“In Case You Missed It” is a GGP+ feature that highlights a story from Global Golf Post‘s Monday magazine.
As another PGA Tour season winds down, the subject of change hangs like humidity in the late summer air.
Does the schedule need to change?
Do the signature events need to be reimagined?
Should the FedEx Cup playoffs be blown up and reconstructed?
How will new CEO Brian Rolapp change the PGA Tour?
What about LIV Golf?
Has Collin Morikawa changed caddies again?
All are legitimate questions but the alarm bells that sounded a while back, suggesting the PGA Tour was bailing water, have gone away. That’s not to say there aren’t ways to improve the PGA Tour, but it’s important not to make change just for the sake of change.
Television numbers don’t tell the whole story but the season-ending numbers from CBS Sports – viewership of its golf broadcasts was up 17 percent across the board this year – suggest that the tour is in a good place despite the turbulence that has buffeted the sport in recent years.
A year ago, there was a sense of uncertainty. The Strategic Sports Group partnered with the PGA Tour in early 2024, there was still a seemingly realistic chance of a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and viewership was trending the wrong way.
What changed?
Scottie Scheffler kept winning, Rory McIlroy won the Masters and there were enough enhancements that the cumulative effect has the PGA Tour carrying positive momentum into the playoffs and beyond.
More than anything, the success of the PGA Tour is driven by the players, particularly the stars. Between them, Scheffler and McIlroy have won seven tournaments including three majors and the Players Championship.
As heart-warming as unheralded J.J. Spaun’s U.S. Open victory was, seeing the best at their best in the biggest events brings definition, appreciation and attention. That’s what captures eyeballs and screen time and feeds the season-long storytelling.
It’s no coincidence that ratings for the final round of the Travelers Championship jumped 35 percent with Keegan Bradley and Tommy Fleetwood dueling down the stretch and McIlroy’s Masters moment peaked with more than 19 million viewers at the end, proof of how much place and personality can drive ratings.
When Rolapp meets with the media in two weeks at the Tour Championship, having been in his new role for approximately one month, it will be interesting to hear his thoughts about what he’s seen, what he’s learned and what’s next.
The tour will benefit from a fresh set of eyes, not because of anything Jay Monahan did or didn’t do but because the landscape has changed to the point that a new perspective – particularly from someone with Rolapp’s background and sports business savvy – can be as transformative as a fresh coat of paint.
Striking a balance between what the players want and what those paying the bills want (that means the sponsors who have been asked to pony up substantially increased commitments) will be central to Rolapp’s duties while also directing the SSG’s $1.5 billion investment to where it can be most effective, not just most profitable.
The tour has trumpeted the findings of its Fan Forward initiative and, where it can, used it to provide direction for adjustments or enhancements. Keeping the fans engaged – both on site and those watching from their couches or laptops – is the foundational pillar around which everything else should be structured.
Striking a balance between what the players want and what those paying the bills want (that means the sponsors who have been asked to pony up substantially increased commitments) will be central to Rolapp’s duties while also directing the SSG’s $1.5 billion investment to where it can be most effective, not just most profitable.
TGL, for example, is a nice enhancement but it’s more a winter’s night diversion than anything of deep substance. Expanding it to include women should help but it’s not likely to become much more than it was this year. Still, it’s a step toward meeting fans in a different way.
The SSG no doubt has ideas that will benefit the tour but those can’t come at the expense of the core product. That’s still what matters when the Boston Red Sox take the field in Fenway Park or when the Kansas City Chiefs are on the field. The tour must be guided by that.
There is no reason to drastically rebuild the cadence of the tour schedule, though some lobby to move the West Coast events later, play in Florida earlier and move the PGA Championship back to August. It would not be a bad idea to try tweaking the January schedule to have a handful of those events finish in prime time on Friday or Saturday nights, given the immense shadow of the NFL.
There is, however, value in familiarity, one of the many things LIV Golf misjudged.
Speaking of LIV, as tempting as another SSG-sized investment from the PIF may be, the tour should be and seems to be intent on plotting its own future, not focused on striking a deal with a group that insists on having more influence than it should. Let LIV be what it is (and there is talk of another multibillion-dollar investment from the PIF into the league).
The fans’ ambivalence toward LIV speaks volumes.
In solving one problem – combating the excessive purses LIV offers – the tour created a different problem. There is so much money available, particularly in the $20 million signature events, that some players (Scheffler and McIlroy in particular) don’t feel obligated to play all of them anymore.
The players aren’t going to mandate participation in those events (citing their independent contractor model) but the tour and the sponsors are justified in being frustrated that giving the players what they want isn’t enough to get them to play sometimes.
McIlroy’s willingness to skip the first playoff event last week brought the issue into focus. It’s a case where neither side was wrong – McIlroy valuing the time off more than the potential money loss and the tour’s biggest sponsor feeling bruised – and it would be prudent to create a structure that doesn’t necessarily mandate participation in the playoffs but comes with a heavy cost for taking a week off.
With the playoffs underway, the annual hand-wringing over what the best format is has been renewed. What the playoffs have done is give the season a definitive conclusion, something it didn’t have two decades ago. What the playoffs have not done is become season-defining.
Players don’t like to be told what to do but there is no harm in reminding them of the greater good.
With the playoffs underway, the annual hand-wringing over what the best format is has been renewed. What the playoffs have done is give the season a definitive conclusion, something it didn’t have two decades ago. What the playoffs have not done is become season-defining.
The tour’s willingness to change the format – going from four events to three, trying the “starting strokes” concept and now abandoning that – is evidence that it’s an imperfect system. Playing the Tour Championship somewhere other than East Lake in Atlanta in August would help.
Put the season finale on the West Coast and show it in prime time. It’s worth a try though the two Atlanta-based sponsors of the Tour Championship might feel otherwise.
Given all that has happened in recent years, the PGA Tour finds itself in a better place than it might have been. This year should reinforce the faith in the future.
To borrow Arnold Palmer’s line – the road to success is always under construction – the PGA Tour isn’t patching holes in its roof anymore. It can focus on making what it has even better.