ORLANDO, Florida. There’s a PGA Tour cameraman whose laid-back demeanor cuts through the tension of a live television broadcast, and a demanding director a few years back with a touch of perspective and calm. “Hang on, bro.”
Those words, immortalized by the incomparable Gunnar Garrity, whose images continue to fill the Tour’s TV broadcasts, echoed around Bay Hill on Wednesday, as the occasional whisper turned into more serious talk about certain events and restricted fields – and a PGA Tour that would look very different. starting with the next one. year.
Tour presented its plan for 2024 and beyond in a two-page, 15-point memo. The abbreviated version is a schedule with 16 designated events, eight of which have limited entrants (70 to 80 players), average $20 million purses, and importantly, a higher distribution of FedExCup points.
It is the latter that is likely to be the devil in the details of the scheduled event – with a widening gap between the haves and have-nots of the Tour only fueled by such differences – but in the short term it was the limited margins that left many of the chain’s middle class in the mood.
“How should players be constantly involved in these events?” one of the players asked. “If these events have elevated status and points, how much will that skew the points list?”
Both the right questions, and something that is bound to come up next Tuesday when Commissioner Jay Monahan meets with members of TPC Sawgrass for what promises to be a lively Q&A.
“If you finish 70th [on the season-ending FedExCup points list] and save your card, how many elevated events are you eligible for? One [The Players]another player asked and answered.
Is it good to have no cuts for the PGA Tour?
The disappointment is real and has so far been hidden in private conversations as the Tour slowly approaches the star track. There was an understanding that whatever changes Commissioner Monahan and the political council were pursuing, they were well-intentioned and much needed.
The threat from LIV Golf and the Saudi Arabian State Investment Fund’s $2 billion investment in a real rival left no opportunity for players to feel their feelings. Some may not have liked the direction the Tour was taking, but in the face of an existential threat, there wasn’t much room to talk about it.
Now, however, there is a very real product blueprint that will create a very real class system. There will be those who finished in the previous season’s top 50 in FedExCup points, and they will all be exempted from participating in the eight designated tournaments, excluding Majors, Players and Playoffs. And then there will be those outside.
“This is about a tour for the future and future stars. This is for a future product,” another player explained.
By this time, for those who are outside, the way will be open to the promised land, appointed by the event. The tour plans to revamp its schedule to create a stream of scheduled and non-scheduled events that will allow top performers (five) over two to three weeks of non-scheduled events to play their way into the show. ”
Events designated by the PGA will not be cut in 2024.
“There are ways to play on it. It’s an attempt to pit the best guys against the hot guys, right?” said Rory McIlroy, director of players at the Tour’s policy board and one of the architects of the new system. “I think it creates a really compelling product. The way you don’t have to wait a whole year for a good game to get the opportunity. This opportunity presents itself immediately. You play well for two or three weeks, you enter the designated tournament. You know that if you keep playing well, you will stay in them.”
According to one source, the Tour has launched several models using new qualifying criteria and field sizes, with a focus on “churn” that quantifies whether the system will create what many fear as a closed store. An increase in churn means an increase in the number of different players that are eligible, and these models are reported to involve significant churn.
One player likened the eight new scheduled events on the course to nothing more than a world championship golf course with big wallets and the best public relations firm. It is worth noting that at various times over the past two decades the Tour has hosted up to 10 limited course events, including four World Championships, the Tour Championship, the BMW Championship, the CJ Cup, the Zozo Championship, the Tournament of Champions and the CIMV Classic.
“Nobody had problems back then,” another player remarked.
None of this allays the player’s worries about the new designated reality. Change can be frightening, and it is monumental change on an unprecedented scale, but it was impossible to do nothing.
Perhaps changes in field sizes and eligibility criteria will be the crack that will bring down the entire dam of meritocracy, but in the words of Gunnar Garrity, go for it, bro.
Source: www.golfchannel.com
