Fire Drill 067: In The Room Where It Happened

professional golf. The PGA Tour has announced some sweeping changes to the structure of the tour and what the elevated events are gonna look like going forward. I am delighted to be joined by a gentleman who's been in the room where it happened to quote Hamilton, Peter Ramalnaughty, one of the five player directors who runs the PGA Tour. Essentially, Peter, thank you for doing this, thank you for having me out, and I appreciate it's going to be it's gonna be

a tumultuous time here. So let's put some truth out there exactly. So. One of the criticisms of the tour in the past is that the player directors and the player advisory committee has skewed towards the best, most successful players who may not be fully in touch with the membership as a whole. And so I think one of the reasons why you got elected to the board is you were going to represent the tour middle class, if

you will. Because the other directors are Rory McElroy, we know who he is, Patrick Cantley, top ten player in the world US Open, Champ Webb Simpson, and Charlie Hoffman, who's won about one hundred million dollars in the PGA Tour. It feels like and and so I think folks were thinking Peter mulnaughty is gonna is gonna He's gonna be the man who's in an obstructionist as as the delaware you know, twenty three you try and reshape the tour um. But of course um hasn't quite played out like that.

I know from our text matches today you've had a change of heart and you're thinking about about the structure of things. Can you walk us through how how you're thinking has evolved and what you think of these new changes? Yeah, I mean I definitely can and and I will be the first to admit um. You know, I was I was. I was disappointed with the tour coming out of the

Delaware meeting. You know that the the frame that the tour tried to put on that was, look, how invested our stars are they they're meeting and and to me and a lot of my peers, I think it felt like, well, I mean, the tour has a governance process and we're ignoring it, like, you know, we're just that this isn't leadership, this is you know, blackmail like like like like I think there was a lot of um, there was a lot of angst, for sure, and and I was at the very top of that, like I was. I was,

I was frustrated. I didn't think that was right. I felt annoyed. Sure, I do, I do really appreciate and did really appreciate that, you know, these guys want to be here playing on the PGA Tour, but um, it felt to me like they didn't want to respect the you know, the forty or fifty years of process has gone into building the PGA Tour. So as recently as um as recently as last Wednesday, I was adamantly against the idea of the PGA Tour adding small field, no

cut events to its schedule. I just that that seems antithetical to me from the tour's mission of identifying and rewarding the best golfers in the world. I feel like, you know, just on a simple, simple scale, it just seems less competitive to me to have to be sixty nine other guys and it does have to be one hundred and nineteen other guys for one hundred and fifty five other guys for some of our full field events in the summer. So so I was I was just

adamantly opposed. It felt to me like a way to put more money into the pockets of the top players directly, just just to hand it to them. And that's that's that's how it felt. And I was, you know, I was standing so strongly against that. UM. And last week we had a call the WEB. We call ourselves the OPS Committee, but essentially it's the player Directors UM UM, you know, the policy board, So none of the none of the independent directors, but just the players UM are

the OPS Committee. And we talk about tournament operations UM. And so obviously there's the only one real subject right now is you know, what does our what does our product looked like? What's our future model. UM. And so last Wednesday we had a call to talk about this and kind of the tour, the tour brass sort of um, you know, they they proposed this model that they basically the way this was kind of the way this came to be. They set it up as as kind of a a dicot or not. I don't know. It's a

trichotomy of thing three three three things. Um. There was essentially kind of coming out of the Delaware meeting, it seems like there was you know, if if if the tour had just given that group of twenty three players everything they wanted, we would we would essentially have either a two tour system or just you know, one elite PGA tour and then something else for the rest of us. UM.

