I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
And when I find my ball in a frid Egg.
Friday egg, the dreaded Friday Friday, Frida Egg brid Egg fridagg.
Bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump. Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast. I am your host, Andy Johnson. Today I am going to talk about the new PGA Tour changes, the proposed PGA Tour changes for the twenty twenty six season. Long story short kind of what they entail a less exempt to less exemptions across the tour, one hundred exemp players down from one to twenty five, smaller fields, and
a host of other things. So to join me in talking about this, I wanted to get some different perspectives, so I had Ryan French of Monday Q. He is Monday Q, a popular Twitter account, website, podcast is podcast is any Given Monday. Ryan is very kind of on the side of there should be more pathways, more spots, Monday qualifiers, so on, so forth for the PGA Tour.
On the other side kind of, I guess I would describe myself in the middle as Joseph Lamania from Friday Golf regularly joins this podcast regularly writes in the Friday Golf newsletter. So we had a discussion kind of about these proposed changes where we'd like to see it go and and just kind of the state of men professional golf.
So enjoy.
Before we get to this discussion, let's talk about our sponsor, Stripe. Stripe has been a partner of this podcast for a long time, in the sense it's a silent partner really. They have been our payment you know, handled our payments at Friday Golf forever. One of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur is figuring out how to make everything work. Stripe makes it really easy and makes it really easy to do maybe the most important thing for a business collect payment.
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So check out Stripe. If you want to learn more about how you can work with Stripe, visit stripe dot com. All right, let's get to this discussion with Joseph and Ryan French. All Right, we're going to talk about the proposed twenty twenty six changes to the PGA Tour, which was these are proposed, they are They're going to go in front of the policy board in November. Some pretty
large changes, I would say on the PGA Tour. They involve a general reduction in field size kind of across the board, full field events, then also kind of your fall events where you have less daylight, those will be smaller. There are less tour cards going to one hundred exempt players from one to twenty five. There's been a slight change in some of the priority rankings. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty on every single change
in priority rankings. And then the final kind of piece, the final piece of this news stump was a was a change in the slow play policy, which was maybe my favorite part about it. A more lax slow play policy. So to break down these I am joined by mister monday Q himself, Ryan French, as well as our Joseph Lamannia. I wanted to put together a group here that might have some differing opinions, differing viewpoints, and have a civil discussion about these changes the direction that the tour is
heading in. Welcome on, Ryan, and welcome back Joseph.
As always, thanks for having me on, Guys, I appreciate it.
Well, you know, I'm a big admirer of your work, your your your golf forefront investigative journalists these days.
Ryan. And for those that don't know, my big break and that mean this seriously is Andy Hadman this podcast. I think it was this one. I don't remember.
Yeah it was this one. You you left your backpack at my old house. Yeah, you never came back to get it, and that that backpack went when uh when I think my wife sold in a garage sale for perfect perfect.
So, I mean, obviously been super helpful to me and I appreciate it. Happy to be on.
Let's get into it.
I think we'll get we'll touch on probably more of than nitty gritty details. I wanted to kind of make this a little bit of a round table discussion. Uh, Ryan, I'm gonna give you you first first stab of this. Since we're all in this together, I wanted to start with the positives. What is your favorite change that the tour has proposed here?
Man, I mean, okay, so I will say this as a without getting too deep. I'm not totally against the field size being reduced. I think they went too drastic, but there is a lot of like the past champions, you know, category has been widely discussed by a lot of people. I'm in agreement with that, like you know, when guys who won, When Carlos Franco is getting into fields like we've lost the plot. So the change in priority ranking is not I'm not totally against what's the
most positive obviously totally biased. I don't see a lot positive in this change.
Joseph, what are your thoughts?
My favorite we're going here? Yeah, not overall thoughts, right, Yeah, I mean, I think people have advocated for a simpler priority ranking system, and like Ryan is mentioning, I think there have been some ways to get into some of these fields that needed to go out the door a little bit, and that the bottom of the PGA tour has not always been the strongest, especially some of these spots between one hundred and first and one hundred and
twenty fifth and the FedEx Cup standings, which is basically the group of players that's going to bear the brunt of these changes. So now when you look at on paper at the priority ranking, you're gonna have spots one through one hundred basically filled by the top finishers in the FedEx Cup standings. I'm oversimplifying a little bit, but then you're gonna have the top ten finishers on the DP World Tour in the top twenty from the Corn
Ferry Tour. That's one hundred and thirty players right there. That's basically a full field, and you'd start to expect that those golfers are going to get into most of these full field events. After that, it's Q School and there's other categories that are going to round out the fields.
But on paper, most of the open events, in the full field events are going to be filled out in a way that's clean now and the Corn Fairy Tour guys are getting a much better priority ranking spot at the expense of some of the bottom of the PGA Tour, which I think is a step in the right direction, so on the whole that to me is the most drastic change and by far the best.
Yeah, I am.
