Q-School leader criticizes PGA Tour card rules that could benefit him

Last fall, the PGA Tour ratified major changes to its membership rules, reducing the total number of PGA Tour cards and the amount awarded to top players on the Korn Ferry Tour.

With the final phase of the PGA Tour Q-School reaching its halfway point this week, pro Trevor Cone is in line to earn one of the five PGA Tour cards up for grabs.

But in comments on Golf week After his second round on Friday, Cone criticized Q-School rules regarding PGA Tour cards that could help him return to the major leagues on Sunday.

Surprisingly, Cone argued that no PGA Tour cards should be handed out this week.

Here’s what you need to know.

Major changes in the PGA Tour are impacting Q-School for the first time

The 2026 PGA Tour season will be the first to be affected by the major Tour changes that went into effect this year.

First, only 100 full PGA Tour cards will be awarded, a significant drop from the 125 Tour cards previously.

The Korn Ferry Tour was perhaps the hardest hit by that change.

During the 2024 season, the top 30 finishers on the season-long Korn Ferry Tour points list would earn PGA Tour cards. But under the new rules, only the top 20 Korn Ferry Tour finishers received Tour tickets for the 2026 season, a 33% reduction.

There were direct, if less dramatic, consequences for Q-School. Previously, the top-5 finishers and ties in the Final Stage of Q-School received their Tour cards for the following season. Starting this year, only the top 5, excluding belts, will be promoted to the PGA Tour.

And Cone, the co-leader of the 36 holes of the final phase of this week’s Q-School, knows this all too well.

Trevor Cone says PGA Tour cards should not be awarded at Q-School

The intense struggle to earn a PGA Tour card is very familiar to Cone. This isn’t his first go-round.

He initially earned full Tour status for the 2022-2023 season, but finished 162nd in the FedEx Cup and lost his 2024 Tour card. But Cone was undeterred. He returned to the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024 and played well enough to finish 27th in the final standings.

As previously noted, the 2024 season was the last in which the top 30 Korn Ferry Tour winners earned PGA Tour cards. Now that number is 20. If the rules had been implemented a year earlier, Cone would not have earned his 2025 PGA Tour card.

Unfortunately for Cone, his second stint on the PGA Tour did not go well. He missed 15 cuts and finished 178th in the FedEx Cup standings, once again losing all PGA Tour status.

His last chance to return to the PGA Tour is at Q-School, and so far he has made it count. He followed an opening round 68 on the Dye Valley Course with a five-under 65. That put him in one five-way tie for the lead with 36 holes to play. In other words, as of now, he’s in position to earn his PGA Tour card for the third time.

But if it were up to him, he wouldn’t get a PGA Tour card this week. That is what he explained Golf week Adam Schupak Friday evening.

“As much as it pains me to say it, given the position I find myself in this week,” Cone said Golf week“I think if you go back to 25 [PGA Tour cards awarded on the Korn Ferry Tour] and created this tournament solely for the status of Korn Ferry, that would be a better option in my opinion.”

In other words, Cone argues that a fairer system would see the top-25 finishers on the Korn Ferry Tour earn PGA Tour cards, instead of 20 under the new rules. As a result, Q-School would not award Tour tickets and instead would only award status for the next Korn Ferry Tour season.

“I think there should only be tickets for Korn Ferry Tour status,” he said, reiterating his point.

Interestingly enough, Cone speaks from a position of authority. He served on the PGA Tour Player Advisory Council during the 2025 season, a year after the new rules were established.

You can read all of Cone’s comments to Schupak in his Golf week report here.

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