Monday Qualifier
A Monday qualifier is a one-day, 18-hole golf tournament played the Monday before a professional event, where golfers who don’t already have a place in the field compete for a small number of open spots. The same term also describes the player who earns their way in this way.
What is a Monday qualifier?
The name covers two things at once. It refers to the qualifying event itself, and it refers to the golfer who plays their way through it into that week’s tournament. When a broadcaster says a player “Monday qualified” for an event, they mean that person started the week with no guaranteed spot and earned one on the course a few days earlier.
The event exists because professional fields are limited. A PGA Tour tournament might have room for around 120 to 156 players, and most of those places go to members and other exempt golfers. That leaves everyone else on the outside: touring pros who have lost their status, players grinding on mini-tours, club and teaching professionals, and even amateurs. A Monday qualifier gives that group a single shot at a spot, decided over one round of stroke play.
It usually takes place at a course near the tournament, not the tournament venue itself. Players in the 1960s who chased these events week to week were nicknamed “rabbits,” a label they disliked. The system is more organised now, but the basic bargain is the same: post a low number on Monday, or go home.
How a Monday qualifier works
The format is simple. Everyone plays 18 holes of stroke play, and the lowest scores claim the available spots. If more players tie than there are places left, they go to a sudden-death playoff until the field is settled.
The scores it takes are brutal. Ryan French of Monday Q Info tracked three seasons of PGA Tour qualifiers and found the medalist averaged 64.6, with the fourth and final spot averaging just over 66. A round at even par almost never gets anyone close. Players who make it through then join the tournament proper and play Thursday through Sunday alongside the exempt field.
What is a pre-qualifier?
For most golfers, the Monday event is not even the first hurdle. A pre-qualifier is the qualifier before the qualifier, usually held on the Wednesday or Thursday of the previous week. Only players with enough status skip straight into the Monday round. Everyone else has to clear the pre-qualifier first, which means a golfer without status can play two 18-hole qualifying rounds in a week and still never tee it up in the actual tournament.
Who can enter a Monday qualifier?
Eligibility depends on status. According to the breakdown published by Golf Digest, players who go straight into a PGA Tour Monday qualifier include current Tour members who aren’t in that week’s field, current Korn Ferry and Champions Tour members, a limited number of local PGA section teaching pros, recent former Tour members, non-members inside the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking, and anyone who has made a cut on Tour that season.
Everyone outside those categories plays the pre-qualifier. Amateurs are welcome to try, but they need a Handicap Index of 2.0 or lower to enter. Mark yourself as a professional and no index is required, which is how the occasional weekend player ends up carding a number in the 90s in a field of hardened competitors.
How many spots and what it costs
The number of places and the entry fee both vary by tour and by a player’s status. Monday Q Info lists the standard spots per tour and the PGA Tour cost tiers:
| Tour | Spots available (typical) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PGA Tour | 4 | Reduced for many 2026 events (see below) |
| Korn Ferry Tour | 8 | No pre-qualifier; straight to the Monday |
| LPGA Tour | 2 | 48-player field, no pre-qualifier |
| PGA Tour Champions | 3 | Often played on a Tuesday |
On the PGA Tour, the Monday entry fee is tied to status: free for a current Tour member, $100 for a Korn Ferry member, $300 for a PGA Tour Canada or Americas member, and around $500 for everyone else. A pre-qualifier typically runs about $250 on top of that. For a player without status, getting one shot at a spot can cost several hundred dollars before a single tee shot.
Monday qualifiers on different tours
Most major tours run some version of the event, and the details differ from one to the next. The Korn Ferry Tour skips the pre-qualifier and sends players straight to the Monday round. The LPGA caps its qualifier field at 48 and opens only a couple of places to non-members, and then only when members don’t fill the field. PGA Tour Champions, the circuit for players 50 and over, usually plays its qualifier on a Tuesday. Overseas, the Asian tours hold them regularly, while the DP World Tour runs them only occasionally.
What has changed for 2026
The Monday qualifier is shrinking on the PGA Tour. As part of a wider move to smaller fields, seven events are dropping their Monday qualifiers entirely from 2026: the Sony Open, the WM Phoenix Open, the Mexico Open, the Cognizant Classic, the Puerto Rico Open, the Puntacana Championship, and the Myrtle Beach Classic, all of which are moving to 120-player fields. Several events that keep a qualifier, including the Valspar Championship, the Houston Open, and the Valero Texas Open, are cutting their spots from four to two, per Golf Monthly.
The majors are moving the other way. The R&A announced a new one-spot “Last-Chance Qualifier” for the 2026 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, a 12-for-1 shootout scheduled for Monday, July 13, designed to add early-week drama before golf’s oldest major.
Monday qualifier vs. sponsor exemption
Both routes get a player into a field without earning full status, but they work in opposite ways. A sponsor exemption is an invitation. The tournament hands a limited number of these to players it wants in the field, often a local favourite or a rising amateur. A Monday qualifier is earned, not given. Nobody chooses the golfer; the scorecard does. That difference, invitation versus competition, is why qualifying is often called the game’s purest side door into the pros.
Related Golf Terms
- 36-hole cut — The score after two rounds that decides who plays the weekend.
- Driving range token — A token or card used to dispense a bucket of practice balls.
- Driving distance average — A player’s average measured tee-shot distance.
- Caddie master — The staffer who manages a club’s caddie program and assignments.
- 54-hole lead — A player’s position atop the leaderboard entering the final round.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can anyone play in a Monday qualifier?
Not directly. Players with tour status can enter the Monday round, while everyone else must first clear a pre-qualifier. Amateurs may enter with a Handicap Index of 2.0 or lower.
Has a Monday qualifier ever won the tournament?
Yes, though rarely. Five golfers have won a PGA Tour event the same week they Monday qualified since 1980, the most recent being Corey Conners at the 2019 Valero Texas Open. He got in through a six-for-one playoff, then beat the field by two shots and earned a Masters invitation.
Why were qualifiers once called “rabbits”?
In the 1960s, players who travelled week to week trying to qualify were nicknamed rabbits. Most disliked the term, and it faded as the system became more formal.
Do the majors have Monday qualifiers?
The PGA Tour doesn’t run the majors, so it holds no qualifiers for them. The USGA and R&A run their own qualifying for the U.S. Open and The Open Championship.
What score does it take to Monday qualify?
Usually several shots under par. On the PGA Tour, medalists have averaged around 64 to 65, and even the last qualifying spot often needs a score in the mid-60s.
Sources
- Wikipedia. “Monday qualifier.” Accessed August 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_qualifier - French, Ryan. “Monday Q FAQ Sheet.” Golf Digest / Fire Pit Collective. Accessed August 2026.
https://www.golfdigest.com/story/monday-qualifier-faq-sheet - French, Ryan. “A Primer On Monday Q’s.” Monday Q Info. Accessed August 2026.
https://www.mondayq.com/story/a-primer-on-monday-qs - Golf Monthly. “PGA Tour Changes: 5 Key Things To Know.” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.golfmonthly.com/news/things-to-know-new-pga-tour-changes - Golf.com. “Corey Conners becomes fifth Monday qualifier to win on PGA Tour.” Accessed August 2026.
https://golf.com/news/tournaments/corey-conners-becomes-fifth-monday-qualifier-to-win-on-pga-tour/ - PGA Tour. “The R&A announces new Last-Chance Qualifier for 2026 Open Championship.” Accessed August 2026.
https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/latest/2025/12/02/the-open-championship-announces-monday-qualifier-2026-12-spots-exemption-format-time-royal-birkdale-major-championship-changes
