Football-style relegation battles and a schedule of about 16 signature events are part of radical plans to overhaul the PGA Tour.
The Tour’s chief executive, Brian Rolapp, said the plans on the table would create a two-tier system, with 120-player fields and a cut in the top flight. The season would start in late January and finish in early September, with an added emphasis on taking the PGA Tour to new markets including New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington DC.
Rolapp said “this was not a baked cake” and nothing had been decided, but the ideas, some of which could be implemented next year, are designed to ensure the best players compete more often in a meritocracy. “We are evaluating the role of promotion and relegation between these two tracks,” he added. “You see this work powerfully elsewhere, including in English football, where clubs move between the Premier and the Championship based on performance. Applying elements of that approach to the PGA Tour creates real consequences. For our members the message is pretty simple – play well and you earn the opportunity to compete in our biggest events for more money.”
Rolapp addresses the media before Sawgrass where he unveiled an array of new plans for the PGA TourCliff Hawkins/Getty Images
The new man at the helm of the PGA Tour also said he wanted to overhaul the post-season, possibly introducing match-play events and “win-or-go-home moments”.
On wider issues, there was no hint of an olive branch for LIV Golf, and Rolapp said the Returning Member Programme, which enabled Brooks Koepka to rejoin his home tour, was a one-off deal. “That was designed for a set of circumstances that arrived on our doorstep a bit unexpectedly,” he said. “Brooks told us he was out of contract and so we had a situation to deal with. We were very explicit that that was a one-time situational Returning Member Programme and I stand by that.” He said other LIV players would have to follow the Patrick Reed route. The 2018 Masters champion left LIV in January and cannot play on the PGA Tour for a year since his last appearance on the Saudi circuit.
And despite the PGA Tour’s obvious mischief in fuelling the debate about whether The Players should be a major, Rolapp said there were no plans to change the entry criteria so LIV players could strengthen the field. “ That’s not something I’ve considered. That’s not a priority I’ve put on my list,” he said.
Shane Lowry, the 2019 Open champion, pauses for autographs ahead of The Players, which starts this week Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
If LIV does not appear to be bothering the PGA Tour top brass these days, the issue of the “strategic alliance” with the DP World Tour did get an airing as Rolapp addressed the media and Tour partners at Ponte Vedra in Florida. There is a financial break clause next year, but Rolapp said: “We’re fortunate to have an alliance and it’s one we value. We would like to extend that and, in fact, we made a proposal to do that.”
The devil will be in the detail, though, and he did not say if he was offering the same, or reduced, terms. The PGA Tour owns 40 per cent of European Tour Productions and provides more than £20million to cover shortfalls in prize pots and operational costs. If a new deal is not struck, the DP World Tour will find the Saudi Public Investment Fund increasingly attractive.
Rolapp said the plans would at least double the number of signature events from eight. Add The Players, four majors and the Ryder or Presidents Cup, and the top players would have 21-26 events. “To be clear we will have a second track of tournaments which will ladder up to those elevated events,” he said.
After years of Jay Monahan’s more corporate State of the Union spiel, Rolapp was clear on the concept, even if details are all to be worked out. “The PGA Tour competes in only four of the top 10 largest US media markets,” he said with palpable bemusement. “That is an opportunity. We are evaluating markets like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, and many others, places where there is a strong fan demand for our sport.” He added that they wanted to “do more internationally”.
All the proposals coming from the nine-man Future Competition Committee, which is led by Tiger Woods and includes Liverpool owner John Henry, will need to be approved by the PGA Tour board.