So that was definitely a two tour system. So that was you know, an option that was here at the top of the page, kind of at the bottom of the page was this idea of well, let's do nothing, Let's just keep keep moving forward with you know, we got invitations one hundred and twenty player fields, we've got um, you know, our regular FETs Cup events. Um, you know, maybe throw twenty million dollars in the purse of a a few events where we can somehow sell that to sponsors, whatever,

just just move forward without changing anything. And so this this new model, which is in the middle of those two was proposed and the tours kind of coined it the designated event model. And you know, it's been through many, many, many iterations. But I sat in this meeting last Wednesday, this OPS committee meeting, and it's like, no paid it, absolutely hate it. No, you know, more events, small field, no cut. You know, you're taking playing opportunities away from

the members. It's just terrible. But in the days after that meeting, some of the points that they made started to sink in a little bit as I, you know, your brain kind of you go in with just this idea, and as I let this, I let some of the stuff that they said sink in. There became these moments where it's like, gosh like because to me, like any good point that they made in that meeting was just, oh, they're just saying that so they can give the top

players what they want. They're just saying that so they can give the top players what they want. But then as it sank in and I tried to have a little bit more of an open mind about it. I started to sense some like there's some some merit to some of these things that were saying. And I'll get into the details of what it was they were saying, but essentially when we got to so by the time I got there for the Policy Board meeting on Tuesday, I'm still like adamant that I'm going to represent the

middle and bottom thirds of the PGA tour membership. That that's that's my job in that room. So so to me, that still means I've got to protect playing opportunities. I've got to fight for you know, these these fields to be bigger, got to fight for him to be you know, you know, full fields, close to full fields, you know,

more more playing opportunities, and then to be getting the room. Um, the Tour head was able between the time of our our Ops Committee meeting and the Policy Board meeting, they've been able to to create some visual graphics of of the data that they've been able to create through through some simulations that they've run, and it was really really clear that, um, the way to protect the middle third and the bottom third of the PGA Tour membership is

to move forward with this model that has small fields, uh, in the in the Destiny events, because that that sort of COUNTERINTUITI I want, that's a really key point here. Explain that so hard for me to wrap my head around. It took a week. So so that's what I actually, I've written a note that I've sent out to a lot of my peers on the tour, a lot of people who were who were, in all honesty somewhat counting on me, I think to go in and not let

this happen. Um. So I've written this note because you're right, incredibly counterintuitive, incredibly hard to wrap my head around. And I told them in this note that a road that it took me a week. It took me a week of simmering on this for it to kind of settle down and make sense. So I don't expect them to be okay with it in a day. Um. But but the nuts and bolts of it is this, Um, you know, the events that the events that the majority of the

tour can count on to play every year. UM. That's not to say that they're you know, lesser events, but you know, if we look, you know, if you look on the West coast, you've got the MX tournament which uses multiple courses. Farmers Insurance uses multiple courses, so there's a big fields um. Yeah, yeah, we at pebbles, multiple courses, big field um. And then you move move west a movie sorry, to Florida, and you've got you know, the the Honda Classic, which will you know, still exist with

a new sponsor moving forward. And then vals bar Um in Tampa, which is you know, a great, amazing golf of course, but but you know, a bigger field kind of falls right around a couple of big events, so it doesn't always get supermarket names. So but all these events, you know, and you go all the way, take that through the summer. And I made this little analogy today in my head too, where like, you know, there's all these all these people who are like like me've been

on tour for several years. I've never made it to superstar status, you know, never never never sniffed a tour championship, but also have kept their card for several years. Um. And so I called them like those are the Peter

Malnaughties of the tour. And then with our tournaments, you have all these tournaments that are the John Deer Classics of the PGA tour schedule that are absolutely amazing events that may not always get or may never get the top how like like if if you look at the John Your Classic, I think it gets one to two of the top fifty players in the world, most most summers.

Yet if you look at what it does, it gives, Like I think the last several summers, it's given more than ten million dollars back into the Mulling community and to two charities in the Milling community. And it's a well attended event. It's a loved event by that community.

It's a loved event by players on tour. So the reason that this new model works for every single member of the PGA Tour and helps every single member of the PGA Tour is if we had one hundred and twenty guys playing eight designated events, that takes not only the top tier of players out of the full field facts couple events, it takes a lot of the middle tier out as well, because if they know they're immemorial, if they know they're in, you know, whatever events, they're gone.

We don't know for sure what events they're going to out, but we can count on the player hosts invitations. I think being being elevated. But if if the top tier and middle tier know that they're in these designated events, they're going to skip, Um, you know, they're going to skip all these events in the middle of the schedule.