I'm a big proponent in the idea of what you just kind of laid out, Joseph. Like, I think the last recent recent years where you're corn Faery Tour player, I get my card in September and I get this, it's like the most excite Like you talk about the most exciting moment of your life as a professional golfer. I reached the top of the mountain, or I thought I reached the top of the mountain. I got my PGA Tour card. And then it's like, well, you kind
of have it. You're actually at the back of the US and you're probably not gonna play golf until February, and you'll play once and then you might play in March, and then you might play in late April. And it was like this this mishmash of like I don't know when I'm starting, it's impossible to get in a rhythm. There are still some like huge issues with I think the journey of a corn Fairy Tour player to getting their PGA Tour card. I think they should immediately be
playing golf on the PGA Tour. That's like, it's they're at a huge competitive disadvantage already that they miss fall, that all the other guys on tour get to play through the fall for you know, seven million dollars per week, and then they come in in January and are like, you know, starting behind in a way like they've they've
missed three months straight of competitive golf. So like, to me, like this makes the corn Faery graduate more relevant, right, They are more a part of the tour because the
cleaner priority ranking. Now, like you could argue on the other side, there's less spots, but if you I think like the percentage wise, those twenty spots have a much better chance at retaining PGA Tour status, which I think is like one of the hardest things to do in the world of golf right now, is graduate from the corn Ferry in a you know, position less than tenth on their priority ranking and retain your card. It is you are you are as as your father probably told
you walking uphill both ways in that scenario. So that's everybody's favorite, Ryan, what is your least favorite?
You?
You indicated that you might not love some of these changes and if you want to, you could take a wide view or a narrow view. You could you know, you could say that I don't like the general direction.
Right, yeah, My here's the wide view is you can, like back to your point, Andy, like when you get your PGA Tour card, you kind of don't really get it. And I think it's still going to be some of that, even though I agree, you're going to get into a lot more events, but you're still with the signature events. It's not like you're going to get into any rhythm. But agreed, they're going to get a better chance to keep and retain their card. Here's my biggest issue overall
is that it's become more closed door. Right. This brings more protection to the top players. It makes it more closed doors. Yes, it's less cards, but you're talking less exempt cards, less corn ferry cards, special temporary membership as far as I know, as far as i've heard, is going away, less Monday qualifiers. There's less pass to get onto the PGA Tour than there was before. And that's my biggest issue is this was already closed door, and now it's becoming even more. You know, the top players
have built in a lot of protection. They have all the power. Understandably, they're protecting themselves. They've seen all of their other playing their former playing partners get hundreds of million dollars. They have the power, they've taken it. It's it's a closed door tour that's becoming more closed door in my opinion.
Joseph, what's your least favorite part of that?
Yeah, and I guess the only not that it needs to be a back like a rebuttal to everything. And I'm sure I agree with with Ryan on some of that. The part of the of the changes that probably went under reported a little bit or didn't get as big of a reaction is the way they're changing the FedEx cut point distribution to actually make it a little bit more so that your performance aligns better with the points
you're given. So what it's actually going to do in practice is make some of those non signature events a little bit closer if you finish somewhere between like tenth and twentieth to the signature events. So I actually would push back a little bit that the top players have built in this huge layer of protections for themselves, and in a lot of ways, I think the PGA Tour now there are fewer of those protections than that were in the past, so I would counter that a little bit.
My least favorite part of all of this is a line that I found am using in the whole email that went out two players. They're not expanding the field size for signature events, and I have a problem with I think in general, the signature events have lacked some buzz and none of this, None of these changes matter if people aren't interested in the signature events, because that is what the tour is anchoring itself to. If the signature events are special, everything else feeds up to that
things are going well. If no one cares about the signature events, the tours in a has a serious problem on their hands, and the whole thing could fall apart. So in the email, the tour said that they explored the possibility of expanding the field sizes slightly from anywhere. Right now they're generally around seventy five seventy six players.
They explored the possibility of extending that to eighty to one hundred and twenty players, and they're rationale for not doing that is that the subcommittees, this is a quote, gained an understanding of how all aspects of the schedule model are integrated to support the overall schedule and recognized any modifications at this stage would be disruptive and could
increase fan confusion. That does not hold that fans ald are going to be confused about what a ninety five or one hundred player tournament means like now.
They don't not even think.
The fans don't understand the objective now of what's the point of the tournament? Like that doesn't make sense, And all the other changes are at least as disruptive as potentially expanding the field side. So I think that the PGA Tour seriously needs to consider expanding those fields to like ninety to one hundred players, restoring the meaning of making a cut on the PGA Tour, and leaning a
little bit more into it being competitive. So that was my least favorite part of all this announcement, that they might not even be addressing their most valuable and like the key to the success of the tour is the signature events being special, and they might be shooting themselves in the foot by not addressing that.
So Joseph to that point, I asked this to Billy, Right, is like the signature events last year and the signature events in twenty twenty six are exactly the same, like the sponsor. That's what I don't understand about all these changes. It's not changing the non signature events. It's not like magically ten top guys are going to all of a sudden go like, oh, we have to support the three M or the John Deere. Right, the signature events aren't
changing like the signature events last year. In twenty twenty five, all the top guys are gonna play. They're basically forced to play that there's enough money to play. So what has these changes done to make the product better? You know, like two sponsors and two fans and to me again totally biased, I'm not sure what they are. The signature events are basically going to be the same and the other events are basically going to be the same. I don't know what difference is.
I think ay, like on one clear thing that's going to make the tournament from a competition standpoint better is the smaller feel by going to one hundred and twenty players in the fall these fall and early year events. Like when you think about the competition aspect of an event, whoever is at the back of the bus is completely screwed.
It's like you're gonna play twelve holes.
