Thursday Themes - Visionquest Edition

For the record, this is my second keyboard visit of the week....  Does that say "Commitment", or what?

Predictions Are Hard... - So, Brian, what do you want to be when you grow up?  NFL Commissioner?  Sorry about that, but the issue with the Tour hiring from the NFL is that you're inevitably getting the guy who realized the big chair isn't in his future....

So, where to start with his Tate of the Tour?  I guess here:

Opening with a bang, a match-play postseason and a two-track system: 12 revelations about the PGA Tour's (still uncertain) future

At the risk of whiplash, here's Shack's amusing cold open:

Over the course of 30 meetings held by the PGA Tour’s FCC—the august Future Competitions Committee—only one group conclusion could be revealed at Wednesday’s Players Championship press conference.

The concept of “scarcity” has been, uh, well, re-scarcified.

“Ultimately, scarcity is not about the number of events we have, but rather scarcity is about making every event we have matter,” PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said during his televised Global Home address.

To his credit, Rolapp freely answered questions but curiously came armed to a grander setting than usual minus a single announcement—other than to confirm the precise number of meetings held to decide the Tour’s future.

“We have had more than 30 meetings across the Future Competition Committee, our working groups, player meetings, Player Advisory Council discussions, and board sessions,” he said in prepared remarks. “We have had more than 40 conversations with PGA Tour corporate partners, many of whom are in the room today. We have engaged extensively with current and prospective media partners, and we have retained experienced outside experts to help us evaluate competitive models and long-term economics.”

Apparently the key to the NFL's global dominance is endless meetings at which nothing is decided.... At least we have that going for us, but not a single firm announcement?  

The PGA Tour is splitting in two

As Golf Digest reported earlier this year, the tour’s Future Competitions Committee is deep in discussions on creating a two-track competition system. Rolapp said the first track is expected to double the current eight signature events to 16 tournaments, alongside the four majors, the Players and the postseason. Running from late January to early September, the schedule will span 21 to 26 competitions. The second track will function as a promotion-and-relegation tool, with events spread across the calendar year and into the fall. This system does not replace the Korn Ferry Tour and other PGA Tour feeder circuits, which remain intact.

"We are evaluating the role of promotion and relegation across our competitive model," Rolapp said. "We are further strengthening our merit-based system and leaning into what makes professional golf so compelling: players earning their way to the top, with every event having greater meaning."

It always has been two-tier, it's just experiencing dramatic shrinkage....  One can see the logic thereof, but it's a massive reduction of playing opportunities, which may well create a void for others to fill.

Honda will be amused by this:

One of the recurring talking points of Rolapp's tenure has been “scarcity,” widely interpreted in the industry as the elimination of events. As Golf Digest has learned, the endangered events will likely be repositioned to the second track rather than cut entirely. The system essentially formalizes what has effectively been a two-tier structure for years.

Good times.  Rolapp will need sponsor commitment, which is great as long as they didn't notice what was done to Honda.  Its reward for fifty years of sponsorship was the have the Tour put two Signature events befire it and two right after, thereby ensuring that no top 100 player could possible make it to Palm Beach Gardens.   I would have suggested a nice watch, but that's a good present as well....

Lord knows I'd hate to see them leave Memphis in August:

The tour may have new playoff sites

East Lake has hosted the season-ending Tour Championship for decades. The club has history, but it has never quite captured the imagination of the broader golf public. Rolapp was careful to say the club has been a strong partner and that the tour will likely return to Atlanta—but the finale's long-term future there is less certain.

"What we do with the postseason, we're still figuring out," Rolapp said. "There's clearly high demand in some of the discussions we've had. Some of these bigger markets would really like a postseason event. So I think everything is really on the table."

That includes the venue itself. Sources tell Golf Digest that Riviera and Pebble Beach are among the possibilities for a more recognizable final stop.

The sites are quite dreadful, but I'm thinking there's a higher priority....

This is certainly music to my ears, though deviancy has most certainly been defined downward:

No more limited fields, no cut events

One of the signature event series’ most persistent criticisms—from fans, media and players alike—has been its small-field, no-cut format, which drew unflattering comparisons to LIV Golf. Rolapp said the new top tier will feature more players and a cut.

"Our best events will have larger fields. Ideally, we are targeting something closer to 120-player fields with a cut," Rolapp said. "That consistently matters. It helps fans know who they will see and showcases who they want to see—the most competitive players. It helps partners know what they're investing in, and it helps players better understand the competitive landscape in their schedules, all while embracing meritocracy."

