The reality of more PGA Tour schedule changes became a little more serious when Tiger Woods spoke at length about them in the Hero World Challenge last week.
“We’re trying to figure out what’s the best possible schedule in order to create the best fields and have the most visibility and also the most fan involvement,” said Woods, who is also chairman of the Tour’s new Futures Committee. “Looking at different start and end times, different trends throughout the year and what that might look like.”
Whether some of these changes will happen in 2027, 2028 or at all remains to be seen. One thing that is not up for debate, however, is that the Tour has changed its structure and schedule so often – Signature Events; calendar season versus closing season; number of PGA Tour cards awarded, etc. — that can be difficult for the average fan to follow. Turns out it’s not easy for the players either.
Beau Hossler has been a longtime member of the PGA Tour, though this year – with cards reduced from 125 to 100 – Hossler finished 104th in the fall FedEx Cup and lost his full-time membership. Hossler was the guest on this week’s episode GOLF’s Subpar Podcastand while he said don’t feel bad about it – he made no excuses and said he would still have plenty of starts with his conditional status – he said something needs to change with the way the Tour structures its schedule and how often the top players compete together.
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“It’s certainly been a whirlwind. I think the goal is definitely to get it right, but I think there’s some value in just making it sustainable,” Hossler said. “I honestly believe that if you want your fans to be really engaged, I really think they have to understand. And I can tell you for sure that your players have to understand what’s going on. And there’s been so much change over the last X years that honestly, it’s been hard to keep up, even internally.”
An example of some semi-recent changes: The top 50 Tour players in the FedEx Cup standings are invited to Signature Events, although there is still room for others to qualify via the Aon Next 10 or Aon Swing 5. This year was also the first year that only 100 PGA Tour cards were awarded after 2 FedEx cards less than 1 last Cup were awarded to Korn Ferry Tour students.
Hossler said he recently met with new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and had a chance to voice some of his opinions.
“Starting last year, I was like 64th (ranked), so let’s say I’m the 70th best player in the world, roughly, I’m probably the 80th best player in the world, I’m in that range. I told him how many times I’m going to see a top five player in the world at a tournament this year,” Ho said. “And the number of times I’m going to see seven of the top 10 players in the world in a tournament this year is literally only if I’m playing in a major or elevated event, or a Player. So if we’re talking about the 70th best baseball player in the world, they’re playing at the highest level every night.
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“And I think there’s something to that, because that’s the kind of competition you want,” Hossler continued. “And speaking from a player’s perspective, you think at that point you’ve earned the right to compete against the best players in the world. Now this year I finished 104th, I’ll take what I’m going to get. I totally accept that. I’m just talking about a wider spectrum, the No. 55 player has to be the best player in the world, playing the best way in the world. players in the world, those top-50 play a lot against each other.
Hossler added that his meeting with Rolapp went well. He called the new chief “remarkable” and said he is an expert in several important areas, but also had the humility and awareness to know what areas he still had to learn about. He said Rolapp created an environment where he felt he could speak freely and seemed to listen to feedback.
“I really think that’s a tremendous quality in someone who’s going to lead anything,” Hossler said. “To tell you, Hey, I know exactly what I’m doing and I know the areas where I need to listen to the people who live it. We had a great conversation.”
For more from Hossler on his schedule, his coffee company, and his Ayahuasca experience in Costa Rica, you can listen podcast here or look at it YouTube below.
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