Constructive ideas to improve the PGA Tour

[sonnygolf]

Get another star like Tiger.  Other than that the tour is boring, stopped watching ages ago. Yawn!

[chillybilly]

It's a Mad Men era article of faith that the biggest ratings are to be had in the dinner hour on Sunday pushing into 60 Minutes or local news or prime time programming. Speaking of Mad Men, the ratings themselves are still very much of the 60s with the emphasis on live audience.

 

Setting aside for a moment the utter ridiculousness of the anachronism (pun) known as 60 Minutes and its self-serious anchors, it may be a chicken and egg thing. Are the evening ratings great because of lead-ins like golf and NFL football? Or are there that many retirees manning their recliners so they can mainline Broadcast Row's carefully scripted version of the news as they watch, willingly or otherwise, the spillover of golf and football thus skewing the ratings?

 

Whatever the answer, the reality is that golf starts too late and finishes too late. On-course delays are inevitable, it seems, with players, especially those in later groups, resigned to standing around for 10-15 min (!) due to backups. Viewing habits due to lifestyle choices (outdoor activities, travel, etc.) and the mighty DVR have changed. And, if they're honest, the broadcasters will admit that their presentation of golf is so chopped up and ADD-addled that banging on the FF button like a telegraph key is the only way to make sense of the average tournament thanks to interviews with sponsors and superfluous 'tournament summaries' jammed into the flow like kids attempting to dam a creek with plywood. 

 

As the schedule slips, the sun sets and we get the all-too-frequent mad scramble to stage sudden-death playoffs in the twilight or merely for the leaders to finish 18 with a Benny Hill-style scramble to get an interview, present a trophy etc. The only thing missing is the 'Yakety Sax' soundtrack. Even the anchors declare 'we've got the camera irises as far open as they will go' ie it's much darker in person than onscreen. Suddenly 4 days of order turn into 40 min of chaos. And playoffs mean even more nerves, as witnessed by the frequent wild shots hit by the participants and the resulting searches, rulings, endless practice swings for long-odds miracle shots, herding of spectators etc.

 

The belief that leaders must tee off 230-240 Eastern in order to include/capture West Coast audiences at 1130-1140 their time is shaky at best, untested at worst. NFL football starting at 10 AM West Coast time doesn't seem to have any ill effect - quite the opposite.

 

How often do Eastern viewers praise the Open Championship and 'morning golf viewing' or merely appreciate the tournament concluding in the early afternoon? Is there a ratings hit? Perhaps but conditioning is the greatest shaper of behavior and consistently pushing the idea that golf starts and finishes earlier - with plenty of daylight available - will ultimately bear fruit for all.

 

Now...obviously this concept/practice would be different, if not impossible for events on the West Coast but in those situations tournaments stretch well into ie darkness on the East Coast and for those few events the East Coasters seem content and even excited about prime time golf.

[me05501]

A lot of the ideas here involve marginalizing the weak field events that dot the PGAT calendar, but no one is talking about how weak events can become strong ones. 
 

There are several examples of this happening through the years.

 

The event at Quail Hollow is a good one. It wasn’t necessarily a premier event until the tournament board  decided they wanted it to be. Their strategy was to pamper the players on and off the course in ways that make it a very appealing event to play. Now it has climbed the ladder to become a strong field event. 
 

There was another tournament in years past that was scheduled the week before the Open Championship. Understanding that the schedule slot limited their field, the event board decided to charter a plane to the UK for any players who played in their event and were also in the Open field. 
 

This year there were all kinds of top players going over a week or two early just to play courses they’d never experienced. There was no purse size that would have kept them home for the week prior to the Open. To me, that’s a sign that they’re making plenty of money. They’re just peeved now because some others are making even more. 

[me05501]

On another angle, it remains to be seen whether OEM’s will see the value in continuing to pay big sponsor money to LIV players. AFAIK none of those contracts have come up for renewal since the split. 

[Barfolomew]

Tell the players they are allowed to show some personality..... even the smallest amount would make the broadcast a million times better.  The days of super buttoned up 1950s golf makes for a boring TV program.  We dont want a circus but just a comment here or there.....

 

Players being extremely boring is fine when they were alone with no cameras like in high school and college golf but cameras are on and were falling asleep

[Cali_Stinger77]

I know this probably isn't a popular idea, but I'd like to see is more alternate field events on tour.  The PGA Tour is pouring in so much money into bonuses like the PIP and Comcast Business bonus (see below for details) which is all great, but I think rookies and journeymen are getting the short-end of the stick here. 

 

I think the tour could definitely throw in a few more alternate field events on the schedule. They'd need to figure out the purses but I'm sure they could pull it off.

 

I've drafted what this would look like hypothetically.

 

 

Opposite Torrey Pines

Opposite Riviera  

Puerto Rico Open

Opposite The Players

Corales Putacana 

Opposite the Zurich 

Opposite Colonial

Opposite Memorial

Barbasol

Barracuda

Opposite Ryder Cup/Presidents Cup

 

 

These tournaments would be opposite invitationals and big events with the winner getting about ~300 fec events, $800k and a 1 yr exemption on tour plus whatever the OWGR pts come out to.  Guys like Finau/Hovland were grinding it out at these tournaments a couple years ago and now they're winning on tour, contending in majors, and playing in Ryder Cups. There's a ton of potential stars out there just need an opportunity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" Four more big money events with $46 million of additional prize money, plus another $50 million for the PIP program plus money to support the new Earnings Assurance Program, means the tour will be spending another $100 million on players. Asked where the funding for this will come from, Monahan said the source is three-fold: money remaining in the current budget, money from the PGA Tour's reserve funds and money from tour sponsors."

