Last month, Gary McCord was cleaning out his Colorado summer home when he stumbled upon something remarkable. An old leather briefcase sat collecting dust in the corner. Inside? A complete binder documenting his 1981 pitch for the All-Exempt Tour. “God damned if I haven’t got the binder with all of the information I had when I pitched the All-Exempt Tour in 1981, everything,” McCord told Golfweek . He spent seven weeks crafting that proposal over four decades ago.

The timing of this discovery feels almost prophetic. The PGA Tour just announced it’s reducing fully exempt cards from 125 to 100 for the 2026 season. And the man who fought to create that 125-card system? He’s completely on board with cutting it.

“It was exactly the right thing to do at this point,” McCord said without

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