Rising Australian star Min Woo Lee and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox accepted Special Temporary Membership for the remainder of the 2022-23 PGA Tour Season. Fox, 36, and Lee, 24, can now receive unlimited sponsor exemptions for the rest of the season in a bid to earn PGA Tour cards for 2024.
Fox and Lee surpassed the number of non-member FedEx Cup points required for Special Temporary Membership at last week’s PGA Championship in New York.
Both will debut as Special Temporary Members at this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge at Fort Worth’s famed Colonial CC. Lee, whose superstar LPGA Tour sister, Minjee, is a nearby Dallas resident, was given a sponsor exemption. Fox qualified through the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Three-time DP World Tour winner Fox finished T23 at the PGA Championship, while Lee, also a multiple winner on the European circuit, was tied 18th in New York to hit the required FedEx Cup points. Lee recently played in the final group of the Players Championship where finished T6.
To earn full status on the PGA Tour for 2024, Fox and Lee have until the autumn series of events in the US to earn as many FedEx Cup points as the 125th-finishing player on last year’s standings. Fox currently has 212 points, which is between Nos. 123 and 124 in the current standings, while Lee’s 190 points would be between Nos. 129 and 130.
“Obviously the bigger picture is to get a full card, but it’s nice to tick that off,” Lee said this week. “It kind of frees me up to not play in a time frame where you only have a few tournaments, seven specifically, not including the majors. So it’s quite nice to have a bit of that freedom.
“I can hopefully play well and have a few more tournaments to play in. It’s a really nice thing. It was kind of like a monkey on the back, and you kind of want to get it done quick, but I had three missed cuts just before. I think I put a little bit too much pressure on myself. So it’s nice to tick that off.”
Lee can also earn a PGA Tour card by remaining within the top 10 on the DP World Tour’s points list who will earn PGA Tour status courtesy of the strategic alliance between the two tours. For that pathway, the list excludes already exempt PGA Tour players like Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, meaning Lee currently sits third on the players in line to receive PGA Tour cards.
Three other players have joined the PGA Tour as Special Temporary Members this season, including Korn Ferry Tour star Akshay Bhatia, as well as Ryan Gerard and Nicolai Hojgaard.
Special Temporary Members are not eligible for the FedExCup Playoffs, however, Special Temporary Members or non-members who win a tournament this season would be eligible for the post season.
