Fans will figure this all out because we always do.
To get through this whole new-look PGA Tour thing, you have to start at the starting point: The role of the Tour commissioner was to expand playing opportunities for its membership. By charter and by definition, that was the commissioner’s job. That was then.
Now the Tour has a CEO, Brian Rolapp, who in Hartford on Tuesday laid out a new structure and vision. Rolapp’s job is to make money for the Tour’s investors (John Henry & Co.) and its shareholders (select PGA Tour players, past and present). The way to do that is to give the customers — golf fans of all stripes — what we want. With that in mind, the Tour’s overlords will use this ancient math formula developed by Archimedes and his buddies:
👀 👀 👀 = $$$
So, the starting point is to accept that this is a brand-new day because it is. The starting point is to accept that the PGA Tour was founded by golf people: Bob Goalby, Joe Dey (first commissioner, for five years), Jack Nicklaus, Deane Beman (second commissioner, for two decades). Brian Rolapp is not a golf guy. He’s an eyeball guy. Tiger Woods, his appointed golf guy and who introduced Rolapp at the Tuesday presser, is also a show-me-the-money guy. His own show-me-the-money guy is his longtime agent, Mark Steinberg, cagey and smart. Steinberg made a big bet early on to have Tiger and his other clients — Justin Rose, Justin Thomas, maybe some other Justins — keep far away from the PIF money. Loyalty pays.
Here’s what makes sense, once you accept the foregoing:
*A PGA Tour schedule with about two dozen events in it, including the majors and (how does that work?) the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. A guess is the Tour is going to figure out a way to pay the players, beyond just a “stipend.” Yes, it’s gross. Get over it.
*Fields in those 20-odd events having 120 players and a cut. That’s a good number and, given that it takes a threesome of elite professionals well over five hours to play 18 holes these days — it should take under four — 120 is a good number. Also, you can get to know 120 players.
*Relegation. As a concept, good. The word itself will not have legs in the culture of the game. It is a term of team sports, futball most specifically. When baseball players come and go, they’re getting called up or demoted to the minors. The PGA Tour has a beautiful phrase baked into its life blood and it can be used here: The Card. You have a card — PGA Tour playing privileges — or you don’t. You’re trying to get a card. You’re trying to reclaim your card. You’re trying to keep your card. If American Express takes this on as a branding opportunity it will kill its appeal but that will probably happen anyhow.
*Tier I and Tier II, as terms, are already buried; they are not mentioned in the Tour’s Tuesday press release. The terms that were used, Championship Series and Challenger Series, are about as catchy as PGA Tour Champions for the Senior Tour. Just call the Championship Series by its historic name: The Tour. To play it, you need a Tour Card. You can call the series for aspiring tour players the Driving Tour. Or the driving tour. (Not everything needs to be capitalized. Consider the iPhone and the iPad.)
The Korn Ferry Tour gets one brief and vague mention in the Tuesday press release. The challenger tour sounds like it is the Korn Ferry Tour. The Korn Ferry Tour was previously the Web.com Tour, the Nationwide Tour, the Buy.com Tour, the Nike Tour and the Hogan Tour. We’re worn out. A key component of the driving tour would be to make it a driving tour (powered by Avis!). That’s how the tour became the tour, guys driving. People love a road show. The Driving Tour can be the place for true-grit golf. It can be every bit as appealing as The Tour. If not more so.
*The Tour finale is slated to become a match-play competition. This can be a great thing. The FedEx playoffs have been a mess from the beginning — they never felt like anything but a rich-get-richer money grab. But if you’re going to have match play at the end of the year, you should likely have it at the beginning, too. You’ve maybe heard about the work being done by the Committee to Resurrect Walter Hagen.
Very briefly: the first major of year, in late winter, becomes the PGA Championship, now combined with the AT&T — the Pebble Beach pro-am. Three rounds at Pebble. The winner gets big fat check, the Bing Crosby medal, eternal consciousness. The top 16 players then proceed to a weekend of match play at the Cypress Point Club, just down the road. Single elimination. Saturday morning and afternoon. Sunday morning and afternoon. The guy who goes 4-0 is your PGA Championship champion, with all the rights and privileges heretofore, etc. You know why it works, or one of the reasons? You can understand it, just as you can understand match play.
All these enhancements notwithstanding, Rolapp’s rollout is not perfect. There are three glaring issues, from this seat in the house:
*There is not a single mention of charitable giving in the explanatory press release. That is the underpinning of the PGA Tour. That’s how these events get their free work force. That is, the volunteers.
*A card-carrying Tour player needs to be able to play other, smaller events as he wishes. Good for everybody. Just say it.
*Say something about a pathway back to the Tour for its prodigal sons — or say there isn’t one. If you want a fourth, it all sounds way too lawyerly and bureaucratic. It’s sport. It should be fun.
Last thing: You want to understand what the PGA Tour will look like in 2028 and beyond? Read my colleague Sean Zak, here and here on out. As Steve Sands of Golf Channel was once the only person who understood the FedEx playoffs, Zak is the one person, or one of the few, who actually can explain what Tiger and Steinberg and John Henry and Brian Rolapp are doing here. In time, this will all make sense. Because sport, broadly speaking, is a refuge in our lives, a place where we can go because it all makes sense. That which makes sense here will have legs. You can make it from the driving tour to the Tour tour. You can get a card. All you have to do is play good. No grammar check needed.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.
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