In the ongoing chess match with the LIV circus/exhibition series, the PGA Tour has made a big move for 2024 that seemingly goes back to the good old days of the WGC events.
The Tour has unveiled changes for next season to the “Designated Events” that take the appearance of those events formerly know as World Golf Championships.
It looks and sounds like those Designated Events will go to a limited field format with no cuts — perhaps 70 or 80 players in the field.
There will no doubt be lots of questions for PGA Tour commish Jay Monahan (aka The Sheriff of Nottingham) at next week’s flagship event — The Players. Interesting to note the changes were announced BEFORE The Players so not to take attention away from the Tour’s biggest production.
Although to listen to Monahan (The Sheriff) it doesn’t sound like things are, as of yet, etched in stone:
“Changes of this magnitude certainly require additional conversation and context. To that end, I will convene a player meeting next week at The Players on Tuesday at 7:30 a.m., and we are committed to hosting addition, informal discussions on this topic every week at PGA Tour events for the foreseeable future. The future is bright, and with these changes we are positioned for incredible growth.”
Rory McIlroy, Defender Of The Faith, had a more concise explanation for the proposed changes:
“It keeps the stars there for four days,” McIlroy continued. “You ask Mastercard or whoever it is to pay $20M for a golf event, they want to see the stars at the weekend.”
The Wall Street Journal had a simple observation about the proposal with this headline:
“The PGA Tour Is Making Changes—That Look Like LIV Golf.”
At the end of the day, it looks like part of the plan to keep major PGA Tour stars from the temptation to take the Saudi blood-money and defect to the LIV circus.
Doesn’t it?
 Changes For 2024){kind=link}
4 Comments
forky76
Greg Norman was right 30 years ago that golf needed a world tour and he is right today that golf needs a world tour. The PGA took his ideas back than and they are doing it again today. I just hope they don’t screw it up now like they did back then. THE WGC’s were supposed to take golfs big names to all corners of the globe, but they very quickly all ended up back on US soil.
As I have said many times, I dont necessarily think LIV golf is the answer, the PGA tour was just a bad product that was getting worse and killing the game everywhere else in the world. If they don’t get it right this time we’ll just continue with this mess for years to come. The PGA Tour must include the global market in its plans for these designated events (and I dont mean just across the border Canada, Mexico & The Bahamas which they claim as international events).
Tom Edrington
LIV Golf is teetering on the edge…….don’t be surprised if the court case doesn’t make it to trial as LIV head guy will refuse to be deposed and court has ordered him to be deposed……the Saudis don’t want all their dirty secrets becoming public……they’re already cutting back on $$$, telling captains that “team earnings” need to be used for travel and expenses etc.
l2rfade
Showing your media bias again on LIV by calling it “circus/exhibition series” Just report the news instead of trying to make the news smh!
Tom Edrington
LIV is already falling apart, going to lose the court case as Yassir Al-Rymayyan will refuse to be deposed; they’re cutting their budgets everywhere, players are complaining…..it’s not going well…