They're going to skip the Classics, the vals, bars, the John DearS, they're going to skip them, and those events won't be able to sustain the level that they've come to to to know whatether it's a purse level going back to the players, or a community impact level that

they have in the towns where they are. But under this model, and there's so much about this model that's good actually because um, there's always going to be playing opportunities to get into the designated events always, and the full field regular FedEx Cup events are all going to serve as a qualifying way to get into the designated events. Um, we're going to see you know, a couple of names that I could pick out. If I looked at our

I guess this season is so so so early. But if I look at our our season and just take where it is right now, you know, imagine that we're a year ahead. We're in twenty twenty four, but we've got the FedEx Coup lists that we have currently right now.

You would have guys, you know, you would have guys like you know, Billy Horshell's and Gary Woodlands, and guys that fans love, fans know, fans root for, that need to play these events, these full field, regular FedEx couple events because they might not necessarily be in a smaller field designated event, and so they're going to play. And it's going to make those events easier to sell the sponsors,

easier to sell the media partners. Those events are going to be able to not only sustain the level they're at, I think they will truly be able to grow. And there's really wise people on the policy board that agreed with that, like that thought that they could realistically see growth for those events even though they're living in a world now that consists of eight of these designated or

elevated events. I think we can realistically strengthen every event on the PJ Tour under this model, and I don't think we could if we at the larger fields that I originally fought so hard for. So, if I'm hearing you correctly, you think it's that middle tier of players that are going to support the lesser tournaments on tour, and they're going to be difference makers, but I still

think it's a star driven enterprise. And by kind of codifying that there's these two different tours in some ways, the John Deers and the Bob Hopes and some of those are are they ever going to get top players? And if if they don't get the top twenty or thirty guys, can they really survive? As as as the tour becomes more bifurcated, I think one thing that the tour is getting so right here that I didn't give them any credit for this. M A smaller field also

means it's hard to be in those designated events. So if you look like like a superstar has a couple of meetings on tour, like the superstar is the person who's playing great right now, and obviously the top ten in the world, you know, like Addie Scheffler, absolutely a superstar. But but in terms of our fan base, like Ricky Fowler's having a great year right now, so he's a

he's back up to a level. But for the last several years Ricky would not be in these designated events and you can't call him anything other than a superstar. And if you look at like, um, you know a fran Molinari. Frand Millinari is an absolute superstar in the game, but he hasn't played well for a couple of years. So he's not going to be in these designated events and he's going to need and want to get in them.

Like that's the world strife for so this year, the schedule sucks and we all know that, like, like the Tour knows that, every single constituent group knows that, Like, you know, the Honda Classic being Sandwich designated designated Honda designated players terrible. No one wanted that. It was a trans It's a transition year. It's tough. The thing that got me to open my mind in the first place was looking at the cadence of the schedule for twenty

twenty four. It's beautiful. I truly think that even even the Rory mcelroys, and I mean they're going to have to play some of the full field events because they can't. Like that's another good thing the Tour got right is the number of these designated events, Like there's not too many.

They don't dominate the schedule, but the full field Regular Effects Cup events, some of the top guys, they're going to pick one out of the three pretty much every time I think to play, you know, because there's like I said that, the schedule has a beautiful flow. It goes like designated event full field, full field, full field, designated designated full field, full field, designated players, full field, full field. So there's always two and a lot of

times three full field events between designated events. And so I think even the top players will will most of those blocks pick one of the full field events to play, especially when they're in blocks of three, and so that helps. And then like I, like I was saying before, I just think, you know, there are several names in this middle group of tour players who have great, great, great name name recognition with fans and and are easy sales for for title sponsors who are like, oh, yeah, you know,

we're gonna get Gay Woodland this year. We're gonna get Ricky Fowler this year, We're gonna get you know, whoever the case may be that maybe didn't have their best best play, because honestly, at a number as small as seventy, these destinated events are going to be hard to get in. And you know, another thing, I just really I truly believe that the strength of the entire schedule will be improved by this, which I that's a one eighty for me. I must admit that that's a one eighty for me.

