Brandel Chamblee has insisted that the PGA Tour should be looking to amend one specific rule which really helped out Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth in 2025.

Chamblee, whether you like him or not, always has extremely interesting takes on the current state of the PGA Tour.

And his opinion on one rule which has seriously benefitted the likes of Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler last season will undoubtedly set tongues wagging.

Chamblee has already criticized the PGA Tour for reducing field sizes ahead of the 2026 season.

• Read also: Three rule changes the PGA Tour must make after incidents involving Patrick Cantlay and Ben Griffin

The golf analyst has always believed that the PGA Tour should be a true meritocracy. The fact that LIV Golf is not merit-based is one of his major gripes with the Saudi-backed league.

That said, Chamblee has also voiced his displeasure at certain changes the PGA Tour are set to make.

However, the former PGA Tour player is urging Brian Rolapp and co to make actually make one big change in 2026.

Brandel Chamblee urges PGA Tour to make change after Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth decisions

Spieth’s invite to play in the Hero World Challenge next month has been a huge talking point, considering his poor form over the past few years.

And Chamblee used Spieth, and indeed Fowler, as examples of how the PGA Tour are going about things the wrong way.

When speaking on his Favorite Chamblee Podcast, the 63-year-old suggested that the PGA Tour are very quietly moving away from the merit-based system which they claim to operate by.

“They’ve been a part of the game for as long as I’ve been playing the game. I was the beneficiary of sponsors exemptions.

“When I was in college I got exemptions to play at Colonial, I got sponsor’s exemptions to play at the Byron Nelson.

“Then at the end of my career I was the beneficiary of sponsor’s exemptions. But as the game has become such a closed shop, these elevated events, they call them Signature Events because it’s a euphemism that hides the fact they are elevated.

“Whatever you want to call them, they are elevated and they are small field events and they decide, really, the future of the game of golf. It is a closed shop and you want to be in those elevated Signature Events.

“I feel like if you really want to claim that this game is about merit then you should do something about sponsor’s exemptions. Rickie Fowler, I think, was a case in point this year. Everybody loves Rickie, I do too, but he finished 101st on the money list last year, or on the FedEx Cup last year, so he did not qualify for the Signature Events this year, and nonetheless he played in seven of them and he played well, good for him.

“He was the beneficiary of sponsor’s exemptions into those events and he parlayed them into a successful year. But his entry into those was not based on merit, it was based on popularity.

“And if we really want… and I’ve heard executives at the PGA Tour talk about one of the most appealing aspects about the PGA Tour is that it is merit based, and that is important. It shouldn’t be popularity based to the extent it is right now. There are so many safety nets that exist on the PGA Tour right now.

“If you can’t compete, you should be out and that’s just the nature of the game.

“I understand regular PGA Tour events having sponsor’s exemptions because you would like to perfume the event with certain stories. You may want to have Steph Curry play or Kai Trump.

“But I think they need to be very judicious in how they do it and look at it to an extent.

“There are no bigger fans of Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth in the world of golf than me, I love them, I think they’re amazing. If I’m running a tournament, yeah, I’m fighting to get them exemptions.

“But if it truly is going to merit based and the Signature Events are that important, there is such a huge line from a money standpoint, from a FedEx Cup standpoint, from a world ranking standpoint, that it should be looked at how you get into those fields.“

Rory McIlroy said whether the PGA Tour’s Signature Event system works

Back in June, McIlroy was asked to give his opinion on the Signature Event system.

He said: “I think it is working if you look at the tournaments we’ve had and the winners we’ve had. Yeh, it was a fantastic show the week after the US Open.“

McIlroy is right in the sense that the Signature Events clearly identified the best players in the world in 2025, with Hideki Matsuyama the lowest ranked winner of the eight tournaments (18th).

However, Chamblee has a point as well. What’s the point in inviting players who have been out of form over the past year or so into the most prestigious events on the PGA Tour schedule just because of their names?

If the PGA Tour continue to do that, it will be a sign that they are not, in fact, the meritocratic entity that they claim to be