PONTE VEDRA BEACH (www.sportsdayjax.com)– The PGA TOUR announced today that Ryan Fox and Min Woo Lee have accepted Special Temporary Membership for the remainder of the 2022-23 PGA TOUR Season. Fox, 36, and Lee, 24, are now eligible for unlimited sponsor exemptions for the remainder of the season as they attempt to earn PGA TOUR cards for the 2024 season.
Both Fox and Lee crossed the threshold for Special Temporary Membership at the PGA Championship and will make their first PGA TOUR start as Special Temporary Members at this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge. Fox qualified for the event via the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking published Monday, April 10 (through the Masters Tournament), while Lee is competing on a sponsor exemption.
Fox, a native of Auckland, New Zealand, has made seven starts on TOUR this season, highlighted by a T14 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Fox has combined for seven victories on the DP World Tour, Challenge Tour and PGA TOUR of Australasia, most recently winning the 2022 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews Links. He finished T23 at the PGA Championship to reach the points required for Special Temporary Membership.
Lee, from Perth, Australia, played in the final pairing in the final round of the 2023 PLAYERS Championship and went on to finish T6, his lone top-10 in eight starts this season. He won the 2021 Genesis Scottish Open in a playoff over Thomas Detry and Matt Fitzpatrick in the final year before the event became co-sanctioned by the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour. His T18 at the PGA Championship earned him enough points to reach Special Temporary Membership.
To earn full status on the PGA TOUR for the 2024 season via non-member FedExCup points, Fox and Lee must earn as many or more points as No. 125 in the final 2022-23 FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List, which will run through the FedExCup Fall. Fox currently has 212 points, and for reference, that would fall between Nos. 123 and 124 in the current standings, while Lee’s total of 190 would be between Nos. 129 and 130.
Fox and Lee are among five players that have joined the TOUR as Special Temporary Members this season, along with Akshay Bhatia, Ryan Gerard and Nicolai Hojgaard.
Special Temporary Members are not eligible for the FedExCup Playoffs, however, Special Temporary Members or non-members who subsequently become regular PGA TOUR members by winning an official event during the season will be counted on the FedExCup points list, along with any FedExCup points earned as a non-member (excluding those won at World Golf Championships events, the Barbasol Championship and the Barracuda Championship as a non-member) and thus be eligible for the FedExCup Playoffs.