To borrow an old phrase, when the head of the PGA TOUR speaks, people in Ponte Vedra listen and people in golf listen. Such was the case today (Wednesday, March 11) at THE PLAYERS when Brian Rolapp, CEO of The PGA TOUR spoke to media and representatives of various PGA TOUR events at World HQ.
It was a preview of coming attractions, concerns and opportunities. In short, there are going to be changes, mainly to The PGA TOUR schedule, but most of them won’t take effect until 2028 at the earliest. So, if you have enjoyed going to some tournaments in addition to THE PLAYERS, two or three years from now, you may notice some differences at those tournaments.
Changes, modifications and new ideas are coming from the Competition Committee and will have to be approved by the full Board of Directors of The PGA TOUR. Meanwhile, the Competition Committee’s responsibility is to fashion what The PGA TOUR will look like in the future.
Tiger Woods is the chair of the Competition Committee, which includes player representatives Patrick Cantlay, Maverick McNealy, Keith Mitchell, Adam Scott and Camilo Villegas.
Here’s what they are thinking about doing, with the caveat that anything they come up with has to be voted on by the Board of The PGA TOUR:
1. Doubling the number of Signature Events from eight to 16.
The Signature Events were created to bring the top players together more often and, honestly, to compete with LIV. They have larger purses to attract the best players to play, and the idea was to attract more eyeballs to telecasts.
THE PLAYERS is the king of Signature Events. It already has the biggest purse all year. No one in his right mind skips it. It’s also the championship of The PGA TOUR, which has to be great bragging rights, plus a fabulous parking spot in the TPC Sawgrass parking lot.
2. Having a Mandatory Cut at Signature Events.
Some golf tournaments have had no cut, so it didn’t really matter how a guy played. He still got some money for showing up. Not anymore. He will have to beat out a certain number of players in the first two rounds to get paid.
As Rolapp said, they are “moving away from small fields and no-cut events.”
3. Starting the season in late January.
It seems the committee is serious about avoiding football. Rolapp said they are talking about starting the season in late January with what he called an important tournament at a blockbuster of a course on the West Coast so they can be in prime time.
We have had prime time golf from the West Coast for many years, and it is a great evening’s entertainment if you love golf. For people who are locked in snowdrifts, they get location envy. (I know I used to before I moved south.) Ratings for golf are typically the best when the weather is horrible in the Midwest and Northeast, so they are serious about this idea.
There are plenty of dramatic places to start. Hawaii, Southern California (Riviera CC and Torrey Pines), Northern California (Pebble Beach), La Quinta (PGA West) and they could even go to Scottsdale.
4. Expanding to Different Cities
There are no PGA TOUR events in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston and other cities. Rolapp wants to change that.
5. System Where Players Can Advance Via a “Second Track” of Events
This as-yet unrevealed system should answer the question of: How does a golfer get to the level of Signature events? According to Rolapp, there will be “a merit-based system that leans into what makes professional golf so compelling, players earning their way to the top, with every event having greater meaning.”
6. Make Post-Season Play Compelling
“We have heard from our fans and our partners,” Rolapp noted. “They want more drama.”
The Committee is still working on this one.
Now, you may have heard Rolapp talk a lot about the value of “scarcity” in events. When he paired that with a shorter schedule, and 20 to 25 events, people started acting like their hair was on fire, thinking that half of The PGA TOUR events were going away.
Most PGA TOUR events will likely be on the calendar. And Rolapp has modified his scarcity remark as follows:
“I think there’s a bit of a misconception that scarcity means a dramatic cut in the number of events of The PGA TOUR as we know it. As I said in my remarks, scarcity is about making the events we have matter more, so I think there will be a place for most of our events in our new model.”
Study that last sentence. It’s the one that’s important.
We have been promised an update to all this at the Travelers tournament in June. So, just stay tuned and don’t let your imagination run wild. The PGA TOUR is a serious, sensible organization that 99% of the time does the right thing or tries to.
