Is The PGA Tour In Trouble?
A tour of ONLY heavy hitters? Purses bigger than your girl's favorite beach tote? Oh man. There is a little golf beef a brewin' folks.
It appears that a new league might be coming for that PGA Tour ass. What would that entail? The concept, first revealed by Reuters in 2018, has been alternatively known as the World Golf Series or “Tour de Force.” The original concept presented by the group featured an 18-event schedule from January to September with 48-player fields vying for $10 million each week, highlighted by a season-ending team championship.
I know I'd much rather see groupings with stacked with only the best, but most importantly the most interesting players on Tour vs streaming online, only to find out I can only watch the "featured" group of Lucas Glover, Brandt Snedeker, and Gary Woodland. Don't let the Premier Golf League fool you with their "this is a partnership not a competition" act.
It is our intention to work with, rather than challenge, existing tours for the betterment of golf as a sport, pastime and media property, and we have partnered with Raine Group to help make this vision a reality.
Why you ask? Later in the article, we see that this is not a sand box with enough space for both Tours.
The proposal would severely affect the PGA Tour and European Tour if it went forward, because it is unlikely players could participate there and in the new league.
This article gives more problematic details that would make me shake in my boots if I was the PGA Tour.
The group is retaining a Formula One-style team component, complete with managers and potential drama surrounding players who are signed, benched or released from franchises. Those franchises, offered to a group of megastar players who could retain ownership past their playing days, would be capable of generating an “equity value between $350 and 750 million” along with a 4% of annual net profit.
We don't get to see top golfers go head to head enough and honestly, if this model takes the shotgun tournament style approach, it would shorten the day (yay) and thus the tour could ask for much more individual ad revenue from sponsors and advertisers. Hell, if it got sexy enough, maybe we'd get younger brands to want to get involved too. I'm a little tired of hearing about Viagra and life insurance while I'm watching Tiger, aren't you?
I'm all in on this idea. Best case, it could resuscitate the game in a way we haven't seen in a long time, and along the way, create friction with the PGA Tour, the ultimate boomer in sports.
Hell ya.