‘I Hate Them’: James Hahn Rips Apart PGA Tour’s 2024 Changes

Hahn explained why the PGA Tour’s 2024 plan is just a way to “funnel more money to the top players.”

James Hahn—a two-time PGA Tour winner—has spoken out about his strong dissatisfaction with the changes coming to the Tour in 2024 and he did not mince words. 

In an interview with Golfweek’s Adam Schupak, Hahn, 41, said that he “hates” the plan. 

Hahn, currently ranked 300th in the world, believes that the PGA Tour’s new structure will funnel money to the most “popular” figures on Tour, while leaving the middle-of-the pack players in the dust.

“I use the word popular instead of best players because, granted that Tiger is one of the best players to ever have played this game, but he just won the PIP money two years running without really playing golf, without being ranked in the top 1,000 and without keeping his card,” Hahn said. (Woods is technically a fully exempt player on the PGA Tour through the 2025-2026 season because of his win at the 2019 Masters. 

The PGA Tour’s 2024 changes, announced in a memo from Commissioner Jay Monahan on Wednesday, include reduced fields and no cuts for the “designated” $20 million purse events. As the PGA Tour continues to try to improve its overall product, the structure prioritizes the top 70 to 80 players competing against each other consistently. Players outside of that group will have opportunities to qualify into the reduced elevated fields, but they are limited.

“I’m gonna say exactly what 99.99 percent of fans said about players leaving for the LIV Tour. If our players just said, ‘We’re doing this for the money,’ I would have a lot more respect for them. But how they’re covering up what they’re doing and trying to make it a thing about sponsors and fans and saving opposite-field events. I think that’s all BS,” Hahn told Golfweek. 

“All the big names that are talking about this ‘new product,’ if you just came out and said, ‘Hey, we’re doing this for the money,’ they want more guaranteed money and this is another way to funnel more money to the top players in the world, I’d have a lot more respect for them.

“Right now, they’re just covering their a-- and saying everything that the PGA Tour basically has trained them to say.”

According to Hahn, the PGA Tour’s 2024 schedule will effectively create two different levels within the circuit. 

“We’re not spending money to provide the best playing experience for our members; all we’re concerned with is just pushing money to the top players on our Tour. That’s where we are getting a great divide between the elevated events and non-elevated events and the players who play those two different tours,” he said.

Hahn was a Player Director on the PGA Tour Policy Board until the end of 2022 along with Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Charley Hoffman, and Webb Simpson. He was the lone dissenting vote against the PGA Tour’s 2022 changes, which included the increase of the Player Impact Program (PIP) prize and the creation of elevated events. 

This year, Hahn was replaced by Peter Malnati, who would be the new de facto voice of the “rank and file” players on Tour. Hahn believes that Malnati hasn’t properly represented that coalition. 

“When I see Peter I’m going to tell him exactly what Lanto Griffin told me when I was put in that position and my mind was swayed by the executives on the board. He said, ‘You were put there for a reason to voice the opinion of the majority of the players on the PGA Tour.’ If he doesn’t have enough balls to sack up and vote no against it then I don’t want him on the board. We picked the wrong guy. He was put there to argue our side of the discussion,” Hahn said.

Hahn went on to note that even when he sat on the Policy Board, he felt as though the opinions of higher ranked players such as Jordan Spieth were prioritized over his own. 

“I felt that they were listening to Jordan, which granted, he’s very, very smart, very well spoken. He articulates his words in a way that I could never and he gets his message across. He’s a very likable person in those meetings. On and off the course, I have nothing but the most respect for Jordan. But you can see how when he talks that everyone’s eyes in the room just glimmer like he’s the prom queen, and everyone wants to ask her out for the dance. When Jordan would talk to an executive in the board meetings, that [independent director] started blushing, ‘Oh, my gosh, Jordan’s talking to me. How awesome is this?’”