Something is wrong with professional golf.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t shake that feeling as I rode the bumpy Bahamas shuttle from the golf course back to the hotel at the Hero World Challenge late last week. As the bus plunged through another pothole, I considered the fact that, in the same week, squarely in the center of the golf offseason, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland would headline three distinctly different golf tournaments in three different time zones and three different corners of the world. Scottie Scheffler was at Tiger Woods\u2019 event in the Caribbean, Hovland was at the DP World Tour\u2019s headline event in South Africa, and McIlroy was at the DP World Tour\u2019s headline event in Australia \u2014\u00a0all while Jon Rahm chased some sort of Krispy Kreme challenge<\/a>. <\/p>\n To visualize the physical distance between these three superstars was really to face the latest iteration in golf\u2019s most elusive question: Which tournaments actually matter? And it didn\u2019t take much reflection to reach a handful of angsty follow-ups: Surely these tournaments should each get their own shine? Surely this was an inefficient distribution of golf\u2019s top resources? Surely somebody much smarter and much more powerful would figure this out?<\/p>\n These are champagne problems to contemplate from a golf tournament in the Bahamas, so I swallowed my feelings of foreboding as I entered my resort and rode the elevator up a dozen floors. I entered my hotel room and stared over the Atlantic Ocean, watching the lights twinkle in the denim-blue pools of the resort spilling out in the foreground below. Then I flipped on the TV to find something even prettier: Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott hitting high-risk, downwind pitch shots at Royal Melbourne. As I researched margarita options downstairs, I felt my anxiety loosen. For the moment, the world had achieved perfect balance.<\/p>\n But now, a week later, I\u2019ve returned to the real world (42 and drizzle in Seattle, Wash.) and as I debate the new duality facing me \u2014 to clean off my shoes or let them dry \u2014 I\u2019m also thinking about the duality of professional golf, and how the day-to-day dreaminess hides an ongoing, underlying tension.<\/p>\n That tension was the centerpiece of what I saw, heard and felt at the Hero World Challenge. There\u2019s more happening beneath the surface. In Tiger Woods\u2019 presser. At Tuesday\u2019s secret player meeting. On this continent and multiple others. Here are 10 things that stuck out, specific and general, from a few days at one of pro golf\u2019s offseason outposts.<\/p>\n 1. Tiger\u2019s coming back.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know when or in what capacity. Woods himself insisted he has no idea, either. He\u2019s just been cleared to chip and putt following his latest back procedure, and he did do some chipping and putting at Albany. But it didn\u2019t take a body language expert to see the desire is still there. Although he ruled out a start with his son Charlie at the PNC Championship (\u201cit wouldn\u2019t be fair to my son and it wouldn\u2019t be fair to another team that could play\u201d) and he ruled out early-season TGL starts (\u201cbut I will be there at every match Jupiter Links competes in\u201d) he laid a trail of bread crumbs that we could follow to another comeback.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully I will be able to maybe play at the end of the season here and there, but I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n It\u2019s impressive to pack \u201chopefully,\u201d \u201cmaybe,\u201d \u201chere and there,\u201d and \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d into a sentence that short, but if you\u2019re a Tiger optimist, you\u2019re used to it. He seemed to suggest he was thinking about a return before the end of the TGL season (mid-late March), which would also interestingly coincide with the Masters (early April).<\/p>\n Still, when Woods was asked specifically about another comeback, he offered this dose of reality: <\/p>\n \u201cCome back \u2014 to what point? I\u2019d like to come back to just playing golf again. I haven\u2019t played golf in a long time. It\u2019s been a tough year. I\u2019ve had a lot of things happen on and off the golf course that\u2019s been tough. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd so my passion to just play, I haven\u2019t done that in a long time. Just play. So I\u2019ve had to sit on the sidelines for a number of months, and most of this year and quite frankly end of last year.\u201d<\/p>\n Woods wants to play golf with his son Charlie. He wants to feel good enough to do so. But I think he wants to play in the Masters, too. That could be nostalgia talking, for me and for him. But any real comeback requires a heavy dose of optimism anyway.<\/p>\n 2. Tiger\u2019s quietly guiding golf\u2019s future.<\/p>\n I wrote more about this here<\/a>, but one thing is increasingly clear about the shape of pro golf\u2019s future: Tiger Woods has the hammer and chisel.<\/p>\n In some ways, it seems counterintuitive. When you think \u201crevolution\u201d and \u201cdisruption\u201d and \u201csignificant change\u201d in basketball, you don\u2019t exactly picture Michael Jordan on a Zoom call. Is he weighing in on the nuts and bolts of playoff schedules or seeding in the NBA Cup? Hopefully not.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s Woods\u2019 current role as chairman of the Future Competition Committee, which means he now uses words like \u201cstakeholders\u201d with regularity and says things like this:<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of the reasons why we\u2019ve talked to all of our partners, why we talked to all of the CMOs, CEOs, everyone who\u2019s involved in the game to get their opinion on what they would like to see. It\u2019s up to us at the committee level to try and figure that out.