“Today is a culmination of a strengthened partnership between the Tour and the players, and amongst the players themselves. It’s unprecedented for our Tour and a testament to who these guys are and what they believe in.” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan
By now you have probably read about what transpired on Wednesday at East Lake when PGA Tour commish Jay Monahan (aka The Sheriff of Nottingham) officially announced sweeping changes that will shape a new path for the PGA Tour.
Monahan introduced a plethora of enhancements, payouts and a schedule that will have the world’s top players on display in no less than 12 events (not counting major championships).
Contrary to the defectors who bolted for the LIV circus claiming they wanted to play less, the world’s best want to play more. That was rubber-stamped in the (formerly) top secret Tiger Woods gathering last week in Wilmington.
There is a lot to digest with what will become a new dynamic for the PGA Tour but the changes benefit everyone from the stars to the strugglers. Monahan also emphasized that the top PGA Tour players (perhaps with the exception of Cam Smith) have gotten behind these Tour changes.
“Our top players are firmly behind the Tour, helping us deliver an unmatched product to our fans, who will be all but guaranteed to see the best players competing against each other in 20 events or more throughout the season.” So said The Commish.
So for those who left for LIV and claimed no one listens to the players, well, that argument has disappeared faster than Phil Mickelson’s ability to score.
After rumors began leaking following Tiger’s not-so-top-secret summit, well, there’s a whole lotta shakin’ going on and this didn’t happen overnight.
One thing that was rumored but turned out false was the notion that the Tour might turn away from it’s 501-(c)-6 (not-for-profit) status. “The 501(c)6 status and the integrity of that and all it does for us, that’s always going to be a central fabric to who we are as an organization,” Monahan reiterated. “It will always be that way.”
Now the changes that are coming are extensive enough that they’ve been in the works for most of this year.
What wasn’t leaked out and what appeared on Wednesday is the Tour’s version of welfare for the lower class.
Enter Ye Olde: Earnings Assurance Program.
All those outliers who lost their Tour cards (players in the 126-150 category) and guys who simply don’t play that well most of the time, well, they’ll receive $5,000 for travel and expenses when they miss a cut. Those dollars won’t be paid out of tournament purses. The welfare program also applies to the new guys who graduate from the Korn Ferry Tour. On top of that is a guaranteed minimum earnings scale of $500,000.
So yes golf followers and fans, the PGA Tour has evolved, it has pushed back against the LIV circus with changes that have been, overall, well received by the players.
There were elevated prize money offerings already announced at events like The Genesis, The Memorial and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. What came out of Tiger’s meeting was a commitment from the top players to compete in at least 20 events per year — 16 Tour events to go with the four majors.
Some of the other “elevated” events will include the Match Play, the three FedEx playoff events, The Players (of course), the Tournament of Champions (which will add the 30 FedEx final guys) and another four events to be announced in that “elevated” category.
There will be more to come but the one takeaway from this is that it blows the bejeebers out of that gripe by the likes of Pat Perez who claimed the Tour turns a deaf ear to the players.
Now the odds are pretty good that there will still be some guys longing for that big fat wad of Saudi blood-money, who are supposed to announce after the Tour Championship.
Cam Smith is proported to be the most high-profile defector.
But Rory McIlroy did have a conversation with The Brisbane Mullet following his win in Memphis.
We’ll leave you with what Rory told Cam:
“I had a conversation with Cameron Smith two days after the Open. Firstly I wanted to congratulate him, but also, guys that are thinking one way or another, honestly I don’t care if they leave or not, it’s not gonna make a difference to me, but I would at least like people to make a decision that is completely informed and basically know this is what’s coming down the pipeline, this is what you may be leaving behind.
“I just don’t want people making decisions, hearing information from one side and not from another. That’s sort of been my whole thing this entire time – I’ve always said this, guys can do whatever they want, guys can make a decision that they feel is best for themselves and for their families, but I just love guys to make decisions on all of the facts, and sometimes I don’t feel some guys made those decisions based on having all the facts in front of them.”
26 Comments
baxter cepeda
Breaking apart your bias sprinkled throughout the article alone is head spinning.
The fake quote in the picture could not be more wrong. Monahans head has been spinning and Tiger is now the new pga tour Commish.
And Rory, who is so full of bs with that last comment acting like his comments regarding players going to LIv haven’t gone in all sorts of over emotional directions—is now the deputy commissioner.
Perez is right Tom. If it wasn’t for Perez and Phil and the other brave players whom went to LIv, these pga tour players would not be in this position.
If it wasn’t for them Monahan and the brass would not give a crap what players would say. They would still be in a dominant position that intimidates players.