And it's gonna be pitch by the time you finish, it's gonna be dark, and then you have to come back tomorrow morning it's six and finish like you're at a competitive disadvantage if you have to, if you're at the back of the bus. So that alone, now, like the means of which you fix that competitive issue are There are probably a few ways you could maybe enforce some pace of play standards.
They have gone the other way.
For anybody wondering, my least favorite thing here is the pace of play policy getting relaxed, less fines, more time.
I think it's insane.
I think like every sport in the world is trying to to push for faster play for they know that the tension spans of fans is going down, and the PGA Tour somehow thinks it's a good idea to relax space and play policies. But anyways, sorry, go ahead.
Go ahead.
I mean, like you look at Major League Baseball, the shot clock has very literally changed the entire game, like it's made it wildly more popular. It's by all accounts, there's literally no one who's like, man, this is a bad change, and the PGA Tour what the complete opposite. They're like, man, there's a like major League Baseball and golf have very much like it's relatively boring sport, right like Major League Baseball is slow. There's not a lot of ton going on, and so they're like, man, we
got to make this faster. Let's do a shot clock pitch clock, and it's revolutionized the game. And the PGA Tour rolls out all these changes and they go the exact opposite way.
PJ and I were talking, and PJ brought up a point that nobody's talking about is the health issues that are the pitchers are going through because of the pitch clock. But that's because like all the other advantages are outweighing
the one disadvantage. And I think, like, when you bring up this this thing, and like, obviously people getting hurt is an issue, PJ says that there are rumors that golfers are saying they might get hurt, there might be more entries if there's a shot clock, which I can't contained myself, like that being a pushback, we're gonna get injured if we have to play a shop.
Within forty five seconds.
But anyways, I'm sorry, I can't say that good faith. The other thing that goes into like the pushback players are like, well, the logistics are impossible. The logistics are impossible. Like that's the one pushback that is constantly held and it's like, guys, has already happened.
They did this on the European Tour and it was a smashing success. They had a shot clock they figured out on this tour that doesn't have the funds that the PGA Tour has, they figured out how to do shot clock like and what they saw is players actually played better, They played faster, rounds took less time. Like it is a you know, I think like from that standpoint,
for me, that's the issue. But from a competition standpoint, I think people finishing rounds on the day that rounds are set to tee off is like a very important part of the competition. I don't want to dismiss that, get it pulling this back, but you know, like from the from the other standpoint, like I think that that is like one of the things that you look at with this and you just say, like to Joseph's point.
Like what what what are we even changing here?
Like is there you know, we we've been in this kind of purgatory as a golf fan, and whether you're on the on the fence of like there needs to be more playing opportunities, more pathways, or you're on the fence of there needs to be less pathways. I think like everybody in golf use the declining ratings, the you know, diminished product, and it says like something has to change, and you look at this and it's like this is it.
This is what rolling out like unless like I'm missing something and like the twenty twenty seven is going to introduce these sweeping changes, which I don't think is going to be like like what we've seen is usually there are changes and then it's like we aren't going to do anything for five years and that maybe we'll change something else. So it's like this is from this is what golf's going to look like for the next five years, and.
And and what has what is going to be different about the product outside of a smaller field to the casual golf fan which makes up of like we're in this little bubble, like what is going to change about the product? Like absolutely nothing that's the answer.
That's where I'm with you, Ryan, is that I think this reflects delusion of a lot of these players that spent a ton of time in conference rooms coming up with reinventing the tour, and this is what they landed on. Like to me, that's my issue with the changes is
this doesn't change virtually anything. And I guess where you and I would probably disagree is like I think the elimination of the Monday qualifiers and the slight reduction in these field sizes to get these rounds in by daylight, I don't think it's going to have much of an impact on any players or on the product pretty much at all. And I also think the pathways are still pretty clear for how a player gets to the PGA Tour.
So to me, like these changes are mostly negligible for ninety nine percent of fans, and if again, like I already said, if the signature events aren't popping for people, these are sweeping changes that don't change much of anything.
Yeah, I don't know how you take this change, but again I agree with you Joseph in the most part that Monday qualifiers are not trying to pretend like they're a huge part of the PJA Tour as much as I love them and say that often on Twitter, like I'm not trying to pretend like they are a significant part. Obviously, it's very biased. I think they've been a part of
the history of the PGA Tour. Andy said it on the Shotgun Start, I would love if they want seventy player fields and the rest is filled by Monday qualifiers, right, like that was it would be obviously biased. But my I don't know how you sell this to AT and T when you go and you're like, what are they getting that's any different? Like, hey, here's all our changes. Okay, what is it different to the AT and T Double Beach Pro Am? Nothing? Literally nothing.
I think the signature events is something to zoom in on a little bit obviously. I think Joseph makes a great point about them being like if this isn't compelling, what are we doing?
Type situation, And.
I think like the less player I think we've seen this with with golf in general, is like kind of like the less players overarching, Like obviously there's outliers. People are gonna be like, well, the Masters is.
A small field, Like Okay, I got you, I got you.
Bud, But just in general, when we reduce the number of players, it generally gets less interesting across the board because there's less storylines, there's less competition a And like what we've seen generally with this era of golf is there's more parody than ever in golfers. The difference between number one hundred and number fifteen has never been smaller
in the world of pro golf. And I think that's like probably one of like the lynch pins and issues with what's going on in the PGA Tour in general, is it's harder to be a great player than ever. And when you continue to reduce the size this scale of those signature events, you are going to continue to reduce the potential outcomes, right, And I just am a general believer in more outcomes overarching better.