A week ago, I thought small field no cuts were just horrible for the tours model and for the middle and bottom of the membership. And I have I haven't nudged myself toward thinking it's okay. I'm flipped to where

I think this is a really good idea. Well, let's talk about the no cut because this has been a flashpoint, and obviously hovering over all of this is live golf, and you know, I thought the strongest talking point the tour had is that that we are a hardcore competition and live is more of an exhibition and they don't have to earn it out there. And now all of a sudden, the tour has gone to smaller fields, no

cut guaranteed money. This feeling by some people it's a clothes shop, even though there can be some turnover, But once you're in these elevated events, it's going to help you stay in the elevated events. So do you worry that that a fundamental component of the PGA tour is being lost that that need to make the cut to earn your spot and to prove it and at the same time also delineate yourself from the competition. Like a lot of people are upset about losing the cuts, especially

in the most important event. So what is your response to that. I worry about that a lot. That that is something, um, you know, from as far down as you know, I get to UM, I'm really lucky I live. I live near the University of Tennessee. They have a wonderful practice facility for their golf teams, and so I mentored some of the kids on that team who are really really good, and and you know they'll ask me a lot, you know, you know, what's the biggest step?

What do I need to do? How do I? And I always tell him was like in the college Chennamant. You know, if you play, allows you the first two days and you'll play great the third day, you still help your team, you still feel good, it's all good. Pro tournament you play allows you the first two days. You just spent you know on a minute tour. You've probably spent fifteen hundred to two thousand bucks on a PGA tour. You've spent you know, four to eight thousand

bucks and you don't you don't get anything. You go home like you're done, and and that's that sucks. And that's a real thing in professional golf. And so you know, I've thrown this in the Commissioner's space a lot of times that the first week Live played, it was, you know, I don't even know where they played, somewhere in London or something. We were at the RBC Canadian Open, and Commissioner went on CBS in the Sunday broadcast and he said, what we do at the PGA Tour is true and

pure competition. And I've I've I've thrown that line at him incessantly over the last months because like, we can't, we can't have no cut events and say we do true and pure competition. That's just And I've been I've been adamant about that. And so I'll tell you why I'm why I'm at peace with this new model, UM, And it's it's the fact that I'll tell you the difference between between us and whatever I'm supposed to call

him Live, UM. The differences Live guys were handpicked, not always based based sometimes on popularity, not based on recent results or anything like that. They were handpicked to play in a field where they're guaranteed to make a lot of money. These UM, these designated events will have nobody

that was handpicked. They're gonna have UM there, there will be there will be sponsors, exemptions maximum of four I think I don't know if I'm even maximum of four for sure, But but they're not going to be they're going to be restricted to there's gonna be we haven't

hammered out all the details. They're going to be restricted to either life members, which is Tiger, you know, or people who are in form right now, like they're not gonna be able to just you know, the tournaments aren' gonna able to say, oh, yeah, well we sponsor this guy,

so we want tom nd. It's got to be someone who is you know, whether whether the que with some crew criteri we talked about was top hundred in the world currently for sponsors, invite or um multiple wins on the PGA Tour in the last five years, um, something

along those lines. There will be nobody in a designated event who is being handed a spot and being handed you know what, it's last place money or anything like every person in those fields has played well to qualify for them, and it's either he played incredibly well the last season consistently over an entire season and so that got you in, or you're hot right now and you've played really well in the you know, the weeks or months leading up to this designated event to get in them.

So the players who play in a designated event have earned the right to be there with their scores on the course and nothing else, and so that that is a big difference. That is still a gray area for me. I've even pitched the idea, which you know, we're not going to do this in year one for sure. I don't know that we will ever do it. But I've even pitched the idea of embracing the small field, but embraced a smaller cut, Like you know, we could have a seventy five player field cut to top forty and

ties after the first two days. That's possible, and I think that would achieve everything that we've talked about wanting to do, but not going to do that in your one um, but the cut, the cut is massively important. I'm at peace with this plan. I can sell this plan to the membership because of the fact that you have to earn your right to be in a designated event. There are no spots handed out to anyone in them.

