole. And doing what’s the most balanced and fair process. Honestly, I think there was a lot of thought put into each and every player that was selected,” he said to Golfweek. “At the end of the day, it’s who’s getting the ball in the hole the fastest that are the ones who get the opportunities. You can’t make everybody happy with exemptions. So you try to just do it as fair and balanced as possible.”
Spieth, despite being one of the most popular players on the circuit, has already received sponsor’s invitations to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational, but had only played in the Arnold Palmer Invitational once – that coming in 2021 – prior to the event becoming a PGA Tour Signature Event.
Fowler, however, has always played when possible and the one time that he didn’t play when eligible, he drove to Bay Hill to inform Arnold Palmer himself over lunch, but he too has already been the beneficiary of two Signature Event sponsor’s invitations this year.
“Rickie’s one of my friends but it has to be non-biased. You try to make sponsor exemptions to be objective and not subjective. And I think that’s what our team did quite well. I think every one of us wants Rickie Fowler to be playing in the tournament, we love him. He’s been one of the best spokespersons on behalf of my grandfather and carrying on that legacy, nobody does it better than Rickie Fowler,” Saunders said.
“Rickie had gotten a couple of opportunities for exemptions in the elevated events already, and that was something that had to be taken into consideration. You want other players to get opportunities. There’s a lot of players on the PGA Tour. And, you know, not everyone may be household names, but it’s about trying to provide the best competition. We’re further down the list or closer on the list statistically than the Rickies and the Jordans and Gary [Woodland] so the process was done very objectively and fairly, and, like I said, for the good of the game as a whole.”
One of the players who is receiving one of the four sponsor’s exemptions is Puerto Rican Rafael Campos. The 36-year-old won his first ever PGA Tour event at last year’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship and Saunders admitted that his grandfather’s efforts to grow and promote the game were part of the consideration process that saw Campos rewarded.
“There are different levels of effort from each player. And I will tell you from what I’ve seen, I don’t know that anybody’s written a more thoughtful letter and put more effort into requesting an exemption than Rafa Campos did,” Saunders said. “He’s genuine, he’s kind. He’s a steward of the game and that’s something that mattered a lot to my grandfather.
“One of my granddad’s final quotes was he considered himself to be a steward of the game and a caretaker of the game and I think Rafa Campos falls beautifully into that category. And you know, it’s also providing an opportunity that maybe he wouldn’t get otherwise, and certainly a well deserving player, and someone who embodies the spirit of Arnold Palmer quite well.”
The decisions were tough ones to make, and despite having the guarantee that almost all of the top PGA Tour performers from 2024 present, Saunders isn’t a fan of the Signature Event model.
“It genuinely kills us,” Saunders said. “But you know what kills us more? Only having 70 players to pick from. So, if you want to write something, it should be on the fact that there’s only 70 players. And when you have these limited fields that the Tour has created, it really limits who can be in it. We didn’t make those rules. So we’re dealing with the hand we’ve been dealt and trying to do the best thing for the game of golf in its current state.”
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