Would you guys agree disagree with that?
Ryan? Go ahead? Yeah, I mean I would agree right, Like and Andy, That's my point of more cards is like there is the parody is greater now on the PGA Tour than ever. Again, back to Billy saying, like this is a more competitive tour. The difference between one hundred and twenty fifth player and the hundred player is one tenth of a stroke, right, or whatever that number is is minuscule, and so that a more competitive tour doesn't translate to anything for the fans or the product
or whatever. So I always think more is better. Obviously again that's biased, but you know, no cut events have
not worked in wgc's They just aren't compelling. Whether that's because of the smaller fields or no cuts or whatever, they aren't can but they still continue to try to shove it down our throat, and in very typical PGA to or fashion with decisions lately, it's let's have no cut events because people want to see stars all four days, and then they added a ten person cut or whatever that is, right, Like, they just don't make a lot of sense, and so no one. I don't think many people.
Maybe some fans on the ground want to see Rory shoot twenty over if he's struggling and they want to go to the genesis.
But that's what I.
Don't understand, actually, is like who wants Yeah, is are there people that like wake up early to catch like if Rory's in last, they wake up to catch his eight ampty time?
Right, I don't think that's a guy with a Sunday ticket, Like he's got a Sunday ticket and Rory goes eighty one, seventy nine to seventy eight, and he's like, man, we got to leave at five am, kids, we gotta see Rory sweep and do he obviously is gonna shoot seventy eight. We gotta get out there, Like, what the hell? Who does that? No one.
The part I strongly disagree with is the idea that these margins are minuscule. And that's something that we've talked about a little bit on this pod in the past. And not to use an example that might be sensitive, Ryan, but like TJ. Vogel, Monday qualified eight times in twenty eighteen and made three cuts in those eight starts, once was inside the top fifty. And then when he went to the corn Fairy Tour the next couple of years,
struggled on the corn Faery Tour. Like Mark Hubbard forgot to register for a tournament this fall on the PGA Tour swing, showed up to the qualifier and got out. He immediately got These fields are vastly different in strength of field. If a PGA Tour player shows up to a Corn Fairy Tour event to qualifier chances are they are getting out. If you don't belong on the PGA Tour, you're probably not going to have success. All due respect to TJ Vogel, like when he got out to a
stronger field, he wasn't able to compete. I fully believe with what the PGA Tour has done with their pipelines, if you are good enough, the opportunity is in front of you, and removing those Monday qualifiers is not preventing players from getting to the top level. Where I think we clearly agree is that expanding the field of the signature events and restoring the meaning of a cut would make things more competitive and compelling. So that would be
my rebuttal to you, Ryan. I agree with you on some of that, but I think this talk of like it's a tenth of a shot it's a fifteen hundredths of a shot doesn't always play out, and I would challenge people to come up with examples where somebody's getting trapped.
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have a launch monitor and also play golf. Check out True golf dot com slash egg. That's the launch box by True Golf, True Golf t r U golf dot com slash egg. All right, let's get back to Joseph
Lamannia and Ryan French. I've been looking a little bit at uh at some data and just like what I've found interesting is like how you know you have these players and because of signature events, now their strokes gained has like they aren't they aren't improved, They're almost they're they're getting worse because on a strokes gain perspective, because they're playing against better competition, right, your strokes gain And
I think this, yeah, unadjusted. So if you are like you're you know, like scoring average, like the scoring average of the three is a lot different than the scoring average of playing at Riviera in February in bad weather, right, Like, there's all these different elements to it, and I do agree, just in totality is like the way that the tour has set up with like the Corn Fairy Tour and the PGA Tour just in general, the you know, we can quibble about like small things, but players that are
supposed to succeed succeed. Years ago, I had a conversation with a tour player who like, you know, a level of player who had played on the Corn Fairy Tour but also who had played at Eastlake, right, and he's like, listen, there's there's nobody that gets held down by the Corn Fairy Tour that's not supposed to be there. And he's like the thing that I would always pay attention to if I were you, is watch the certified PGA Tour players when they get relegated to the corn Ferry Tour.
How they immediately are right back up. And I think, like, you know, like listen, like I'm friends with him. But like when Zach Blair a couple of years ago lost his tour card, I was terrified because Zach, he'd be the first to tell you he's he's one of the he's a bomber, you know. But if you go to the bottom bottom of the driving distance, I'm like, man, like these scores are gonna be they're so low on the corn Ferry Tour, he doesn't hit it that far,
like he may not get his card back. And sure enough he went down and immediately came back up, and he's been back up since. Like and now with like this, I think, like what's interesting to be about this new four, this new I think like less cards, Like if we want to talk about like where the tour is going and where I'd like to see them go. We've talked
about the signature event. I think it's just time for them to acknowledge that there is a upper tier, like that there's a different to and that what we're talking about, Like mainly this conversation is about the tour, the corn Ferry Tour and the PGA the bottom part of the PGA Tour, And to me, like what needs to be acknowledged, like the if they could increase the field sizes of the signature events while keeping the same small number of
exempt players into those, then you've created an interesting pathway up and down right, and you could create this free flowing system that allows a lot of pathways where somebody that plays on that, Like I think like the number one issue with the tour right now is that that all the all the tours that they operate, so from the PGA Tour to the corn Ferry Tour to the America's Tour, they all operate on different currencies like this currency, yeah,
points currencies, Like there's no there's no relation to the points I earn on the corn Ferry Tour or the America's Tour. I'd love to see, like who is it Dan McCarthy a couple of years ago, Ryan like years ago that got like he won like five times on the on Canada or Latin America and he came up he played one event on the PGA on corn Ferry Tour and he hurt his thumb. Like in by perfect world he was he was beating the barn doors off everybody on the America's Tour. Get over to the corn
Ferry Tour or the PGA Tour corn Ferry Tour. If he keeps playing hot, let him get up to the top echelon of the game within the same year.
