LIV Golf rebels Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter slammed the move, but Rory McIlroy vigorously defended the new-look 2024 PGA Tour schedule, which will line the pockets of the top stars with even more cash.

In a move prompted by competition from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League, there will be no 36-hole cut in eight designated events next year with their fields limited to between 70 and 78 players.

While members of the world’s top 30 will be exempt, players must finish in the top 50 on this year’s FedExCup regular season points list, or rank inside the top 10 in next season’s points list at the time to qualify for the designated events – eight tournaments, which have yet to be named, in addition to the Majors, The Players’ and three FedExCup play-offs.

Poulter and Westwood see the changes as copying LIV Golf, but McIlroy believes the radical move makes the PGA Tour more attractive for sponsors and fans.

“So, I love it,” McIlroy said ahead of this week’s $20 million (€18.8m) Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, where he can regain the world number one spot from Jon Rahm with a win, providing the Spaniard finishes worse than a two-way tie for fifth. “I think it makes the Tour more competitive. ... I’m all about rewarding good play ... It’s trying to get the top guys versus the hot guys, right? I think that creates a really compelling product.”

Players who don’t make the top 50 in the FedEx Cup this year can play their way into the designated events via regular events next year.

As for the no-cut element, McIlroy made no apologies.

“It isn’t as if the PGA Tour hasn’t had no-cut events,” McIlroy said. “We have had no-cut events since I have been on Tour for the last 15 years. The no-cut thing just became a big deal when LIV came around. That was sort of what prompted the whole discussion around it.

“But I think it guarantees the top players there for four days, and I am certainly not one to reward mediocrity. This is the most aspirational Tour to play in the world, and we have to keep it that way.”

He added: “You ask Mastercard or whoever it is to pay $20 million dollars for a golf event, they want to see the stars at the weekend. They want a guarantee that the stars are there. So if that’s what needs to happen, then that’s what happens.”

LIV Golf’s Poulter and Westwood pointed out they’ve been criticised for playing limited-field, no-cut events.

Westwood tweeted: “So ... Do away with the WGCs. Load the OWGR in your favour. Create 10 limited field events for just PGA tour members (like WGCs). Add to that 4 majors, Players, FedEx Cup. That’s a full schedule for a top player. That’s growing the game. What Strategic Alliance?”

Poulter added: “Oh my my my ... When will the penny drop with so many of what’s actually happened here. It really doesn’t take a [rocket scientist] to work out. And sounds very similar to another product that’s been spoken so badly about by media and commentators. I’m all ears now. I’m waiting.”

McIlroy has one win and another six top-25s in eight starts at Bay Hill, but Pádraig Harrington, Séamus Power and Shane Lowry have struggled.

Harrington has just one top-25 in nine starts, Lowry has missed all four cuts, while Power missed the cut on his debut last year.

On the LET, Olivia Mehaffey opened with a five-over 78 in the Joburg Ladies’ Open to trail the Netherlands’ Lauren Holmey by 11 strokes.

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