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. Tiger has his North Star. Everybody else should take note<\/p>\n The rest of professional golf should take note of the answer Woods gave when he was asked why, exactly, he cares about the future of the PGA Tour. <\/p>\n \u201cWell, the PGA Tour gave me an opportunity to chase after a childhood dream,\u201d Woods said. \u201cI got a chance to hit my first ball in my first PGA Tour event when I was 16 years old. I know that\u2019s what, 33 years ago, but I\u2019ve been involved with the PGA Tour ever since then. A little kid from Cypress, California growing up on a par-3 course got a chance to play against the best players in the world and make it to World No. 1. I got a chance to be involved in a lot of different things on our Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re cynical, maybe you found these words rehearsed or scripted, but sitting in the room with Woods, they felt genuine, especially the throughline: The PGA Tour is the dream. I\u2019m not blind to the realities of the PGA Tour business \u2014\u00a0and it is big business! \u2014 but the Tour should hold itself accountable to a slightly higher standard than cash. It is the pinnacle of the sport, an aspirational, meaningful place to compete, and every one of its tournaments should be conducted accordingly. The more they care, the more we care. Here\u2019s what Woods said motivates him to pay it forward:<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a different opportunity to make an impact on the Tour,\u201d He said. \u201cI did it with my golf clubs, I made a few putts here and there. Now I am able to make an impact in a different way for other generations to come. Not just generations that I played against, but for future generations like a 16-year-old looking for a place to play who maybe hopes of playing the PGA Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. These guys like Brian Rolapp.<\/p>\n I was not around for the arrival of Jay Monahan as PGA Tour commissioner. I\u2019m not sure what it\u2019s like when other sports leagues adopt new leadership. And there are exceptions to what I\u2019m about to say, particularly in the Tour\u2019s midfield<\/a>. But I will say, I was shocked by the level of optimism the Tour pros I spoke to expressed about new CEO Brian Rolapp. <\/p>\n I suspect some of that has to do with his NFL pedigree; everybody knows the NFL is king, especially these football-loving Tour pros. But Rolapp also makes a very distinct impression on people. He seems like the kind of guy who gets what he wants, takes everything in stride, and is always in control. Direct and impressive \u2014\u00a0those are the two words I kept hearing about Rolapp. Things could turn, of course. Don\u2019t they for all commissioners, sooner or later? But so far, so good.<\/p>\n 5. The latest \u201csecret player meeting\u201d went well.<\/p>\n Perhaps it should come as no surprise that a Tuesday meeting of top PGA Tour players (plus Tiger and Rolapp) on the future of the PGA Tour went well. (Of course the future is bright for these top-ranked guys! It\u2019d better be!) But I was more impressed by the audience than the substance. There\u2019s something to be said for the fact that every player in this star-studded Hero field attended the meeting. <\/p>\n The PGA Tour has felt reactive over the last few years, but these meetings left me with the feeling that Rolapp and co. are playing offense. The players clearly believe change is coming, and they want to prepare for it before it arrives.<\/p>\n Woods is a good fit as an establishment figure because Rolapp is the opposite. Two more phrases that Rolapp and the people around him enjoy are \u201cblank slate\u201d or \u201cclean sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n 6. The new schedule isn\u2019t decided \u2014\u00a0but we\u2019re getting hints.<\/p>\n A couple weeks ago, Harris English did some out-loud thinking at the microphone at the RSM Classic when he suggested the future PGA Tour could be 20-22 events between the Super Bowl and the end of August. There\u2019s no need to take English\u2019s statements as gospel; he emphasized that his words were merely a personal prediction. But considering the general reaction to English\u2019s comments has been something to the effect of yeah, that could be about right, including from Rolapp<\/a>, it\u2019s safe to assume he\u2019s onto something.<\/p>\n The specifics may not yet be clear, but the general outline seems to be the following: shorten the PGA Tour season, double down on the remaining tournaments, get some of those tournaments into bigger markets, and deemphasize everything else. So, which tournaments do you dump? Which do you move? How do you tweak the playoffs?<\/p>\n Can you start at the WM Phoenix Open? Can you move California\u2019s marquee events to the summertime? Can you leave Hawaii behind altogether? Can you recategorize the lower-level PGA Tour events in a way that makes sense for both players and viewers? And can you actually give people fewer PGA Tour events and draw more viewers via scarcity?<\/p>\n These are the questions Woods\u2019 \u201cFCC\u201d has been assembled to answer.<\/p>\n 7. Still, nobody\u2019s coming to save \u201cpro golf.\u201d<\/p>\n Where does the Australian Open fit into all of this? What does it mean for the DP World Tour, and LIV, and some unified theory of worldwide golf?<\/p>\n On one hand, the theoretical schedule would leave plenty of room for interested players to participate in tournaments during football season. Rory McIlroy has been the poster boy for international barnstorming this fall; he\u2019s been to Ireland, England, India, Dubai and Australia in the three-plus months since the Tour Championship. Perhaps more players would join him, if given full latitude to do so.<\/p>\n