We all like understand golf.
Golf is a game of like you see this as like runs, It's very hard to sustain the same level of play over a long period of time. The only people that do that are the greatest players in the game. So allow a little bit of a free flow, and I think what happens is then you start to see just more relegation and promotion throughout a period of time and more interest because to me, outside of the superstars, the most fascinating aspect of the sport is the promotion and relegation.
Yeah. Uh, just one back to Joseph's point. You can talk about my wife, my kids, but TJ vocal is completely off limit. I would have not agreed to come on this podcast if I had known that was going to be going to.
Cut what is he from Indiana? Isn't he from Indiana?
Yeah, like, why would you do that?
Well, well, Joseph's from Indiana, that's Indiana on Indiana crime.
I mean again, talk about my wife, kids, that's fine, but TJ Vogel, that is insane, that's slanderous. Uh yeah, let me let me handle the Monday qualifier. I agree with you, Joseph. I again, I think it gets lost and I probably don't do a great job of it. I'm not pretending that like a Monday que field is like oh, they're all going to be PG winners or even there's tons of guys who are just very good players and could be a decent corn fairy player. But
I think there's plenty of examples. Peter Quest just did it, you know, JT posts guys changed their careers of Monday. There's definitely guys who have Monday qualified or in Monday qualifiers that could be a good part of the tour. But I'm not trying to pretend like Monday qualifiers have fields where everyone's going to be a PGA Tour winner. I probably don't do a great job of saying that
on Twitter. But Andy, to your point about points, being Yeah, Like Matt McCarty is a great example, right, Like, how do we get Matt McCarty up to the PGA Tour faster than the three wins he did, because obviously he proved it, he was one of the in that period of time, he was one of the best players in the world, obviously not playing against great competition, So how do we make that regulation that The point of vault to me all those changes is like, we don't have that.
We don't have a lot of pathways in my opinion, to get to the PGA Tour.
There's a lot of pathos.
In a rare moment, I'm going to defend the PGA Tour a little bit on that. What they're saying is the path is through the corn Faery Tour, and you have a full season to finish in the top twenty and if you do that, now we're pretty much guaranteeing you spots into all of the non signature events. Could they get Matt McCarty, I agree with you, Andy, they
should get him into the Fall faster. But like the other example, Dan McCarty or McCarthy, McCarthy, maybe get him up into the corn Faery Tour faster and let him work his way into the top twenty and if he's good enough, he will. If somebody's winning on a lower tour than the Corn Faery Tour, like realistically they are not even if they're winning, are not going to have a lot of success on the PGA Tour until we've seen that they can play well on the Corn Fairy Tour.
I don't think players like that are getting stuck. So it seems fairly reasonable to me to say, hey, we're giving you, Yes, it's gonna take you a full season on the Corn Fairy Tour, finish in the top twenty, and then you're gonna get your starts now on the PGA Tour and not be stuck behind cards one hundred through one hundred and twenty five is a fairly reasonable pipeline system.
I think like the probably the biggest pushback to like a real free flowing almost market of golfers going up and down is the idea, like it's revolves around people need to know where they're playing, like that's generally what they what I think the pushback will say it would be, and I would say that's that's a strictly player's perspective. You know from a stemblance of any other sport, like you play where you were, where you are performing, You
get moved up moved down in all these sports. And if you're a star, you know where you're going to be for the most part, and that should be the only people that really know where they're going to be are the people that can are the players that could go out and perform at a top twenty level year in year out.
In my opinion, I.
Think like I think like you've seen this like basically year in year out with the PGA Tour and the corn Ferry Tour is effectively one player from the corn Ferry Tour at minimum comes up and is an immediate like star in the making on the PGA Tour. You think Scotti, Scheffler, Sung JM, who's been one of the
most consistent, like good players on the PGA Tour. Within weeks of them being on the corn Ferry Tour, it was very evident that they were they were going up to the PGA Tour, And I think like one of the issues with the way the structuring it, the way they have it structured, where you have to be down there for a year like out other winning three times, which is you could finish second every single week.
On the Cord Ferry Tour.
You could be literally finished second every week, and it does you know good? You could win twice and finish second every I mean the greatest Cord Fairy Tour season ever, and you don't get moved up. Like there needs to be point thresholds, like we're sirt through a certain time, We're gonna move this person up because like what you're missing out on, especially in an era where where players are younger, that are the primes are shorter.
We're seeing this like like there are there are.
Real questions at age thirty one thirty two, what does JT and Jordan Speece's next five years look like?
