The tournament at TPC River Highlands is the fifth Signature Event on the 2025 PGA Tour and follows different rules to the norm.

The tournament at TPC River Highlands is the fifth Signature Event on the 2025 PGA Tour and follows different rules to the norm.
Bill Streicher
Golf

Why don’t they have a cut at the Travelers Championship 2025?

Roddy Cons
Scottish sports journalist and content creator. After running his own soccer-related projects, in 2022 he joined Diario AS, where he mainly reports on the biggest news from around Europe’s leading soccer clubs, Liga MX and MLS, and covers live games in a not-too-serious tone. Likes to mix things up by dipping into the world of American sports.
Update:

The fifth Signature Event on this year’s PGA Tour is being played this week, with the tour’s biggest and best players taking part in the Travelers Championship 2025 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.

What is a PGA Tour Signature Event?

As a result of the tournament’s elevated status, there is an increased prize purse and more FedExCup points on offer to a limited, elite field. Only 72 players teed off in the first round on Thursday, around half of the normal number for “regular” events. The field is down to 71 after Justin Spieth was forced to withdraw on Thursday due to injury.

In order to qualify for Signature Events, players must meet the following criteria, according to the PGA Tour itself:

• Top 50 in the previous season's FedExCup standings (BMW Championship qualifiers)

• Top 10 available and not otherwise exempt from current FedExCup standings (Aon Next 10)

• Top five available and not otherwise exempt FedExCup points earners from the swings leading up to each Signature Event (Aon Swing 5)

• If not exempt from the three categories above: current-year tournament winners and PGA TOUR members in the top 30 of the Official World Golf Ranking

• Four sponsor exemptions (PGA TOUR members)

• The three player-hosted invitationals will each have one tournament host exemption, which is not restricted to PGA TOUR members.

Do any Signature Events have cuts?

Because of the significantly reduced number of participants, there is no cut at the end of the second round of the Travelers Championship on Friday, as would normally be the case for the vast majority of tournaments of most professional tours (LIV Golf being the obvious exception).

However, the format varies depending on the Signature Event. Starting in 2024, there are no cuts at five of the eight such tournaments on the PGA Tour: The Sentry, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, RBC Heritage, Truist Championship and the Travelers Championship as well as three tournaments in the FedEx Cup playoffs: St. Jude Championship, BMW Championship and Tour Championship.

By contrast, there are cuts at the end of the second round of three Signature Events which are player-hosted invitationals: The Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial Tournament.

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In those three tournaments, the top 50 players and ties, in addition to any players within 10 shots of the lead after 36 holes, stay for the weekend.

Prize purses in PGA Tour Signature Events

This year, all eight Signature Events have a total prize purse of $20 million, with the winner taking home $3.6 million.

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