KAPALUA (Hawaii) — On the rolling hills at West Maui’s former pineapple plantation, and amid an array a state’s trademark rainbows, 39 PGA Tour pros will embark on a chase for a pot in gold at Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course.
The PGA Tour will debut its first 10 tournaments with lucrative purses – $15M this week, nearly twice the amount of a year ago – aimed at attracting top players to play against each other more often. The Sentry Tournament of Champions this week attracted 17 of 20 top players in the world. World No. 1 Rory McIlroy chose to skip it. The Tour has elevated three of the seven West Coast Swing tournaments to a higher status this year with the WM Phoenix Open, and the Genesis Invitational hosted in Los Angeles by Tiger Woods.
Adam Scott, a Tour veteran, said that he was excited to see how the Tour participants are receiving them throughout the year. “Change is needed. If you don’t change, you get run over. The world is moving ahead. “I’m looking forward to something new.”
If everything goes according to plan, Tour elite players will be competing against each other at most 17 times per annum. This idea of the top players competing against one another more often was created by players to stop more top talent leaving LIV Golf. The circuit will now have 14 events. Patrick Cantlay is one of the many who believes that LIV Golf has made professional golf more accessible by forcing the Tour into adapting.
He said, “I think it’s been fascinating how it’s changed golf. As in, like everyone’s trying innovate and make it better all of the sudden.” “I believe that this will be a huge benefit to the viewer because I believe now more than ever competition has made people evolve and helped them think outside of the box.
“I think it’s been great and will benefit professional golf over the long-term. It’s been a polarizing topic that people feel emotionally about something that’s been the same for so long.
Some believe the Tour’s events aren’t that different from what it did in the 1990s to fight Greg Norman, LIV Golf CEO, Commissioner, and his previous attempt for a breakaway circuit. Will Zalatoris is a member the Tour’s Player Advisory Council and noted that it will not change his schedule in any significant way. He called it “a rebrand, or a rename depending on how you look at it.”
Are the Tour’s changes enough to attract more fans and ward off player defections?
Scott stated, “What I hope the Tour and its broadcast partners do is a really great job of making a big deal about how strong the fields these particular weeks and will it resonate what people want to hear.” If everyone shows up, the fields will be spectacular. The elevated events will be like a group of World Golf Championship events.
Jay Monahan, Tour Commissioner, has a dream. This will allow tournament directors to promote the appearances of top players in advance. On the flip side, how about the 30-plus events that are struggling to attract star power?
Zalatoris stated that 47 events can make it difficult to maintain the product’s strength. “Now we are just trying to ensure that our product remains as strong as possible.” “And, quite honestly, no, I don’t worry about these other events or worrying about their viability, or what it will be going forward.”
Top players can skip designated events while still receiving their Player Impact Program bonus. McIlroy’s non-show at the first designated event will set the trend for players to take turns skipping the Tour’s premier events. Zalatoris disagrees.
Zalatoris stated, “Why would you turn down any of nine events where we play for $20 million against some of the best players in world golf?” “I would play golf at home so it makes sense to me to play against the best players in the game.”
