PGA Tour policy board member Peter Malnati initially called Lexi Thompson’s sponsor’s invitation into next week’s PGA Tour event in Las Vegas a “gimmick,” before quickly walking back that statement.
Malnati is competing in this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship and was asked on Wednesday about Thompson getting a spot in the upcoming Shriners Children’s Open, one of seven FedExCup Fall events in which Tour players are competing for 2024 status and signature event spots.
The PGA Tour is returning to a calendar season, beginning next year.
Malnati’s full response, per Tour transcript:
“I don’t think we’re going to need to resort to gimmicks to drum up interest. I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know that having Lexi play is a gimmick, but I don’t think the tournaments are going to have to go to those kind of lengths to drum up interest and get storylines that they can sell because I think these events are actually going to have a lot of meaning,” he said.
“Like I said, change is hard for everyone at every level, so I assume if you’re a host organization of a tournament, if you’re the Century Club here in Jackson, if you’re Wayne Sanderson Farms, you just don’t know right now for sure what you have anymore because the fall is completely reimagined.
“I’m pretty sure that the fall is going to be a blockbuster hit. I think it’s going to be very successful. But these tournaments, they don’t know yet.
“Having Lexi play certainly will get a lot of headlines, and if that’s the goal for Shriners and the host organization in Vegas there, that’s great. Obviously she’s a professional athlete. She’s accomplished a lot. It’s not like – I mean, who knows what’ll happen. She may go play really well and it’ll be huge. She may play absolutely terrible and finish 132nd.
“Either way, she’s a professional golfer. She has a spot in the field. The tournament is – if it gets them the attention that they want and it works out positively for them, it’s great, all for it.”
Thompson, who said she didn’t learn of an invitation offer until this past Sunday, will be the seventh different female to compete in a PGA Tour event and the first since Brittany Lincicome in 2018.