LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY | The business of golf may never have been better, but that doesn’t mean its challenges are any less significant.
There is a looming golf ball rollback a few years away, and the professional game remains almost paralyzed by a division that feels as if it’s widening, both of which touch the PGA of America.
Without being directly involved in the PGA Tour-Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund negotiations, PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh feels as many do that the current situation isn’t helping anyone.
“I don’t think the game is big enough for two tours like that, and I think we are diluting the game in a way that is not healthy. We’ve said that, really, from the beginning. I hope there’s a deal. I think both sides are not only committed to trying to find a deal but really need a deal, and in my history of deal making, when both sides kind of need something to happen, it generally does,” Waugh said Wednesday at Valhalla Golf Club, site of this week’s PGA Championship.
“I hope there’s urgency because I do think it’s doing damage to the tour, to the game… I hope it’s short-term damage, as opposed to permanent damage.”
Valhalla is a neutral ground of sorts with 16 LIV players in the PGA field, including seven who received invitations despite not meeting the other qualifying criteria. The field includes 99 of the top 100 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, a number complicated by many LIV players not earning ranking points because of their ban from the PGA Tour.
Waugh is on the OWGR board, which rejected LIV’s request to receive world-ranking status based in part on the element of team play involved in the league. That’s not likely to change after LIV withdrew its application to the OWGR earlier this year without telling the group in advance.
“We have behaved properly,” Waugh said. “It’s very cordial. It’s not a war. I don’t want to pretend that. They were responsive, too, but they didn’t get an answer that they wanted. So, that’s kind of where it is.”
“I think our biggest fear is for that part of the game that is growing, are you going to sort of disrupt that for one-half of one-half of 1 percent that are out there, right, and where do you draw the line of what’s elite and what’s not. Is a club championship elite or not?” – Seth Waugh
The messiness in the pro game hasn’t slowed golf’s overall growth, at least not to this point. Though TV viewer ratings may be down overall, Waugh cited data from a recent National Golf Foundation report in saying there are now approximately 45 million golfers in the United States, with nearly half of those being 35 years old or younger.
The dynamic, Waugh suggested, is changing from watch first and play second to the other way around.
“So, are we worried about the health of the game? Absolutely, at the professional level. But it really does seem that that sort of traditional mindset of watch first, play second may – that paradigm may be shifting,” Waugh said.
The ball rollback announced by the USGA and the R&A will go into effect for professionals in 2028 and for amateurs in 2030. The concern, Waugh said, is tinkering with a game that is thriving at the recreational level while attempting to manage the distances elite players will be able to hit the ball in the future.
“I think our biggest fear is for that part of the game that is growing, are you going to sort of disrupt that for one-half of one-half of 1 percent that are out there, right, and where do you draw the line of what’s elite and what’s not. Is a club championship elite or not?” Waugh said.
“We are glad that it’s one rule [rather than bifurcated], and the game is going to be bigger than any of this… We can all argue about it, but the game is going to be fine, both recreational and I think professionally, as well.”