ORLANDO, FLORIDA | Here in the shadow of the big bronze statue of Arnold Palmer, which stands guard over his beloved Bay Hill Club & Lodge, the sport the great man almost single-handedly transformed more than a half-century ago took another step forward last week in its multimillion-dollar metamorphosis.
Designated events, which have debuted with “Hamilton”-like success this year, are the path forward in 2024 and beyond with eight set for next year in addition to the Players Championship, the four majors and the three FedEx Cup playoff events.
Thirty-six-hole cuts, at least in the designated events, likely have gone the way of Spalding Dots and Sandy Andys.
Limited fields – probably 78 players led by those whose faces fill television screens and tournament hospitality chalets – will define the designated events the way a velvet rope defines who goes where in trendy night spots, though the top players will not be mandated to play the designated events as they are this year if they want their share of the Player Impact Program money.
And of course, there is money, money, money.
For those who don’t get the designated-event tee times, there are dozens of tournaments offering the same prize they’ve always offered: providing a pathway up the tour’s new ladder.
It’s where the tour’s revered meritocracy remains fully intact with Chris Kirk, who played his way into the designated Arnold Palmer Invitational here by winning the non-designated Honda Classic one week earlier, serving as the latest example of what can be accomplished over four very good days.
“There’s precedent there for no-cut events. The only reason no-cut events are a big deal is because LIV has come along.”
RORY McILROY
The 2024 schedule will include three-week windows designed for players to create their own Chris Kirk moment in non-designated events. It’s not if someone moves up; it’s who moves up into the next pair of designated events.
The changes are aggressive and necessary. They will make the PGA Tour different but better.
The changes tinker with tradition, and that’s inevitably uncomfortable, but the world has changed, and the tour is changing with it.
Yes, LIV Golf prompted the tour’s reinvention, but this is not an imitation of what Greg Norman’s group is doing. It’s 72 holes, not 54. It’s probably 78 players, not 48. It still requires playing your way into status, not agreeing to a guaranteed-money contract. There are no teams.
Those on the LIV side of the game’s great divide will point fingers and say they were right, but at the moment, LIV Golf seems less a threat to the PGA Tour than it has been since it began poaching stars a year ago for its debut season. Its initial television ratings two weeks ago were dreadful. Though LIV will have its fans, the PGA Tour is moving on while LIV’s lawyers fight a difficult legal battle.
The changes were met with the expected blowback from critics, and the PGA Tour has plenty. No-cut events aren’t new to the tour. There have been multiple no-cut events in recent seasons (the World Golf Championships were no-cut events) but adding that element to the designated events is understandably the most controversial part of the changes.
“There's precedent there for no-cut events. The only reason no-cut events are a big deal is because LIV has come along,” Rory McIlroy said.
“Is there maybe going to be a few more of them? Maybe. It keeps the stars there for four days. You ask Mastercard or whoever it is to pay $20 million for a golf event, they want to see the stars at the weekend. They want a guarantee that the stars are there. So, if that's what needs to happen, then that's what happens.”
In that sense, the PGA Tour is a product, and to think otherwise would be a mistake. It would be nice if it were just about the golf, but it’s about more than that now.
Bigger purses already were coming to the PGA Tour thanks to new media-rights deals, but they weren’t intended to fully fund a series of $20 million events. The tour went to its reserves and its sponsors to fund the increases and will find an additional $50 million next year when it reduces the overall PIP payout by $50 million.
Circumstances and opportunity pointed the tour down the path it is following.
“I think in general if a company or a product doesn't have competition, the incentive to innovate is low,” said Patrick Cantlay, a member of the PGA Tour’s Policy Board. “So now, with competition, it makes everyone want to look inside to see how they could make their product better, how they could do things better.
“I think the tour's done that. I think this accomplishes that.”
The non-designated events still will have the same purses they had last year and this year. By limiting the number of players in designated events, it benefits the other events, which would find themselves in a spot like the star-starved Honda Classic two weeks ago if 100 or 120 players were in every designated event.
“The part that's frustrating and maybe the part that just simply might be misunderstood is that if we made these fields very large in these designated events, it would ruin non-designated events that have been staples of the PGA Tour, that go to cities that people love watching these events with their families,” said Max Homa, who joined the Player Advisory Council because he was interested in shaping the tour’s future. “It would ruin them. No one would play in half of them because it would no longer fit your schedule, by any means.”
Striking a balance between the players who drive the eyeballs and the credit cards and the others who play golf for a lucrative living is a challenging equation. The PGA Tour can’t be all things to all people, and the new structure demonstrates that.
This isn’t as dramatic as when the late Palmer and Jack Nicklaus led the separation of the PGA Tour from the PGA of America in 1968, but it is significant. Next year will look dramatically different from the pre-pandemic PGA Tour out of necessity.
Like a new pair of shoes, it may take some getting used to, but it’s a good move forward. It’s not perfect and will require more tweaks, but it brings to mind Palmer’s adage to play boldly
That’s what the times demand.
E-MAIL RON
TOP: Michael Cohen, R&A Via Getty Images