The PGA Tour: 5 Ways It Can Improve
Sponsors are jumping ship, the No. 1 player in the world hasn't won a tournament in more than a year, the FedEx Cup is floundering and the PGA Tour's lucrative television contracts (which greatly contribute to the massive purses players compete for each week) are up for re-negotiation in less than two years.
The changes suggested in this slide show are a bit more extreme than anything the PGA Tour is likely to implement, or even think about for that matter... so, let's just call it a wish list.
5) Pace of Play – Harsher Penalties
1 of 5
Why is golf so difficult for the average sports fan to follow on television?
Well, it’s at least partially due to the fact that it takes five hours to sit down and watch the closing round of a major championship.
Who has five hours to spend in front of the television on Sunday? That's 10 hours in a weekend if you want to watch the third round as well.
There’s absolutely no reason why the best players on the face of the planet, paired in twosomes, should take five hours or more to play a round of golf.
And it’s even worse on Thursday and Friday before the 36-hole cut. Each week, it’s like watching professionals play on the most overcrowded municipal golf courses imaginable.
Sure, these guys are playing for a tremendous amount of money where a single stroke can be the difference between a $1.25 million payday and two-year exemption or an “also-ran” distinction.
But, three minutes to hit a single putt?
Five minutes to decide on what club to hit out of the rough from 130 yards?
Ten minutes waiting for a green to clear on a par-four?
This is getting out of control.
There is only one thing that professional athletes understand these days, and that’s money.
There should be harsher penalties and even suspensions handed down for slow play.
A little overboard, you may say?
Well, it’s gotten to a point where slow play is hindering the PGA Tour’s ability to gain and retain fans.
NFL football is not the most popular sport in the country because of all the “die hard” football fans out there. It’s the most popular sport in America because a casual sports fan can sit down and enjoy a three hour football game once a week.
Following NFL football is not a burden on his time.
That same casual sports fan might also be interested in watching the final round of a major championship. But, he’s not interested enough to spend five hours in front of his television set on a Sunday afternoon.
He could watch two football games in the amount of time it takes to watch the final round of a major championship.
4) Every Third Year Rule
2 of 5
You’d have to be a fool to step up and sponsor the Bob Hope Classic in 2011.
Why?
Because the top players in the world are NEVER going to show up.
Who wants to shell out $10 million to sponsor an event where Charlie Hoffman is the biggest star in the field?
The players need the PGA Tour as much as the PGA Tour needs the players.
Altering the purse distribution (discussed later) may force guys to play more often in the future because they will have no choice if they have any hopes of earning a good living on tour.
Fewer tournaments on the schedule (discussed in next slide) will also make it seem as if the top players are playing more often.
However, sometimes the modern day overpaid, over-managed, over-sponsored and over-lawyered professional golfer needs a good kick in the back-side.
Plain and simple—implement a rule where each player must attend every event at least once every three years.
If a rule like that were to come into effect, well, then someone might actually think about sponsoring the Bob Hope Classic.
3) Fewer Tournaments
3 of 5
The PGA Tour season begins on January 7th and concludes in the middle of November. Add in the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai and some “Silly Season” events like the Chevron World Challenge and the Shark Shootout, and there’s an offseason of about two weeks in professional golf.
Opening day in baseball is exciting because fans haven’t seen a professional baseball game in five months by the time the first pitch of the new season is thrown in early April.
How is anyone meant to get excited about the start of the PGA Tour golf season when the previous season ended just two weeks earlier?
The struggling U.S. economy is eliminating golf tournaments on its own. Most view this as a negative, but would it be such a bad thing if four or five tournaments simply disappeared?
The season would be more compact and we wouldn’t have to wear ski hats and wool gloves to watch the Ryder Cup matches every other year.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
2) FedEx Cup – The Winner Takes All
4 of 5
If the winner of the Tour Championship were to automatically take home the $10 million, would it be the fairest way to crown a “season-long” champion?
No.
Would it be unfair to a guy that wins the first three playoff events and then finishes second at the Tour Championship?
No.
But will it garner more attention from casual sports fans?
Absolutely.
If a guy wins five consecutive events heading into the Masters, should he automatically win the green jacket if he finishes third at Augusta based on the “points” he accumulated during the previous five weeks?
That’s lunacy.
Winning a major is so rare and difficult because a player has to be on top of his game during a particular four day span. Not to mention, that player must have an ability to deal with pressure in its most extreme form.
What would be so horrible about having 70 guys make the playoffs and then dwindle them down to 15 by the Tour Championship, where the winner of the Tour Championship takes it all?
A player can get hot for four days and win a major. Just ask Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel, Lucas Glover, Rich Beem, Todd Hamilton and Wayne Grady.
Playing great golf under the pressure of elimination for three weeks and then winning the Tour Championship with all the marbles on the line—well, now that’s a truly impressive feat.
1) New Allocation of Prize Money
5 of 5
The fact that a guy can win $3-4 million on the PGA Tour without even winning a single golf tournament is just absurd.
Why has it become almost common place to see a player laying up on a par-five 18th with the tournament on the line?
Because players can earn $810,000 for finishing in second place.
If you go for the green in two and make bogey, you may tie for third and win $400,000. Layup and ensure a safe par, and you may not get the $1.25 million for winning the event, but $810,000 ain’t too shabby.
Bring back a culture of having to win in order to become wealthy.
Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, etc.—these guys had to win golf tournaments in order to afford many of life’s luxuries.
Byron Nelson was never going to be able to afford his dream ranch in rural Texas by racking up three top 10s in a season.
Get three top 10s in a season today and you can purchase a new home and begin flying to and from tournaments on a private jet.
If the first place prize were $3-4 million and second place prize money began at $200,000, it’s almost a certainty that we would see more players fighting like cats and dogs down the stretch on Sunday afternoon.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