Make no mistake, Monahan and the pga tour leadership are completely different from just a few months ago.
Now that may be good, especially for the players, including LIv players (more on that layer) but I do fear the pga tour is losing its way—identity— in all these knee jerk reactions.
The pga tour may be married to
501 c non profit status because who wants to pay taxes on their profits, but this is THE reason the pga tour has to continue pulling all these shenanigans such as with the PIP; which could not sound more like a shenanigan.
Of course the thing even golf channel people cannot swallow is the fact Rickie will get into a bunch of elite events because he is cool by certain measures.
This may be true but does the tour measure how much this will alienate some players and their fan base who have been buying into their autocracy crap.
The pga tour is doing a ton of what they criticize LIv over, maybe worse really, hypocrisy only makes it worse. LIv is paying big to get players in, but once they do they have to compete for what they get.
The pga tour on the other hand is going to a system where players are getting into elite events based on a 100$ million dollar popularity
Contest.
What?!
It’s no doubt guys like Tiger, Rory, spieth, Rickie are all about this because they know even if they stink, they can still play whatever event they want pretty much for the rest of their careers. Because they know they are that popular.
Yes things got better for everyone—thanks to LIv and especially the brave pros that took the leap that led to all these raises in pro tour golf—but the cool kids remaining in the pga tour really took care of themselves
Today. Good for them.
Meanwhile commissioner droopy continues pretending to have it all under control. He doesn’t even have control of his tour anymore. A tour that may have some happy players but looks more and more like of my favorite shows ever: Lost.
And by the way this doesn’t take into account that at any point LIv will likely go to the PIF, show them what they have created, they will see there may be even more value than they thought, and they will decide to take their investment into overdrive; which I believe that really has been their plan all along.
They knew they pga tour would have more to pay players. But they also knew they have even way more than that.
So far all that has happened is LIv is bringing the value of pro tour golfers where it should be. Pretty soon the actual bidding the pga tour cannot keep up with will begin.
As I’ve said from the beginning this is the best thing ever for golfers and golf fans. They are getting paid more than ever. We are getting variety of coverage. And at the same time the pga tour is finally bringing more top players together.
But make no mistake thanks to Monahan the pga tour are definitely still not bringing “everyone” together.
Tom Edrington
Baxter: I’m a supporter of the PGA Tour because I’m an American first and foremost, the son of two WWII veterans, the Greatest Generation. No way I’m behind a foreign entity trying to crash an American sports institution, the one loved by Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, Trevino, Floyd, Watson and so very many guys I knew personally. Was also friends with Deane Beman when he was an amateur in my growing-up area of Virginia, Deane was over in Maryland and we played in a lot of the same events. The Saudis are simply dastardly…..50 years ago they were living in tents. Now they are a brutal, iron-fist regime. You can love them all you want but I never will. There are so many things that have changed in our country, not a lot of them for the good. The PGA Tour will go on, and stay strong. The Saudis can continue to pump money into a league that simply won’t create the great moments that the PGA Tour does. I like what Rory said about becoming one of those elite players: “Practice and work your ass off” — I remember when my Mom and Dad had Andy Bean over for dinner when there used to be a PGA Tour event in Pinehurst. Mom asked Andy how many balls he hit to get to where he was — Andy’s answer was simple — “millions!” — work ethic in this country is disappearing….the PGA Tour is still a based on achievement…..same in other sports — we see the big money that some NFL stars make but people don’t see the guys working their butts off for league minimum and the guys on the practice squads that earn about 50k…..they are chasing their dream and dreams come with a price and in sports that’s a lot of sacrifice……These LIV guys are now contract employees of the Saudi regime, which is robbing from its citizens’ pension plan to pay the likes of Mickelson, whose bad behavior is well known and the Tour looked the other way ….. anyway, you and I could talk about this for days, months or years……I know the sacrifices my parents made, my dad told me a long time ago about the battles in the straits of Guadalcanal and how the men on the U.S.S. Fuller survived a kamikaze attack that blew off the bow of their ship…..we are fortunate that they fought and won that war — truth be known — it was the last time this country got a “W” — so I’m staunchly behind the PGA Tour vs. a brutal foreign-funded regime…..one where your daughters would be not second but third-class citizens without much hope of a future in that country. Wow, I got on a roll, kinda like some of your comments — lol. Semper Fi!
forky76
I’m with Baxter here.. none of this happens if liv isn’t in the picture. As always, being reactive rather than proactive. If you believe this has been under development for 2 years, you also believe in Santa Claus.
The guys staying with the pga tour owe a big thank you to Messrs Mickelson and Norman.
