In the early 1980s, the PGA Tour operated with only 60 fully-exempt players who automatically qualified for tournaments. Other players had to compete in Monday qualifiers, fighting for just 15 spots among 40+ competitors each week.

Gary McCord noticed a significant problem at the 1983 Doral Tour event. While reviewing qualifying scores, he discovered that players with a combined 54 PGA Tour victories – including accomplished pros like Miller Barber (11 wins) and Don January (10 wins) – were forced to qualify weekly.

Realizing this system was unsustainable, McCord took four weeks off to analyze the Tour's exemption structure. He organized a meeting at a Holiday Inn in Tallahassee, expecting 30 players but drawing over 100. His proposal to expand the number of fully-exempt players received overwhelming support from 80 players.

PGA Tour Commissioner Dean Beaman invited McCord to present his plan alongside an alternative dual-league concept to the Tour's board. The board, including Jack Nicklaus, ultimately approved McCord's proposal to increase fully-exempt players from 60 to 125 – a transformative change that shaped the modern PGA Tour structure.

This expansion created more opportunities for professional golfers to make a stable living while improving the overall quality of tournament fields. The change remains one of the most significant structural reforms in PGA Tour history.

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