Right?
Like what are they that was when they were twenty one? We never fathomed that be or twenty two that being
like the reality. But like with this in mind, like how do we get people like Skyte Scheffler up a half a year early and start to build the name recognition of these young players and it has to become a free system that allows people to go up and down without like you know, I think I in recent years, I always find a humorous it's like the people are low on the PGA Tour priority lists that are our recent corn Faery grats. It's like they're in this purgatory.
It's like, I'm not in this PGA Tour field. Do I go play the corn Ferry event. It doesn't count towards me keeping my PGA Tour card, But I'm not playing the cord Fairy Tour enough to keep to be to like be advantaged on the on the corn Faery card.
And then if you lose, if you if you finish poorly enough on the PGA Tour card money list, you go back to like first stage of corn Ferry Tour, like like it doesn't make any sense that the the the points don't match up, like to me, like this is like actually the biggest problem with the PGA Tour is that the currency. You have one state running everything but using different money everywhere you turn.
Yeah, I mean agree totally with with that. Andy. I mean, Blaine Hale obviously was a Q School graduate, so even behind the corn Ferry guys, so even getting into less events, really concentrated on the PGA Tour as much as he could.
Then all of a sudden was like, oh hell, I got to go start playing corn Ferry events and is going to finish below outside of you know, the still barring the three events that are left, it's gonna finish below two hundredth and FedEx didn't do anything, didn't do well enough, made a few cuts on the corn Ferry Tour,
so didn't keep his card in any way. There, I mean, he's going back to second stage and very literally is going to go from the PGA Tour to nothing like zero, not a single start on the corn Ferry, not America's status, nothing, And so I just there and those guys coming up, like, you play great on the Americas, you should have to like you should be able to go faster through the system one hundred percent.
To be fair, And I'm more just playing Devil's advocate here. Blaine got like twenty four starts on the PGA Tour and it's almost all miscuts this year.
Oh I said, I.
Can agree that that there should probably there should be some point synchronization so that they're not starting back from square one and they have some level of Corn Fairy Tour status like that seems to be very reasonable, And maybe there's another exemption category to Andy where if you're top five in the corn Fairy Tour points at a certain point in the year, you get into some PGA Tour events like that seems like a priority worth pursuing.
I would just only push back on the notion that players are getting trapped in certain places within the golf ecosystem right now, because I really don't think that's happening.
I see.
Like my point is like, if the points are all the same, you could be like you could be Blaine Hail and it's you know, it's it's March and I haven't gotten anything going on the PGA Tour and I don't have any started. The players is this week. I'm not going to get into Honda or whatever is around it.
And I'm like, okay, Like i can go play the PGA Tour or the corn Ferry Tour and at least up my my standing on the PGA Tour because I'm going down and I'm playing something and I'm trying to play well, right, But I think, like that's that's the issue. Is like to me, like everything you do within the PGA Tour ecosystem shall relate to something, and it makes it easier.
For the fan.
It makes it way more interesting all of a sudden. Also, with this, like you could have multiple relegation and promotion moments throughout the year. It doesn't have to be like, you know what, it's August, we relegate for vote in August and September. Those are the that's the time we do relegation and promotion. There could be points like where it's like, okay, you're you're outside here, these guys are
up all of a sudden. It's like I have like I think like there's been this like belief that we can get the PGA of the like the golf schedule, Like there's this like fleet this belief that we could get to a eight month calendar for the stars where they get their they're off Seaton. I think that's like just like not possible. I don't think we could get a golf schedule that everybody's happy with in under ten months. I think that's the reality is like we're going to
be running golf from January till October. That is just like through October. That's the reality of it. So like why why not have multiple relegations that make that keep that interest in the sport going.
Yeah, And and I think it helps with getting the best players up there faster, Right Like if Matt McCarty before his third win, gets up there because of some quarterly regulation or promotion, he gets up there faster and proves that he can be a star again. Totally agree, Andy, It's like, how do we create turnover? That's again back to the main issue that I have with the PGA Tour in general and these changes. It's like, we're not promoting that we're we're not We're not looking for ways
to get the best players up the fastest. That's not the goal of the PGA Tour, or it seems like it to me. So why can't we do things like you know, quarterly promotions and then those ten that are regulated know where they are playing, right Like they go down to the corn Ferry and you're like, I have
for the next quarter. I got to kill it on the corn Ferry tour so I can get back up again instead of the purgatory that you talk about, like oh I should go here or there, Like you know where you're playing, you know what the goal is.
I think then you could get rid of Monday qualifiers too.
Son of a bitch. I didn't know what I was walking into but never coming on this podcast again, between the TJ Vogel and this, I just walked into a tread.
Yeah, I mean, I just think, like, I think one of the challenges that golf has is the lack of the lack of the other side of the table element that every other sport has. Team sports in general have have the owner and the owner the ownership. And I'm not saying that owners are are great. I'm I'm a Chicago sports fan. The vast majority of the owners of my sports teams are pretty much horrible. They are the worst,
some of the worst owners in all of sports. But like, just in general, the owners represent like kind of the idea of like, we need to make this, this product good because I am trying to make money on the product.
The players make money by playing this. And I think like one of the struggles that golf faces, and it's very evident with this, is that the lack of the other side of the table, saying like, let's really think about how we make the most interesting television product, and like, you know, if you take the majors out of out of golf, you know, what are the most fascinating events over the course of the year.