Tom Edrington
No one said it was “under development for 2 year” quit making stuff up, forky — it HAS been in the works since LIV started poaching players from the PGA Tour. Things change daily — it’s called life. PGA Tour purses started increasing over the past four years — the FedEx Cup used to be 10 million and it’s been increasing. I know you and Baxter are LIV guys, so enjoy watching Pat Perez and Louis Oosthuizen on the computer and I’m sure it’s fun to watch Mickelson shoot 75s. Perhaps if Mickelson wasn’t desperate to pay off his gambling debts, he could have had some input and been part of the changes…instead, he decided to dance with the Infidels. At least his debts have been paid.
forky76
Rory has said its been under work for 2 years, not something I made up, but lets agree to disagree.
I have also said on here I’m not a huge liv fan, my opinions are more anti pga tour. They have been a bully for too long ruining all the other tours around the world. Golf desperately needs a functioning world tour. The potential is limitless.
Bringing the military into the argument is just silly. To the best of my knowledge the US has never been officially at war with Saudi Arabia. I know people say 11 of the 15 9/11 terrorists were saudi and it might have been government sanctioned. Well 15 of the 15 terrorists that nuked Hiroshima were American and that was most definitely government sanctioned. Every country has their crosses to bear. How do you think poor hideki feels playing in a country that committed such atrocities against his people?
Tom Edrington
The Japanese comparison is BS….Japan started it by killing more than 3,000 Americans at Pearl Harbor……the old saying War Is Hell, always applies…..Japan had the option to surrender and chose not to and was at that time determined to keep fighting….estimates are more than 1 million dead if such an invasion had to take place…..the Saudis are a vicious bunch, they sent a six-man hit squad to Canada where the second in command for Saudi Intelligence went after he left the country, they were sent to kill him as they did with Jamal Kashoggi…..Canadian police at the border were suspicious and indeed discovered their sinister mission and they were rapidly deported. They beheaded 81 of their own citizens last March. Don’t get caught in The Kingdom toting a Christian bible; As for the PGA Tour, it is owned by its own players if bullying allows previously unknown guys like Scottie Scheffler to become the world’s best, well, that blows the heck out of your bullying charge…..they are NOT preventing anyone from leaving. There are already world tours — DP World, Asian, Australasian, and more — PGA Tour set up Canadian, Latino America, Korn Ferry…..one of the gripes of the guys who went to LIV is that they wanted to play less and most were bitching about traveling across state lines, much less internationally.
forky76
Tom, you completely miss my point. DP, Asian, Australasian, Latino tours are all REGIONAL tours in different parts of the world.. not a WORLD tour. Tennis is a great example.. individual sport.. Australian/ Asian swing at the start of the year, moves to Europe in spring/ early summer, then the US late summer. A true world sport. There is huge uncapped potential of a golf world tour. That is where I want to see golf headed. And right now it looks like liv will be the first to head in that direction.
Tom Edrington
Only problem Forky is that the main LIV guys DO NOT WANT TO SPEND THEIR TIME DOING LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL — what about that don’t you understand?? The DP World (European Tour) travels through many countries, it is a true world tour…..as I mentioned before those guys — Lefty, Bryson, Koepka, they don’t like flying across the US…much less LONG flights around the world….comparing golf to tennis is NOT a good comparison…..by the way, you mentioned “atrocities” in our previous comment, you obviously never knew any WWII vets who were held POW by the Japanese….the Japanese prison commanders were the KINGS of atrocities….
forky76
Please don’t make assumptions about my personal life. My grandfather’s brother was killed on the HMAS Neptune bombed by the Japanese in Darwin during WW2.
Would you care to share why you think tennis is not a good comparison? Other than the bland ‘it’s not a good comparison’.
Tom Edrington
Tennis and golf do not compute…..golf is a multi-billion dollar industry around the world, tennis is not; On a professional level, the spectator count and world-wide interest isn’t in the same universe……my father was a Guadalcanal veteran and mom was a Navy nurse at Pearl Harbor taking in casualties from the Pacific campaigns, she held a lot of hands of dying soldiers and Marines.
forky76
Your arguments there are so full of contradictions its not funny. If golf is such a multi billion dollar industry all around the world, why do you (and many others) want to tie up the best players to play almost exclusively in the United States (+ 2x in UK every year)? The best tennis players in the world earn much more than the best golfers. Why? Because the ATP has captured the global audience via a world tour.
If you do a bit of research on google, the ATP estimates there are 87 Mill tennis players and 1 billion fans worldwide. On the other side its estimated there are 37 Mill golfers & 450 Mill golf fans.
Tom Edrington
Uh, Forky, check the net worth on the best tennis players vs. the best golfers….I’m not a tennis guy, you’ll have to call my sister on that but only if you want to talk about Rafa Nadal.
baxter cepeda
Tom Phil did not do this to pay off debts.
