PGA Tour Reinforced Its new tournament structure on Wednesday, and yes, it’s a bit like some of the structures that LIV Golf has come up with.
Tour has reduced field size at specified events from 120-160 to 70-80 and even eliminated clipping at some events (though that is far from finalized). It has also clarified the route for golfers to participate in these designated events and no longer requires top players to participate in those tournaments, instead encouraging them to do so through through wallet size and FedEx Cup scoring opportunities.
Are all these good? Perhaps, though it depends on your definition of the word. The entire far-reaching infrastructure is a major balancing act that is perhaps underappreciated. Tour and its leadership are trying to keep some pieces of content separate, and sometimes, decisions that please one of those groups upset the other.
I will say this: The tour was a success with this plan. Not only does it try to push the league forward into the future, but it does so while keeping its entire history intact. That’s ambitious, and while parts of the plan are probably not what some people want in the “build me my own algorithm and make it specific to my desires” culture, possible”, but the plan seems to work.
Let’s dig deeper into the PGA Tour’s decision.
1. This is not simply LIV 2.0: A number of golfers who took a break from LIV last year spent Wednesday taking on the Tour, its players and fans because the Tour, they say, is just about recreating what LIV has designed set up a year ago. The official LIV Golf account even had a spike at times.
In fact, the structure of the PGA Tour’s designated events for 2024 is significantly different from what the LIV currently has.
There can be 15-20 players rotating from one specified event to the next. The Tour says the top 50 from last year’s FedEx Cup race were the only golfers guaranteed a spot at designated events. From there, 15-25 slots are available to other players with 10 from the current year’s FedEx Cup race and 5 from unspecified events.
This is definitely the best part of the whole system as it maintains the game and tournament talent modes. Furthermore, the expected annual churn rate is 40%. That is very important. As Rory McIlroy pointed out, if you’re a top player and you don’t play well (like Rickie Fowler for the past few years, for example), you won’t be able to attend the top tournaments anymore. This is different from LIV. Why? (1) LIV with no weekly interruption. (2) LIV replaces only four of its 48 points (less than 10%) annually and even those positions will not be abdicated by contract players (ie Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau).
2. Reduced field, no cut is tied: Max Homa explained one reason why there will be only 70-80 golfers in each designated event: If the course size is expanded beyond that, the courses at the events are not specified. will be very poor. (Did you watch last week’s Honda Classic?) As Homa further noted, poor schooling can lead to some of those events being defunct.
The trade-off is that the event fields are specified at a size that makes it difficult to highlight the clipping. It is simply awkward. There are also funding reasons to consider.
“It keeps the stars there for four days,” he said. “You ask Mastercard or whoever pays $20 million for a golf event, they want to see the stars over the weekend. They want to make sure the stars are there. So if that’s what needs to happen, that’s what will happen.”
This is where it gets a little — to use a phrase from last year — “eat your cake and eat it” for me. Tour is betting its future on meritocracy, however, it is also aiming to commercialize the sport. Again, it’s hard to please everyone.
Is it that hard to add 20 players to the course, push it to 90-95 golfers and cut it down to 50 on the weekend like masters? That will create more effective shots on Thursdays and Fridays, and develop a scenario where the cutscenes become more special and meaningful than before.
3. FedEx Cup is currently involved: This scrolls two ways. If you are among the top 10 players who do not automatically qualify for the specified events (top 50 from the previous year’s FedEx Cup), you will enter that week’s designated event. This now makes the FedEx Cup worth watching in January and February. And that’s a big positive. Then when summer comes to the end of the season, suddenly in the top 50 so you can automatically qualify for next year’s designated events will be a big Achievements create interesting storylines over a long period of time.
4. “LIV did this”: It did… but that doesn’t mean LIV is celebrated for it. Here’s Rory from Wednesday: “Like it or not, LIV may have exploited some weakness in the framework of the Tour and we’re doing everything we can to fix that.”
LIV remains a faction in the golf world, one that threatens to disrupt an already niche audience that makes commercialization of the professional game impossible. That is mutually exclusive to the PGA Tour reformatting as done. While the LIV may have made some of these changes, it is the changes that should be appreciated, not the entity that made them.
5. Warm up baby: The best aspect of the whole structure (and it’s not even close) is that a golfer can have a hot month and find himself mingling with the big dogs at top events. There is a real pyramid on the Tour. And while I wish the top of that pyramid was a bit wider, I’m happy with the overall layout.
“You don’t have to wait a whole year to play well before you have a chance,” McIlroy said. “That opportunity appears immediately. You play well for two or three weeks, you go to a designated event. If you keep playing well, you’ll be in it.”
This tour with the rulebook could have really helped elevate the unspecified events, at least as it relates to how sick nerds like me consume them, even more so than the events that are specified. point. Tour should also go a step further. Open it up so Korn Ferry Tour players can participate in unspecified events and then potentially designated events. This really aligns with the ideals of the US Open: “Hey, anyone can make it to the top, just play a little bit better.” And it will make golf more attractive.
6. Balancing action: The hardest part of these changes is running the meritocracy alongside the business, especially when pure meritocracy may not be the best thing for your business.
“Ultimately, I think with all of these designated events and event schedules, at the end of the day, we are selling a product to people,” McIlroy said. “The more they get to know that product and know what they’re buying is really important. That’s really important for Tour. I think this solves that.”
It is true that the Tour is an entertainment product in a way that the majors are not, and in general it has done a great job at keeping the entertainment and competitive aspects of each other tense. However, it will be a constant battle in the coming months with every conceivable ingredient vying for the bigger slice of the $1.5 billion pie.
7. No longer required: One fascinating aspect that has been overlooked a bit is that the Tour no longer does the specified events obligatory for top players. It was able to make this change because it actually created a structure in which the top players encourage to play these events.
While the Tour has yet to announce the changed FedEx Cup points structure, in a memo sent to players, commissioner Jay Monahan noted that additional FedEx Cup points will be allocated to designated events. . This eliminates the need for golfers play the worst events to beat less talented courts and win FedEx Cup points. As a result, it makes the entire FedEx Cup stronger.
