If anyone knows a thing or two about the inner workings of the PGA Tour, it’s Gary McCord. The 77-year-old played in more than 400 tournaments before spending three decades as a golf commentator for CBS Sports. During his years as a player, McCord became the mastermind of the “all exempt” tour model, which he introduced in the early 1980s. McCord’s idea was eventually adopted by the Tour, which expanded the exempt list of players from 60 to 125 in 1983.
Given the ever-changing landscape of the PGA Tour in recent years, such as the rise of limited-field Signature Events, a reduction in PGA Tour cards and an ever-present competitor in LIV Golf, McCord has been mulling over another idea for the Tour’s future evolution, which he shared on this week’s episode of Subpar.
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Gary McCord explains his player’s ‘uprising’ that transformed the PGA Tour in the 80s
Kevin Cunningham
The core of McCord’s vision: a PGA Tour that splits into two divisions, similar to how MLB has the National and American Leagues, and the NFL has the AFC and NFC. According to McCord’s, each tournament division plays 18 events with 110-player fields and 70-player cuts. Add in the four major championships and the Players Championship (tournaments for which McCord envisions players qualifying through rankings on a money list), and you have a 41-tournament season that could begin right after the Super Bowl in February.
“We’ve taken the tournament from 100 guys — 110 on this side, 110 on that side — to 220. With fewer rounds,” McCord said of Subpar. hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “That works. That works pretty well.”
Within each division, McCord envisions the creation of multiple franchises, which could be owned by tournaments like the WM Phoenix Open. These tournaments may then have the option to draft or trade players to play in a given year, with players having the option to move up to the next league to play select events.
So what is this league’s Super Bowl in McCord’s mind? A Ryder Cup-style competition between players from each league, the winner takes all.
Intrigued? For an extensive explanation from McCord of how he sees this playing out, watch the entire episode of Subpar below.
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