News
Fitzpatrick joins PGA TOUR as Special Temporary Member
June 21, 2018
The PGA TOUR announced today that Matthew Fitzpatrick of England has accepted Special Temporary Membership for the remainder of the 2017-18 PGA TOUR Season.
Fitzpatrick, who previously was ranked highest among non-PGA TOUR members in the Official World Golf Ranking (No. 39), brings the total number of active international TOUR members to 88 from 27 countries. Forty-nine of the top 50 players in the world, including all of the top 40, are now TOUR members.
In nine starts to date during the 2017-18 season, Fitzpatrick’s best result came at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions (T9). He tied for 12th at the U.S. Open in his most recent appearance. Following the U.S. Open, Fitzpatrick surpassed the 269 non-member FedExCup points required to become eligible for Special Temporary Membership, equal to the number of points earned by the player at No. 150 in the 2016-17 FedExCup standings.
Fitzpatrick, 23, becomes the third player to join the TOUR as a Special Temporary Member during the 2017-18 season, joining Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann. Fitzpatrick has played in 38 TOUR events in his career and collected three top-10s.
As a Special Temporary Member, Fitzpatrick is eligible for unlimited sponsor exemptions for the remainder of the 2017-18 season as he attempts to earn his PGA TOUR card for the 2018-19 season through the Non-Member FedExCup Points List.
Special Temporary Members are not eligible for the FedExCup Playoffs, but Special Temporary Members or non-members who subsequently become regular PGA TOUR members by winning an official event during the season will be counted on the FedExCup points list, along with any FedExCup points earned as a non-member (excluding those won at World Golf Championships events as a non-member) and thus be eligible for the FedExCup Playoffs.
