Sign up every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in sports and join the conversation by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we discuss the details of the upcoming PGA Tour schedule and the end of Nelly Korda’s impressive streak.
It’s official: Beginning in 2028, the PGA Tour will witness the biggest change to its competitive structure in decades, a plan that has been long teased and further unveiled by Tour CEO Brian Rolapp at the Travelers Championship. There’s a lot to break – you can read about it all here — but in short it’s two different tracks (a Championship Series and Challenger Series) with more schedule certainty and promotion/relegation. Let’s keep it simple: Will it work? And is it an improvement?
Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens): It doesn’t solve the bigger problem, which is that so many players expect to be paid more than they’re worth in the market. I don’t see this going away. But this is definitely an improvement in simplicity at the top and clarity of the schedule. The players know at the start of the season where and when they will play, and so do the fans. Landing – and take-off – routes are also more direct. The total number of main events will also be (slightly) less, which is good. The world doesn’t need more professional golf. She needs more interesting events. On that front, how can you not like the change in the matchup to determine the playoff winner at the end of the season?
Josh Berhow, managing editor (@Josh_Berhow): Seems like an improvement, and I’ll admit I wasn’t a huge fan of this a few months ago (seemed like still a lot of golf). But with more clarity now, I’m optimistic. I love that each event will know where it stands and fans can finally figure out which tournaments they’ll see Scottie Scheffler in and which ones they won’t. And the match play tweak is a nice addition. I can understand why they got away from it over the years, but it’s time for a change and some extra juice. Maybe they’ll get lucky and have some odd matches along the way. The match game is simply too fun and too essential to the history of golf not to be played on the senior tour anymore.
Josh Schrock, news editor (@schrock_and_awe): It’s certainly an improvement. The PGA Tour was in desperate need of a change that made its competitive model easier to understand instead of just being a large number of individual tournaments leading up to a complicated postseason event that is difficult to understand. Promotion and relegation is a system that is easy for any fan to understand and gives clear stakes to every tournament. Having a set schedule for players on both tracks is a bonus for them. Having a clear structure that determines the player of the season, rewards them, and then transitions to a postseason is a huge win if the Tour can pull it off. I’m very optimistic about these changes, and they come at a time when the Tournament needs to increase interest in getting as big a piece of the TV pie as possible as the NFL prepares to renegotiate.
Time to catch up. What don’t you like? Or what still needs work?
Berhow: For this to work, I think it needs to be tough, and I like that sponsor exemptions are being eliminated, though I’m curious if certain players will be grandfathered in (via established career exemptions) to make sure they’re in the most desirable tournament. If so, I hope it’s not too generous, because that’s how the sponsor exclusion mania became a problem to begin with.
Shrock: I agree with Berhow. There appears to be potentially some room for big-name players to drop out but be placed back into the Championship Series through career waivers. They must be few, or else the tour runs the risk of all these falling. How good you are at getting the ball in the hole should determine which tournament you are in. I don’t want to see Tony Finau or Jordan Spieth or Popular Player X finish 110 in the Championship Series and not have to go down to the Challenger Series unless there’s a good reason. Career exemptions should have a high bar and can be used once.
sense: Good points above. On a non-structural note, no serious effort to improve professional golf is complete without addressing the problem of pace of play. The game, like baseball before it, must take it. Rolapp from the NFL. Maybe they can create a pass rush. At the very least, enforce the game clock mercilessly and without exception. I hope such an announcement will come later.
What types of players are most comfortable with this schedule and which are not?
sense: Track 1 boys are definitely the happiest as they are guaranteed to play at the biggest events throughout the year. For guys off the top, it’s definitely the opposite. The elimination of sponsor exemptions (another good move) may not be welcome news for some players who have relied more on their popularity than their performance to enter the event.
Shrock: I think the Track 1 guys are happy because of the set schedule and the purses they’ll be playing for, but this is a big win for the Track 2 guys, especially those who would be playing on the Korn Ferry Tour or splitting their time between the two. The $4 million purses in the Challenger Series will be a huge boost from KFT and the Challenger Series gives them a clear competitive path to get where they want to go. There should be enough movement between Track 1 and 2 to make it fair, but I think almost everyone should be happy with this development outside of players who have enjoyed sponsor exemptions, shortened exemptions and career money exemptions while playing bad golf. They will not be satisfied.
Berhow: It’s great for the mid-level of top dirt boys (are you following?) because they’re sure to be the most lucrative tournament. I don’t think Scottie and Rory and those guys are too worried about the drop. Although it does put pressure on guys closer to the 100 mark. For many of them, their place in one tournament versus another has significant consequences.
Another juicy part: The tour’s postseason will feature match play and end at a “prestige” course that the Tour wouldn’t otherwise use to host a full-field event. Do these mysterious places add any intrigue to your average fan?
sense: Places are definitely important, and not only for those who love architecture. Better courses ask more interesting questions, which makes for more interesting contests, even if you don’t pay attention to design. Rumors of how Pine Valley, Cypress and Seminole are in the picture seem to be. Rumors. And besides, I actually think it makes more sense for them to go to high-end resort courses, somewhere the average fan can play. This formula works well at Pebble, Kohler, Pinehurst and others. There are others.
Berhow: I like the high-end public option, Sens. And the facilities matter, but honestly not only for the fans, but also for the players. Most of these guys are bigger golf nerds than the viewing public, so they’d like to change that, too. Cypress Point, Pine Valley, whatever – they would look great on TV. And many of the ones being talked about are also great courses for playing matches.
Shrock: Venues are of great importance to players and fans. As excited as I am for the Matches Championship, this is something the Tour needs to stick to with the venues it chooses. If the possibility of Pine Valley, Seminole, Cypress, etc. flows, only to end up playing East Lake, TPC Southwind, etc., that will be a huge loss. I think a rotation of these exclusive courses (if they are interested), along with prestigious courses, or even unique courses that we rarely see like Chambers Bay, is the right combination that the Tour is looking for to achieve this format. But in short, yes, the premises are the most important part of this step in my eyes.
Haeran Ryu won The KPMG PGA Women’s Championshipcarding a final-round 70 to finish 13 under overall and end Nelly Korda’s quest for a third straight title. Korda tied for 8th place. Are you surprised Nelly wasn’t in the mix more at the end?
Berhow: The kisser just failed him all week, especially over the weekend. She was working with her sister on the green after the third round and looked frustrated. And she missed a shorty for par on the opening hole on Sunday. The body language behind her was not good. She’s an epic ball-striker and basically does everything well, but it can always come down to good and bad weeks with the shot for her (which sounds a lot like another world #1 we know). Nothing wrong with a top 10 after winning the first two championships. I’d be surprised if she didn’t win one of the two finals.
Shrock: She was still in the mix entering Sunday. Her pitching has been the difference between good weeks and wins for years. It’s a massive win that balky putter week came to Hazeltine and not Riviera. No offense to KPMG, but the win at Riv was more important to Nelly and the sport. As much as the LPGA would like to, it can’t win them all. Her run at the Nelly Slam added juice to the week. I expect her to threaten at both the Evian and Women’s Open, be in the Hall of Fame by the end of the year and potentially have four career Grand Slams in her bag. (I won’t call winning all five Super Slams.)
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