By Steve Keating
(Reuters) – It is a great time to be a PGA Tour player declared commissioner Jay Monahan on Tuesday, describing the sweeping changes to the tour’s structure as a new chapter in what will be a bestseller.
That new chapter, however, appears to have been ripped from the LIV Golf playbook with the PGA Tour last week announcing that next season will see reduced fields (70 to 78 players) and no cuts at eight big-money ($20 million) designated events in response to the threat posed by the Saudi-backed circuit.
“One great chapter does not make a great book,” said Monahan speaking at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship. “It is the whole story, the ebbs and the flows, the transitions, the connectivity between each.
“That’s what makes a book great, and that’s what you need to do to deliver a bestseller.
“We must showcase our top performers competing against one another more often.
“This is what fans want and this is what fans have been asking for.”
It is also what the PGA Tour’s top players have demanded for remaining loyal to the circuit and not joining an exodus of big names lured to LIV Golf which features limited-field, 54-hole events with no cuts and massive prize money.
No cut, limited-field events are not new to golf noted Monahan with Tiger Woods winning 26 times in that format, Arnold Palmer 23 and Jack Nicklaus 17.
Monahan described the changes as part of an ongoing evolution that addresses the changing needs of players, partners and fans.
But world number one Jon Rahm and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy agreed that it was the LIV threat that provided the motivation for change.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie; I think the emergence of LIV or the emergence of a competitor to the PGA Tour has benefited everyone that plays elite professional golf,” said McIlroy. “I think when you’ve been the biggest golf league in the biggest market in the world for the last 60 years, there’s not a lot of incentive to innovate.
“This has caused a ton of innovation at the PGA Tour and what was quite, I would say, an antiquated system is being revamped to try to mirror where we’re at in the world in the 21st century with the media landscape.
“LIV coming along, it’s definitely had a massive impact on the game, but I think everyone who’s a professional golfer is going to benefit from it going forward.”
Not every golfer shares the excitement, particularly the players who do not qualify for the designated events.
There are mechanisms built into the revamp that will create qualifying pathways to get into the big money tournaments but critics argue that the PGA Tour has created a two-tier structure for players and events.
“I haven’t had anybody coming to me disappointed about the changes,” said Rahm. “But a lot of people don’t like change at first.
“I can see the logic in what they are disapproving of, but I think in the long run once you take a step back and you realize it truly is the best for everybody, it’s the best product for the PGA Tour, I think they will understand.”
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto. Editing by Toby Davis)