What has been the reaction from your your peers in the last twenty four to thirty six hours as the details have leaked out? Yeah, I mean yeah, predictable Like where was I? Where was I seven days ago? I was? I was adamant that no no cut, small field, no cut events were just a cop out and a horrible path forward for the PGA Tour. So when when my peers learned that they feel the same way, UM, I will say, Um, the tour did a tore did a really really, really good job of actually giving us we

asked for an ops ops committee. I'm not I'm not on an island. Like like, Rory is an incredibly thoughtful leader and quite a appreciate him. Obviously, he's been a superstarring golf since he was a teenager. UM, so his perspective will be different than mine. But he is a thoughtful guy. I appreciate him. UM. Charlie Hoffman and Web Simpson UM are particularly a tune to the voice of the entire membership. So it's not like I'm on on an island, like the only one in there, fighting fighting

for this. But but I was. I was particularly impressed with the tour Um in the data that they were able to give us. You know, they they they have a I don't know how it works. I'm pretty ignoranous to the details of the technology, but they were able to run simulated a thousand simulated seasons under the projected plan that we've put forward um and and you know, the results and these thousand simulated seasons were actually really

impressive to see. You know, what percentage of players playing in the full field events came from the top one twenty five from the previous year category or higher, versus what percentage came from you know, the corn ferry tour

category or below. And if we did one twenty player fields, it was not a good ratio, Like there were only you know, the average event was only going to have I'm going to butcher the number, but approximately like thirty to thirty five percent of the field of in a full fiel event would be from one twenty five the previous year or above, and the rest would be you know, the corn frarier category and then below that whereas at small field for these events, it was significantly more than

fifty percent of the fields being filled by top one twenty five and above category. And so to see that, to see that data, um, you know, really really really swayed and influenced me. And the other thing I'll say, um, if I may, without even asking m the other thing that that was incredibly important to me. I remember, I remember a conversation I had with Maverick nearly. Maverick is a very very smart, smart leader on the tour, an

obviously great player too. But Maverick and I talked about the ideas that were being sort of rumored coming out of the Delaware meeting, and Maverick, you know, smart, uses big words. He said, it's okay, it's okay to create He's I think it's okay to create a stratified tour where you have, like, you know, a higher tier events and a lower tier events. The problem is if you have stratification with no mobility, you have to have mobility.

And when he said that, I was like, because I wasn't really okay with a stratified tour at that point. I was just like, you know, I liked the idea of you know, all of us playing together all the time and whatever. It's just thought. You know, I didn't want it to be I didn't want anyone to tell me it was gonna be harder for me to play in the memorial because I like the memorial, darn it um. But this new model like another thing they were able

to do with that those thousand simulated seasons. What it revealed was that there was sixty four percent retention within the top fifty from one year to the next, which means thirty six percent turnover, which means eighteen guys in and eighteen guys out. That's pretty good mobility. Honestly, if you think about what like, you know, if you're handing the top fifty eight no cut events with higher concentration

of fis cup points to the top ten. The fact that there's eighteen guys that you know in an average season, you know, some seasons more some seasons if you last, but always centered right around eighteen guys, that's a pretty good amount of mobility. I was. I was very worried when this was when this was presented, that we would have you know, eight or ten guys able to move

in and out of the top fifty. So if if eighteens the average, that that actually that that to me, that says to me and to the other you know, the other one hundred and thirty male natties of the PGA tour, go work your ass off, like go go go, go, go get good, like go do it because you can. This is not closed like it's tight. It's small, but it's not closed. So go and and I really I left the pack meet or the board meeting like proud of the fact that I had had an open enough

mind to see this and excited about the future. But as much as anything motivated to go be a part of it, like that was, it didn't. It didn't feel like a closed shop to me, and the data really proves that it's not or reveals that it's not. So I'm super excited. It's a rallying cry for this chaotic

era stratification with mobility, like I love it. Did you see some of the chortling from the live golf guys on social media and otherwise basically saying, hey, thanks for stealing our idea of how did that land with you? I didn't see anything. I don't see anything. I'm you know, it's funny it was out there, I'll put it. Put it that way up. Well, I mean that's predictable obviously. Yeah, very fanciable. I Uh, I had my first my son was born in October of twenty nineteen, and yeah, I

mean I was. I never had a huge Twitter following or anything of it. I was never I was never very good on Twitter. Um. I'm no Maxilma. You know, I'm no Maxilma, no Joel Damon um Um. But you know, I just I decided when my son was born. I was like, you know what, it may make me less valuable, it may make my my my my bay, hurt my brand. I'll have a brand, don't really care. Um. I deleted all my social media and I'm I'm happier, I am wiser,

