NORMAN (Oklahoma) — Rico Hoey heard more than his fair share of chit-chat in the last couple of weeks. Who hasn’t heard a lot of chatter in the world of golf?
Hoey is a 27 year old Filipino who sits second on the Korn Ferry Tour Standings. He has a win, T-2, and six top-10 finishes from 14 starts in this season. He is well on his path to securing a PGA Tour Card for next season. There are 30 available in the season long points race. He has no idea how the future will look, as do most people.
The PGA Tour announced two weeks ago that the DP World Tour, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour would be forming a global golf entity. Even though the news is groundbreaking, it’s not clear what the future will look like.
Hoey, who shot a 7-under-par 65 on Thursday in the opening round of the Compliance Solutions Championship held at Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club, said: “I have no idea what is going on.” “I’m really happy to be playing out here, and I will focus on that.” We’ll keep hearing the latest news.
Hoey is not alone in his sentiment. Many players on the Korn Ferry Tour are clueless about what their future will be. Logan McAllister refused to comment because he did not know enough.
The rest of the season is business as usual for most players. No one knows what lies beyond.
Many golfers from the PGA Tour have said the same thing. Many conversations have taken place regarding the possibility of LIV golfers returning to the PGA Tour.
Every time a LIV-tour player returns to the PGA Tour that is another spot that a Korn Ferry Tour would take, or that players like Grant might lose.
There’s a lot of speculation about what the announcement actually means. Brent Grant, for example, is thinking a lot about it.
Grant, who earned his PGA Tour card in 2013, has played 22 times this year. This includes the U.S. Open last week. Grant was not in the Travelers Championship field in Cromwell this week, so he went to Norman, Oklahoma to find his groove on the Korn Ferry Tour with a new driver.
Grant was not present at the RBC Canadian Open, but he was there when the announcement was made. He did not attend the meeting between Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and other players. His feelings are similar to those of many players on both tours.
Grant stated, “At the end of it all, they didn’t give us any answers.” I felt that there were probably more than enough men like me in the meeting, who would say the same thing as me. We were caught off guard. It’s impossible to know if they did the right thing or not because we’re in the dark.
Grayson Murray said, “But guys like myself, who have won and fought to get on Tour feel sold out.” “But you know, I as a novice, they don’t know who am I, so it really doesn’t matter.”
