A number of factors make the Verizon Heritage an attractive event for PGA Tour golfers, from the laid-back atmosphere a week after the tightly-wound Masters, to the almost universally loved Harbour Town Golf Links — and don’t forget the Heritage’s status as an invitational event.
The vast majority of PGA Tour events are standard, or full-field, events, meaning the fields are determined by following the PGA Tour’s priority ranking system, list of exemption categories ranked by the priority they are given in filling tournament fields. Full-field events feature 156 players during daylight saving time and 144 players the rest of the season, with a couple of exceptions during the month of October.
Invitational tournaments feature smaller, more select fields. For example, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Memorial Tournament and the AT&T National include 120 players, and the Heritage boasts a field of 132 players.
The smaller field, in theory at least, gives the Heritage a stronger field and a bit more prestige, Wilmot said.
“You have the four majors, and they say the Players Championship is the fifth, and then you have the invitationals, and that’s kind of how they’re ranked,” Wilmot said. “So we’re basically in the top 10 when it comes to that.”
Moreover, the other invitationals have some big names — Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods — attached.
“So we’re in pretty good company there,” Wilmot said.
Unlike standard events, which must follow the PGA Tour’s priority ranking system, invitationals have some freedom to decide their own exemptions.
If the Heritage wanted to add an exemption category, it would propose the change to the PGA Tour for review and discussion, and the tour’s policy board would make the final decision on whether the exemption category is added. The last change was the addition of an exemption for player in the top 50 in the World Golf Rankings, at which time the field was expanded from 120 players to 132.
