PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Joe Durant and Rich Beem have been writing to PGA Tour events for an exemption after losing their full status last year. They realize this is not the best time to get their hopes up.

Among those who got a tee time at Riviera next week are Jeev Milkha Singh of India, Oliver Wilson of England and Ryo Ishikawa of Japan. A few weeks later, Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland and Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain will be at the Honda Classic.

And later down the road at the Shell Houston Open?

"With the way things are shaking out this year — and this is one of those problems you want to have — we could be heavy on international players for all of our exemptions," tournament director Steve Timms said Tuesday.

This is not a case of North American jobs being taken away.

Nearly every tournament is required to give four of its eight sponsor exemptions to PGA Tour members or those who earned a card last year through Q-school or the Nationwide Tour and are low in the pecking order. Besides, players like Durant and Beem would not be in a position of asking if they had performed better last year.

But it is another example of the changing landscape on the PGA Tour.

Ten years ago, 33 Americans were among the top 50 in the world ranking. Today there are 13 in the top 50.

Since 1983, tournaments have set aside two spots for a foreign exemption designated by the commissioner. There were 21 foreign-born PGA Tour members that year, compared with 70 active international players from 19 countries who are members this year.

Are the commissioner's foreign exemptions still necessary in this era of global golf?

Probably not.

Then again, the tour typically is prudent with those exemptions and encourages tournaments to use their four unrestricted exemptions on international players. If the foreign exemptions are not used, those spots are put back in the pot for PGA Tour members.

"I can tell you that we have given out half the number of foreign exemptions that we gave out five or six years ago," said Andy Pazder, the tour's senior vice president of competition.

He estimated that less than one-third of all foreign exemptions are used during the year.

The international influx over the next month is more a product of having all the World Golf Championships and three of the four major championships in the United States.

When the Accenture Match Play Championship gets under way Feb. 25, odds are at least 20 players in the field will not be members of the PGA Tour.

Instead of flying halfway around the world to Arizona for what could be just one round, most of them would like to arrive a week early and compete in a regular tournament — the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, in this case.

Northern Trust director Tom Pulchinski used his exemptions on Singh, Wilson and Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland (the fourth is now the Charlie Sifford Exemption, used for a minority, this year is Vincent Johnson). The two foreign exemptions from the commissioner's office went to Ishikawa and Soren Hansen.




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