I am more sane for doing so. Like I really, you know, I really feel, I really feel a greater sense of peace. Not always knowing what's going on. Obviously, I don't need to be on social media to know what the response is to what we're doing is it's it's I mean, it is a hard time. Like ideally I would not have ever chosen to have events on tour with no cut I just don't think that's I think cuts are essential to competition at the highest level

and professional golf. But given where we are, I think this model that we just proposed is damn good and I think it's going to really, really, really help the entire PGA Tour from top to bottom. It's I ran for the board on the message that I'm going to fight for the middle and lower tiers of the PGA Tour, and in a very strange and ironic way, I just did that, like I just did, and and that's I didn't think that going in. But it takes you know,

we always I's cool. I got to meet U, one of the new I have a fellow rookie on the PGA Tour Policy Board named Jimmy Dunn, and Jimmy Jimmy said to me, I actuald say something because I told him. I told him what my thoughts were going into this. I explained to him where and why, and you know, he was really you know, I think he saw merit in my concerns too. And then at the end of the meeting he said to me, he said, you know what, you can't be sure if something unless you doubted it first.

And I don't really know if that's just one of those things you hang on the wall, or if there's actually some truth in that. But I really like, I really feel really confident that the decisions that came out of this meeting yesterday are going to make the PGA Tour stronger, way more marketable, and honestly, for every single member from top to bottom, we're going to have more high quality playing opportunities. And that's that's what I went in there to fight for, and in a way that

I didn't expect, I think we came out with that result. Well. A sign of intelligence is that you're willing to change your mind when confronted with new information. So I salute your ability to change course because that's not easy to do. That takes a certain humility and an open mindedness that a lot of us don't have. So I mean that that's impressive. At Another sign of intelligence is deleting social media. So Peter Monody, possibly the smartest man in golf, we've

established on this podcast. I will I will tell the listeners that I promise Peter we'd keep this short because it's almost nine o'clock on Orlando. He wants to put his son to bed. And oh, by the way, you've got the little golf tournant to play in bay Hill tomorrow, so we're gonna let you go. Peter. You've been quite a sport and a gent so thank you for doing this. I think your thoughts are valuable to the golf fans out there who are trying to make sense of this

changing landscape. So thinking the time, definitely yeah, And I'll leave them with one message. It's it's this is hard, hard because this is big change and this isn't what. This isn't what I this isn't what I wanted to see come out of this. But now that I know the I know the details, and I know how how this change will affect the PGA Tour, it's gonna make um, it's going to make the The designated events obviously will have you know, close close to one hundred percent attendants

from the top fifty players in the world. You know, we'll miss a few, but close to two hundred percent tents. So they're going to be they're going to be a spectacle, you know, eight times through out the season. We're going

to have that in addition to the majors. What this is really really going to do is you know, last week, for fans that watched UM Chris Kirk and Eric Cole battle it out down the stretch, those two guys are both ballooned out in the stretch, and the winner is going to be exempted to the designated events for the rest of the season. And the guy that finished the second is certainly going to accrue enough points during that swing to be in the next as a designated event.

And these events are going to be big enough and fun enough and and cool enough that there's actually going to be cool storylines from the events in between. So the tour, the tour got more compelling yesterday, and honestly, it really didn't even get I was worried that it was going to get less fair. It didn't. It got

more compelling, more interesting. And yeah, it's gonna be harder for the Peter mile mondage at the tour to be in these designated events moving forward, But if I play well enough, I'll be there, and so will Eric Cole, and so will Joel Damon, and so will you know, the rookie who just got his card. If they play well enough, they can be in these designated events. And so that's that system is is shockingly to me. It's gonna be amazing and so let's go. Must be ready

for it. I love it all right. Well again, thank of your time. That was pure ill naughty. This is alan Ship Knock. There's another Fire Drill podcast and uh we will keep bringing you the breaking news of the golf world, which is fast and furious these days. So thanks Peter for his time and thanks for listening. That's the end. I bet big and I played the win, made a fortune within my ship game. I ran the table,

never thought I could fall. Then the winter time hit me like a cannon the ball and now I can't shake this losing the stream. Every road I take is a dead end stream. I got thoughts in my head, can't get him out, trying not to think what I'm thinking about. I got thoughts in my head, can't get them out, trying not to think what I'm thinking about.