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As professional golf’s most powerful organization, the PGA Tour is positioned to reshape the game’s landscape when it emerges from the forced stop created by the COVID-19 pandemic, bolstering its already strong position while helping structure a model that enhances the professional game.
Before the global pandemic, the gears of change already were engaged. Post-pandemic, the PGA Tour can drive more change, perhaps underpinning the European Tour as it deals with serious challenges in the next year.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan (above) has been a leader as the game has coalesced around the impact of the coronavirus, helping steer a massive reshuffling of the schedule, including major championships. Multiple people have praised Monahan for his leadership, insight and compassion.
The commissioner hardly had time to enjoy the lucrative new media rights deals the tour had completed before he was thrown into pandemic pandemonium. Now, while plotting a return to business in a new environment, Monahan is managing both the practical and the possible.
He is not alone. Collaboration has been critical to moving the professional game forward. Consolidation, at least a level of it, is likely to follow.
“In these rough times I’ve seen how all the governing bodies have come together and have put any differences aside and truly thought about what’s best for the game of golf,” said Mark Steinberg, Tiger Woods’ agent and one of the most powerful people in the game. “As someone involved in this for 28 years now, that makes me really happy.”
Beyond restarting competition – the goal is the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, in early June – what comes next for the PGA Tour?
Multiple leaders within the game believe some form of consolidation between the PGA Tour and the European Tour is coming. The European Tour needs it. The PGA Tour can benefit from it.
It’s important for the PGA Tour, according to multiple sources, that the European Tour emerges intact from its current uncertainty. Different, but still here. At professional golf tours around the world, a forced reimagining is underway.
Of immediate importance to the PGA Tour is getting through what will be at least a three-month suspension of tournament competition. Each week the tour sits idle, it costs the organization millions of dollars.
“If the spend isn’t there from the fans, whether through tickets or television, the pot dries up,” a person familiar with the tour’s operation said.
It’s a wealthy organization but replenishing reserve funds won’t happen overnight and implementing an expansion of sorts could be problematic at the moment.
The PGA Tour Champions and the Korn Ferry Tour, in particular, could be impacted directly and the PGA Tour’s ecosystem is likely to be different when things return to normal.
Still, there are opportunities.
Winston Churchill famously said, “Never waste a good crisis,” and the recent upheaval potentially will lead to a leaner, tidier, more efficient way of presenting professional golf. Nothing brings a disparate group together like a common enemy, in this case, COVID-19.
One leader used the example of trying to get everyone safely off a sinking ship. If everyone piled into a single lifeboat it would go under. Trying to swim individually would be a disaster. Getting everyone to safety one by one, while it might take longer, would be the most effective method. That’s what is happening in professional golf, led by the PGA Tour.
Many feel an overall restructuring would benefit the pro game. If pro golf were being created today, it wouldn’t be built with so many organizations representing such different groups pulling in different directions.
Assuming the European Tour is in the financial distress that has been widely discussed, the PGA Tour could be its saving grace. Monahan and European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley – who have become close over time, closer than Pelley ever was with Monahan's predecessor Tim Finchem – have had previous discussions about working together on a handful of particular events and the PGA Tour’s relative strength will survive the pandemic.
This is not a time when the PGA Tour will seek to capitalize on another group’s weakness, according to an insider. It’s about making sure every group comes out in the best place possible and if that puts the PGA Tour in an even stronger position, that’s a benefit.
It’s no secret that the European Tour’s balance sheet is built around the massive income generated by hosting the Ryder Cup every four years. In effect, one Ryder Cup year bankrolls the three years in between.
The PGA Tour isn’t part of the Ryder Cup, other than seeing its players compete and supporting the event. Getting a share of the European Tour’s Ryder Cup revenue would be an obvious way for the PGA Tour to justify stepping in to help the European Tour.
It’s the single asset that could bring about a reasonable negotiation, one source said.
The most attractive events on the European Tour schedule from the PGA Tour’s perspective are probably the early-year events in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the Irish and Scottish Opens, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and a couple of fall events in Asia.
Packaging those so they benefit both the PGA Tour and European Tour could push the game toward what many of the top players want: a collection of 18 or so premier events that draw the best in the world.
Remember the Premier Golf League idea? It’s still there and while it didn’t succeed, it got serious consideration from many players and their teams as late as the Players Championship. Its attraction was simple. It relied on stars, a limited global schedule and money.
Having fewer tournaments would be a good idea but the PGA Tour isn’t in the habit of eliminating playing opportunities.
Those ideas aren’t going out of style even if it’s not the Premier Golf League selling them.
There’s a case to be made that the PGA Tour is actually two tours in one. There’s a schedule that includes the majors, the Players Championship, the World Golf Championship events and a select few other events including the Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial that attracts the top-tier players.
Then there is the schedule played by the rank-and-file and both groups convene at the FedEx Cup playoffs. It works, but the reality is television ratings and sponsor dollars are heavily dependent on star power. That reliance is likely to grow.
Having fewer tournaments would be a good idea but the PGA Tour isn’t in the habit of eliminating playing opportunities. As the world becomes more data-driven, sponsors increasingly will demand measurable results. The more stars play, the better for everyone.
There won’t be room for excess moving forward. College stars can’t expect lucrative equipment deals like they have received previously. Purses may be cut in places. Luxuries may be sacrificed while the sport and the world recover.
In times like these, smart leaders with a sense of humanity focus on getting everyone to the other side. Things will be different when everyone gets there, but what matters is being able to move forward together.
Getting there is the challenging part.
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