What would you guys say, Joseph, you first.
Yeah, I think I went through this in my head recently, and there's like ten events that seem to matter in golf right now, like the players Matters, the Ryder Cup, obviously, the Majors. We're just talking about the men's side of the Olympics when it rolls around. And then honestly, I think even events like Riviera Memorial have been diminished a little bit by the reduced fields, Like there aren't that many golf tournaments that people really seem to care about, so somewhere around ten.
Obviously, Yeah, I agree. You know, I use I use this guy who used to read run the Edward Lower tracker like and he was very committed to an account that was like total ridiculous, right, But the point is is, like that's a golf nerd, right, Like that is you have to be an ultimate golf nerd to be really dedicated.
He wasn't like some like this was before the trackers were a thing, and he would like hook up with his mom and like get pictures and let not hook up with this month I did's it like get connected with his mom and get pictures from the tournaments and his wife and like he was like working at it, right, And that guy only watches four tournaments a year now in the majors, right, And if we're losing that guy who ran an Edward Lord tracker account dedicated, we have
lost the plot. And like, you know, he's not watching signature events, We're doing something wrong in golf because that is the guy who if he's not watching, we're in deep, deep trouble.
Yeah, And I think like where I was going with this is like what matters is when there's stakes, right. I mean you talk about like Joseph, you to talk about Barboreal and Riviera being reduced, They're just another signature event. I've watched this firsthand with like the Western Open, with that was the first golf event I went to. It used to be this massive, massive event. Now it's just
become part of the PGA tour machine. It's part of the playoffs, and it's just like it doesn't have anything that feels, you know, like a big event outside of It's like this is where like what's interesting about the Western Open, which is now the BMW at this point, do you know what the most interesting thing about it.
Is the stakes of getting into the top fifty.
Is that what you're going relegation, right, Relegation like when there are stakes, Like that's the only the only events outside of like to me, the majors are events that have stakes in them, whether it's an Olympic gold medal, right, I think the Players has has a certain you know,
mystique to it. The Ryder Cup obviously has the country aspect, but then when you get past that, it's really relegation and promotion moments are the are the ones that I think stand out, like it's it's silly, but like the Windom the Transformation, the Windom had a couple of years ago when they went to the top seventy out of the Windom and you had JT trying to make it into the top seventy, Like that's a real consequence when you get down to seventy and I think, like I think,
like that's what Ryan likes about Monday Qualifiers is that there is a promotion aspect of it, you know, and an opportunity to go up to the next next level. And that's what like, I think what golf just needs more of a week in, week out basis.
Yeah, And I you know, I think that golf. I think they tried to make the stakes in these signature events money and and and some like. This's just it reminds me of like when Live started, and you know, they would be like this puts for four million, Like the dude signed for two hundred and fifty. He doesn't care that it is for four million, right, And now we're talking about this at signature events like this is for two million. There is no real stakes and it's
turned off. You know. Again, the seventy at Windham Is is important, right, and the fifty at BMW still had some buzz to it Keegan and Tom Kim and those kind of things, But the consequences are just almost zero. Out side of those very few moments for the top players, signature events don't have no I don't know what they can do to make the consequences significant enough for fans to care, you know, because they're the best players, they're
all rich. It's not money. The regulation is for players that don't really it's confusing, like who gets it's not just cut and dried. Who's not going to be in the next one and those kind of things. So I don't know how they create buzz and and again when you have too many signature events, like they're all the same. I don't I can't name the signature events. If you said, Ryan, what's the signature events in twenty twenty five? No idea
at and T I know. And outside of that, I like, oh, the OBC Heritage because like, who the hell wants to play another important round after another after a major. It's like, I.
Don't forget about the travelers after the US Open.
Travelers, travelers as all, no one wants to be there. Let's play for twenty five million, Ryan, I.
Think this is where I'm glad we found common ground. And to me this week, I feel like I've been taking crazy pills a little bit and that the lead has been buried in all this conversation about the changes that I think are fairly negligible and honestly a step in the right direction is that we're running back the same product now for the foreseeable future and pretending it's
some massive change when fans are actively rejecting it. And so that to me, the walls can come crashing down pretty quickly here on the PGA tour if some more sponsors start pulling the rug out a little bit and that should be the there's no urgency from the PGA tour to do something truly innovative. It feels like they think this is innovative. It's not, and we're about to
run back the same product and it should be. I hope there's somebody in the organization sounding the alarm a little bit that twenty twenty five may not be exciting. And if they think twenty twenty six is going to be more exciting, I think it's pretty delusional.
Yeah it again, Joseph. I think will disagree on the on the EDD, but the overarching is, you know, my question is, no matter how you feel, if you think it's good or you think it's bad, or it doesn't really matter in the scheme of things, how is the product better? And there is no answer to that, because there is. It's not. That's that's the thing. That's the thing. One hundred players, one hundred and twenty five, hundred and fifty. I'm not sure what these changes have done to make
it sellable to sponsors or fans going forward. Like to your point, it's just it's not an exciting product right now, and none of this is super exciting that it's going to be that much better in twenty twenty six.