Yes, but they stealthily reduced this week's Players' field to that 120....That's not a full field, although 120 is a damn sight better than 70.  Maybe structuring the Tour for the benefit of Patrick Cantlay wasn't the best move....

Sponsor exemptions may be on the outs

Another source of fan frustration—one that cuts against the meritocracy ethos Rolapp keeps invoking—is the sponsor’s exemption system, along with the politics surrounding it. Rolapp appears to recognize the tension.

"It is my opinion we need a better competitive model because we should be delivering fields to the sponsors," he said. "We shouldn't make them work hard to put together a field. We're delivering them something, and they're supporting that. I think we need to be better partners in that. I also have an appreciation for the fact that professional golfers are independent contractors. So their level of job security is in some part tied to the exemptions they have earned. It's a balance. Those are all discussions we're having with the committee—to provide for those things but also deliver the purest competition that fans want."

Peter Malnati hardest hit.

Seriously, the use of the sponsors' exemptions to reward PAC members has been quite the disgusting spectacle.  Adam Scott should be ashamed of himself....

And this teaser that will never happen:

Possible match play in the playoffs

Adding match play to the Tour Championship is hardly a new idea, particularly after the tour eliminated the WGC-Match Play, yet the concept has historically been vetoed by broadcast partners wary of late-round matchups between non-marquee players. Rolapp said match play is back on the table, and possibly for the entire postseason.

“I think a lot of the motivation comes from our fans and our partners who want to see more drama in the events that they attend,” Rolapp said. “I mean, again, the sports business is not that hard; just think like a fan, and 9½ times out of 10, that's probably the right answer.”

Really?  Because its hard to intuit a focus on the fans from the Tour's last few years of changes....  But they do focus like a laser on their core business of screwing sponsors.

This whole bit of going outside the game is to me a curious thing, as Geoff had this on major-gate:

Rolapp addressed The Players-as-a-major debate, joking that his marketing department did a good job creating a conversation even if it almost unanimously produced an “are you kidding, not again” response. But he also indicated that the marketing department wasn’t exactly acting without some inspiration from the CEO.

“I’m not entirely sure how majors become majors,” he said. “The history is really interesting to study. There used to be more majors. There’s fewer majors. I think what’s important, that’s not for us to decide.”

Excuse me, exactly when were there more majors?   And, while we can agree that it's not for you to decide, it seems that you did try to decide and folks weren't amused.....Maybe you should study some actual history?  Can I suggest you start with the Western Open?  What you'll see is the organization that you now run had no respect for its own intellectual property, tossing the second oldest professional tournament in the U.S. out with the bath water.....

See if you enjoy his flailing over the essential "Tour about nothing" nature of the PGA Tour:

When answering a question about the Tour not owning any of the five biggest properties in golf, and whether any ownership stakes are in the Tour’s future, Rolapp suggested he’d like to see more “collaboration” with Augusta National, PGA of America, USGA and R&A.

“I think if you look at all of those golf organizations, at the end of the day, they are entirely financed by professional golf and professional golfers,” he said,. “So the entire ecosystem is funded by the success, or quite frankly—it wouldn’t be successful without the success of professional golf. That to me just lends that there should probably be more collaboration in that regard.” 

Collaboration sounds like someone wanting to be paid for the right to welcome his independent contractors into major championships, which (A) are totally optional to participate in, (B) are capable of raising the profiles of players more than any event owned by the PGA Tour, and (C) kindly offer exemptions to Tour players.

Yes, I'm sure Fred Ridley will appreciate the lecture.   But you need him more than he needs you.....

The one thing everyone can agree on is the hostile media environment.  Here's Rolapp:

"I've read the same reports you have—that they would like to go to the media market earlier. The U.S. media rights market is $30 billion. The NFL currently accounts for $12 billion of that. They have made their public intentions clear; they would like to double that," Rolapp said. "So if you start doing that math and you're anyone other than the National Football League, you ask yourself: Next time I go to market, how do I make sure I have the most compelling product so that we can compete in what is a very complicated media ecosystem that's changing all the time? You see fans changing their habits—television versus streaming. You see the companies and the economics of the industry changing. So it's a very dynamic time in media.

"If you are in the sports business, it behooves you to put your house in order as much as possible. That is a significant part of the work that the Future Competition Committee is doing, and it's one of the reasons why it's so important."

What a perfect fit.  The NFL wants and seems able to double their rights fees, and the PGA Tour is helpfully halving the value of its properties.  Talk about synergy....Or, dare I say, These Guys Are Good!

Jay did well to renew those contracts when he did, but next time tees up as substantially more difficult.

And can this help?