He has lost some embarrassing amounts of gambling money. But Phil has a ton of money.
This is not a real narrative. Phil had addressed it. Let that one go.
Tom Edrington
Uh, I have some sources who beg to differ, who know a LOT of what has gone on behind the scenes in Lefty’s life…..you might be shocked.
baxter cepeda
I have a sense of patriotism for the pga tour also. I’m sure you really feel it based on your words.
But the pga tour isn’t the US military.
I don’t love the other side. I just don’t hate them. I’m simply willing to not freak out because of how much they can bring to the table.
Tom Edrington
The Saudis bring NOTHING to the table……any Saudis playing on ANY tour in the world right now?? They’re stealing from their own citizens to overpay a LOT of players who have injury issues and/or past their primes……that’s criminal….it would be in this country but they have no ethics whatsoever……
baxter cepeda
Tennis is almost 7 billion in the US alone.
And in many countries like Argentina people pay to play tennis regularly. But never pick up a club.
It’s safe to say tennis is a multi billion dollar industry. Maybe not as big as golf. But big.
Tom Edrington
World-wide, more people play golf than tennis.
baxter cepeda
I’m not sure but both are huge.
Golf benefits in revenue because every golfer needs the equivalent of 14 rackets.
And it’s more expensive to be in a golf club.
But the point is you totally discredited tennis like it’s than bean bag game or something. Tennis is fricking huge.
Tom Edrington
I don’t see high-end five star resorts built around tennis courts, I don’t see people paying premiums to buy large home overlooking tennis courts; Golf as an industry provides waaaaaaaay more jobs than tennis ever dreamed of…..I’ve never heard about people taking pilgrimages to play tennis on some court in Scotland; I don’t see tennis with any huge move-makers like Top Golf, Golf Shack and now Pop Stroke by Tiger Woods…
baxter cepeda
Tennis has its pilgrimage spots tom. Wimbledon is the Masters of tennis. Arthur Ashe and the sublime drama of the US Open in the heart of the big apple. The clay of Roland garros where nadal has dominated like few have ever dominated any one event in any sport.
Tom Edrington
Yes, but NOT to the degree that players flow to the Old Course……not sure Wimbledon allows “outsiders” as it is a private club — the Old Course is owned by the citizens of St. Andrews……those are events for spectators, I’m talking about playing golf at the Old Course, Carnoustie, Muirfield….PLAY, not watch….I live next door to a club here in Tampa — there are always players on the golf course, the tennis courts are vacant too often, I know, I drive past them at least three or four times a day. Here in Florida, Streamsong was built based on golf, not tennis…..also, a very high-profile club owner in Tampa told me years ago: “Tennis players are cheap, the come, they play they leave — golfers on the other hand, play, stay afterward, spend money on food and beverages…..” The golf industry employees far more people than tennis
baxter cepeda
Traveling for 1 tournament or so a month. Sometimes 2.
And do you see how they travel?
Tom Edrington
Hey, they’re the ones who gripe about the travel. Oh by the way, after watching the Tour Championship, perhaps LIV will sue Rory and Scottie for creating too much excitement.
baxter cepeda
I saw more excitement at a small junior golf tournament this week.
It went from a Scottie yawnshow to yet another Rory comeback.
Which only highlighted Scotties embarrassment.
Which only highlights a need for a real playoff.
If a team cannot win the super bowl with a head start, should they have had a head start to begin with?
What a mess.
I don’t see much interest.
I’m wondering how many people checked out before the final round started. Only to jump back on for the back 9.
I also don’t see a ton of fans early in the week at east lake. Annually They are there at the end but not early on. I’m not sure about the numbers but It almost feels LIv like, and no not Portland, more like the last one at Trumps place in the boondocks of New York.
That’s how hectic the pga tour travel schedule has been that an international tour seems like a travel break. But of course like so many knee jerk reactions on the pga tour lately, this over due issue is changing as well.
The pga tour boys are not wanting to play more. They want to play more together. Another long overdue issue.
But of course they have been talking about it for what is it Tom? 2 years? Even thou even that is not true, many people have been stalking about this for over 2 decades.
Funny how so many of these plans are all Suddenly happening now.
The pga tour is no doubt getting better —except for the fact they are increasingly missing a ton of top 100 players — which is kind of a big deal.
No matter how you analyze the pga tour finale , no doubt it means less this year than last and will only continue to diminish until everyone is welcome back.
What a mess!
Tom Edrington
Baxter you just totally discredited yourself with this….I felt like trashing it to save your cred but let the ridiculousness of it go forth