 

[jjgott]

10 hours ago, Cali_Stinger77 said:

I know this probably isn't a popular idea, but I'd like to see is more alternate field events on tour.  The PGA Tour is pouring in so much money into bonuses like the PIP and Comcast Business bonus (see below for details) which is all great, but I think rookies and journeymen are getting the short-end of the stick here. 

 

I think the tour could definitely throw in a few more alternate field events on the schedule. They'd need to figure out the purses but I'm sure they could pull it off.

 

I've drafted what this would look like hypothetically.

 

 

Opposite Torrey Pines

Opposite Riviera  

Puerto Rico Open

Opposite The Players

Corales Putacana 

Opposite the Zurich 

Opposite Colonial

Opposite Memorial

Barbasol

Barracuda

Opposite Ryder Cup/Presidents Cup

 

 

These tournaments would be opposite invitationals and big events with the winner getting about ~300 fec events, $800k and a 1 yr exemption on tour plus whatever the OWGR pts come out to.  Guys like Finau/Hovland were grinding it out at these tournaments a couple years ago and now they're winning on tour, contending in majors, and playing in Ryder Cups. There's a ton of potential stars out there just need an opportunity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" Four more big money events with $46 million of additional prize money, plus another $50 million for the PIP program plus money to support the new Earnings Assurance Program, means the tour will be spending another $100 million on players. Asked where the funding for this will come from, Monahan said the source is three-fold: money remaining in the current budget, money from the PGA Tour's reserve funds and money from tour sponsors."

 

 

So like a joint Korn Ferry/PGA Tour event?

[Cali_Stinger77]

10 hours ago, jjgott said:

 

So like a joint Korn Ferry/PGA Tour event?

 

I mean you could think of it as an elevated KFT event in terms of SOF.  Per the Fedex Cup standings there's currently 247 players on tour and the non-member list has 147 guys on it minus the 10 LIV guys.  I think it would also be a good idea to give anyone who's won a DP Tour event the prior calendar year an exemption into these events

 

 

The fields who look something like this:

• Anyone who qualified for the KFT finals the prior calendar year (75 players)
• Anyone who won a DP Tour event the prior calendar year (47 events)
• Priority rankings to get the field to 144 or whatever

I think a better way to think of this would be as a "Pathway Series" on tour. The events aren't super prestigious, but it's an opportunity to win a PGA Tour event.

 

[kasting333]

On 8/23/2022 at 9:04 AM, me05501 said:

On another angle, it remains to be seen whether OEM’s will see the value in continuing to pay big sponsor money to LIV players. AFAIK none of those contracts have come up for renewal since the split. 

How many of the LIV guys have huge OEM deals? Phil, DJ… anyone else?

 

I do think the OEM team thing that’s being floated by srixon would work very well on either tour 

[me05501]

3 hours ago, kasting333 said:

How many of the LIV guys have huge OEM deals? Phil, DJ… anyone else?

 

I do think the OEM team thing that’s being floated by srixon would work very well on either tour 

 

Bubba has a lifetime deal with Ping and has been their "face" for a long time. Bryson obviously has held a similar role with Cobra but I'm not sure either party has been thrilled with the other. 

[FairwaysToHeaven]

How about a separate series within the Tour schedule - a rebranded Wonderful World of Golf

 

Take the top 16 players as of Jan 1 2023 - then throughout the 2023 hold match play events at fun well known courses. Mic'd up players and primetime golf would be great. 

 

Its "The Match' without the celebrity amateur portion 

[kasting333]

7 hours ago, me05501 said:

 

Bubba has a lifetime deal with Ping and has been their "face" for a long time. Bryson obviously has held a similar role with Cobra but I'm not sure either party has been thrilled with the other. 

Oh Bubba and Bryson for sure.
 

Bryson and Cobra just don’t seem like a fit. He was their first major winner in a long while so they can’t be too disappointed. 
 

I do hope Bryson creates his own equipment company at some point. I think the club and ball industry is a little over saturated with the same ideas. 

[Joe2418]

Nearly every one of the PGA Tour's regular season events follow the same format - a cut after two rounds and the event purse divided among the survivors on the last of four days.  This suggestion may seem to alter that format, but my contention is that it adds to the format in an interesting way, both to fans as well as to players.

 

This suggestion begins with a division of the total event purse being divided in half, one half being used for prize money in the usual manner; i.e., The winner getting 18%,, etc.  The other half, however, is divided into quarters.  On Day One (usually Thursdays), the players are awarded prize money in exactly the same manner as they would as if they played four days.  On Fridays, they start all over again - which gives every player, no matter how poorly he played on Thursday, the chance to 'start over', and began - along with every other player - at Square One.  Saturday and Sunday would be the same: prize money for each day.   OVERALL, HOWEVER, THE TOP FINISHER FOR FOUR ROUNDS WOULD STILL GET HIS 18% OF THE REMAINING HALF OF THE PRIZE MONEY.

 

I think this would give each player a stimulus to attack each day, and would provide fans and viewers with fresh competitions to follow on each and every day of the tournament.

 

 

[Titleist99]

What I'd like to see:

 

Two SUPER tournament a year on the PGAT. 200 players, two weeks, Iconic golf course and $15M to the winner. 10 year exemption on the PGAT with payment like the lottery $5M over three years.

 

Definitely keep the $18M FedEx Cup. Definitely at Eastlake.

 

This would be contingent on having another investor though.

[SurfDuffer]

Its the winter doldrums here in the NorthEast so I tuned in on Sunday to the last two events.  Most of the players both weeks were players I'd never heard of and had very little interest in watching.  The number one thing the PGA needs to do is burry the hatchet with that other tour that took away all of the interesting players and incentivize those players to come back and play their events.