Don't expect a new schedule for 2027

There had been hope in the industry that changes would arrive as soon as next year. Last month at the Genesis Invitational, Tiger Woods moved to temper those expectations. Rolapp echoed the sentiment. Expect some adjustments in 2027—not a wholesale transformation.

"Once decisions have been made and finalized, changes will be implemented through a rolling approach," Rolapp said. "As Tiger has said recently, some elements could be addressed sooner for next season, with more significant change likely implemented for the 2028 season, pending the necessary work with our partners and other operational considerations.

"This is a complex process with many constituencies impacted. We will continue to move with urgency, but we are focused on getting it right."

No hurry, boys.

In a separate post, Geoff gives Rolapp a To-Do list, including this bit:

Acquire the Ryder Cup. The Tour has never been in a better position to strong-arm the PGA of America into selling the event. Or at the very least, increasing the Tour’s ownership stake. The Ryder Cup needs the PGA Tour’s players who’ve already shown they’re willing to take a PR hit over money. So a sell-or-boycott threat might not be the disaster it seems. Especially if it leads to a huge acquisition and more autonomy.

So Rolapp wants to simultaneously declare the Players a major (thereby devaluing the least valuable major, the PGA Championship, demand more cooperation from the PGA of America and force it to divest the Ryder Cup?  Good luck with all that.... Yes, they need the PGA Tour players, but I'm sure the LIV guys would be willing to step in.   I mean, what's a Ryder Cup without Talor Gooch?

Wither Tiger - Color me surprised that Luke Donald is up for the hat trick, but is Tiger not the biggest of all possible dicks?

From that first Shack post, let's lede with what he caused in 2025:

The Guardian’s Ewan Murray points out that the shortened timeline led to USA’s messy 2025 Ryder Cup approach.

“Two years ago, long before Keegan Bradley was called up out of the blue and offered the US captain’s role, Woods publicly pontificated before delivering the slow ‘no’,” he writes. “Nothing much went right for the PGA of America thereafter. Bethpage was a calamity for the hosts on and off the course.”

But Murray also provided Tiger with a dose of Stephen Ames-adjacent bulletin board inspiration.

“Woods’s procrastination does not bode well for the US. Far from providing dramatic effect, it makes their Ryder Cup cohort look unsure. It also makes little sense. This fuels the theory that Adare Manor and an away Ryder Cup (a domain in which Americans have a dismal record) holds little appeal to someone so obsessed with winning. Woods will be well aware he could be shown up by the detail-obsessed Luke Donald.”

Well, it's a little hard to understand what the man wants, because the lack of appeal of Adare should have motivated him to take the captaincy at Bethpage, no?

My thoughts are more along the lines that his relationship with JP McManus makes him want the Aare Manor gig, but of course there needs to be something special in it for him.  More to the point, even if he isn't captain, why wasn't he at Bethpage?  The obvious answer is telling, that he's not a team player and he holds himself apart and above the other guys.  

Your country needs you, Tiger.  Can you fit it into your schedule, or are those LIV negotiations still all-consuming?

What an all-time, self-important D**k!

This was the amusing to-and-from JT's presser:

Q. Curious, have you had any formal or official discussions with anyone about being the next Ryder Cup captain? And specifically I guess along those same lines, would any of them have been Tiger?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Have I personally?

Q. Right. I mean, with the group or what you, just I don’t even know if there is a formal thing that would occur, but...

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, I’m on the Ryder Cup Committee, yeah. Yeah, we’ve had some conversations, but those are all personal within the Committee.

Q. What are you expecting as far as when there might be a resolution, if you can even say?

JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, I think it’s just kind of wait. We wait and see.

That has to be weird.  JT is still all-in on the Ryder Cup, but his a******e buddy just can't be bothered..... And he won't even show up.

Wither Rory - Yeah, it was just precautionary, until it wasn't:

The reigning champion of The Players Championship has officially made it to the PGA Tour's

flagship event during the afternoon of March 11.

McIlroy was spotted by Golfweek's Adam Schupak arriving at The Players Stadium Course, fewer than 24 hours before his scheduled first competitive round. He was heading into the clubhouse.

He withdrew from the Arnold Palmer due to a bad back, marking only the second WD in his PGA Tour career.

McIlroy is set to tee off at 1:42 p.m. ET Thursday off the first, playing alongside Xander Schauffele and Hideki Matsuyama. It's hard to imagine McIlroy not giving it a go this week, but if his back doesn't cooperate, he may not be able to defend his title.

It's being characterized as a game time decision....

Should be a great week, with or without Rory.  Enjoy, and I'll look forward to wrapping it with you on Monday.