And I think I think like the back half of this, when we talk about products, players talk about product a ton and and I think, like that's been the talking point we're got. We have to improve the product. I think like improving the product beyond just the schedule, the format goes to players raising their hand and being open to doing things like just let's just say the walk and talks. And I think like the interest in that has only dwindled over the since the inception, you know
that came out of the gates hot. And it seems like to me that like the walk and talk is is almost like pulling teeth to get players to do it. And this is an example of where players like I don't think this is like an owner versus a player mentality. Do you think the players and the managers in Major League Baseball were like, yeah, we'd love to do in dugout interviews during the World Series or during playoff games. No, they don't want to do that. Nobody like the last
thing they wanted to do. But you know who came in and said we need to do this is like the owner, the people that are looking out for the business and when the players are intertwined in in the ones looking out for the business, what you end up with is just the players looking out for their own business. And that's the issue, the product issue with the PGA Tour.
Andy, I agree. I also think there just needs to be a little bit more of a back to basics with and this is talking to an echo chamber on this podcast, but the equipment has the equipment and the golf courses they play I think are going totally under the radar for how much that's holding the product back. And I think we need to focus on the gameplay itself, because a good broadcast where you're not stuffing commercials, you're showing the golf with equipment that doesn't de skill the
sport at great venues is a very good product. There's so much we're talking about, so many other things, like I think getting back to the basics on that would solve a lot of their problems, frankly, more than a walk and talk, which like doesn't do a ton for me as a fan.
Yeah, I mean my pushback on the walk and talk is like, yeah, I mean, thank you for doing it. I don't know what they wanted wanted from us, like, we appreciate it. But NBA coaches, to Andy's point, I just saw Aaron Boone do an interview. He's getting demolished. It was like four to nothing. Freeman's just hit a blast for the fourth time in four games, and they're like, hey, Aaron, how does it feel? You know, it'd be like going up to Jordan and hold twelve on Sunday and be like, man,
you just pounded two into the rays Creek. How do you feel about this? And like the walk and talk on Sunday or on Friday at the you know, travelers, and we're like, this is some groundbreaking stuff, Like I mean, I don't know, every sport has done it. Coaches do it in timeouts during the game seven, so they don't get a ton of credit for it. It's not revolutionary. And yet I mean, obviously, Joseph, you're right about equipment. It's kind of made everyone, to Andy's point, the much closer.
It's hard to break out. He can't be a great player, or they're all together, whatever side of it you're on. So yeah, I just don't know. I just don't know what what is going forward That there was nothing about fans in that proposal, right, Like, there's nothing like hey, we're willing to do this, or we should do this or anything. It's like, hey, how do we take care of ourselves? And here you go, this is what we're doing.
It's interesting times for the PGA tour in this fans. I think, like, you know, this is obviously something that's being proposed to the pack.
It's not locked in.
But do you guys have any you know, do you think this is what will we'll get across the finish line?
Yeah? I mean from the people I've talked to, is a done deal. So there might be very slight adjustments, but I would be sho if there's anything that would drastically change from what's being proposed. This has been kind of worked on for a long time. Let me say I think it's been worked on by a certain set of players on the pack. I don't think it's been It's been worked on by everyone. So yeah, I think this is a this is a done deal.
Sure you I trust that, Ryan, And frankly like, I think it should be passed mainly because I honestly think the only difference you're really going to feel for the majority of people is that more corn fairy tour guys are going to get opportunities faster at the expense of the back end of the FedEx Cup, and that is what should happen. So are these changes radical enough to turn the product around now? Absolutely not, and that's my issue with it. But I don't have a problem with the changes.
Yeah, I land somewhere as it's a small step in the right direction, but overarching, there needs to be a giant leap in the right direction in the in the very near future for for the long term health of professional men's professional golf. And I think I think like there are a lot of ways you could go about it, but like a lot of the thinking needs to be outside the box that we're currently living in.
Ryan, Do you have any parting thoughts?
Yeah, I would be on the opposite end of Joseph and you're in the middle. But I think my closing thoughts is this is a very selfish game, and I think we're seeing a lot a lot of that reflected in the changes. When players have control, it's a it's a notoriously selfish game, and it's hard to when you have control like that not see that this is the result they're they're doing what is best for them at this time. So I mean, I hope I love the PGA Tour and I've been a golf nerd my entire life.
I don't want the product to stink and whatever that is. If this if in twenty at the end of twenty twenty six, I'm like, Man, I was super wrong and this is great. I hope that I'm wrong because I want the PGA Tour to be successful and I hope that that's the case.
I think at the end of twenty twenty six will probably feel just about the same as you feel right now. Yeah, So not to be not to be a Debbie downer, but that's I think the state of where the structure of the PGA Tour is at. And I think, you know, this was a fun chat with some different opinions, but I think we all kind of land the same place, which is probably not a good sign for the state to the PGA Tour.
All right.
Thanks Ry, you could read his work at monday q dot com. And Joseph, who writes regularly for our newsletter, as a regular guest on this podcast, Thank you guys for coming on.
Thanks guys, thanks for having me on.
Thank you for listening to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast. Today's episode was edited and produced by PJ Clark. Big thanks to PJ for grinding putting this together. If you haven't yet, take a swing over to our pro shop. We've got tons of stuff in that pro shop for fall. Temperatures are getting cold, cooler. I've noticed it even out here in California. Get some fall in winter layers. We've got a bunch of different stuff in the pro Shop.
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