You're Reading: Is the PGA Tour Copying LIV Golf?
The PGA Tour has recently announced plans to revamp its schedule for the 2024 season and beyond. The changes will no doubt have a major impact on the tour’s future at potentially a very critical point in its history.
The new PGA Tour structure has similarities to the LIV Golf Tour. This is particularly interesting due to the attacks the PGA Tour and its loyal players have made against the latter’s format. Clearly, there is a lot of controversy here. So, without further ado, let us get right into the subject and answer the question to is the PGA Tour copying LIV.
If you take the highlights from the new PGA Tour schedule you might end up with the following:
The first thing to note is that everything really revolves around the concept of designated or elevated events, which seem to be the new direction for the PGA Tour. Full-field events will still exist and will even be the large majority of the events but may very well be dwarfed by designated events.
From this perspective, we can draw parallels to what LIV Golf pioneered. The original vision, and seemingly current vision, for LIV Golf was to be a super league. A league that was reserved strictly for the world’s best. Hence the small field sizes and gigantic payouts.
Designated events are similar in this aspect. While the fields for next year are likely to be between the sizes of 70 and 80 players (somewhat larger than LIV’s 48-player fields), they are less accessible to the average PGA Tour player than the full-field events that host 144 players.
Furthermore, for the most part, professional golfers on the LIV Tour are guaranteed spots in every field for the current season. The caveat to this becomes evident when bigger-name players join the league, mathematically requiring current LIV players to leave. This happened multiple times throughout last season such as when Cameron Smith joined at the end of 2022.
The details are not yet set in stone, but it seems clear that PGA Tour golfers that finished in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings in the prior year will be eligible for all designated events in the current year. Presumably, it does not matter if they finish last in the first 7 designated events. They will be able to play in the 8th and final designated event.
The benefits of playing in designated events are numerous: big purses, no cuts, increased FedEx Cup points, increased Official World Golf Ranking points, and a chance to win prestigious and historic events against the best in the game.
The first two benefits are obvious. FedEx Cup points should be similarly obvious in that they are critical in qualifying for the Tour Championship and/or designated events for the following year.
Official World Golf Ranking points are key for getting to major championships for players who do not already qualify. For the President’s Cup and Ryder Cup, the international and European teams, respectively, use the OWGR to determine their rosters.
The last point is an interesting one. This year, the Genesis Invitational and Arnold Palmer Invitational were both designated events. They were still open to 132 and 120 players, respectively. However, if they remain designated events in 2024, the fields will be reduced and made more exclusive.
The chance of winning an event like the Genesis Invitational at historic Riviera Country Club and hosted by Tiger Woods could be just as valuable to players as the millions of dollars allocated to the winner. The same can be said for the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
In addition to the financial benefits that LIV offered, the prospect of playing fewer tournaments helped lure PGA Tour stars. The 2023 LIV season has 14 events, which follows the original plans. In 2022, the season started late and only had 8 events.
Apparently, PGA Tour players, particularly those that left to LIV, were interested in playing less. On top of the fact that there are only 14 events, as of this writing and barring anything unforeseen, LIV events consist of just 54 holes of golf or three rounds in comparison to 72 holes and four rounds on the PGA Tour.
When Bryson DeChambeau was asked about his decision to join LIV, he made it very clear that playing less was a priority.
To put things into perspective, in Bryson DeChambeau’s last full season on the PGA Tour (2020-2021), he competed in 22 events.
Now during his LIV career, it is important to note that DeChambeau will likely include the four majors into his schedule. Combined with his 14 LIV events, that makes 18.
A four-weeks difference is perhaps not as drastic as what fans might be tempted to think, given that the PGA Tour schedule consists of 50 events in its 2023 schedule compared to LIV’s 14.
Nevertheless, four less weeks is considerable. If you want, you can think of the absence of a fourth round as an additional 14 less rounds which equates to 3.5 less events on top of the 4.
Of course, to do a round-to-round comparison, it must be assumed that PGA Tour players make the cut. Speaking of cuts…
It is very probable that the fact that designated events will not have any cuts is the most striking aspect likening the PGA Tour’s new structure to that of LIV’s.
Anyone who has paid any attention to the discussion of LIV knows that one of if not the biggest criticisms of LIV was the concept of no cuts. Many fans, analysts, and players argued/argue that having cuts offers a level meritocracy in golf that is unique to professional sports.
In other major sports, like football, baseball, basketball, or hockey, athletes are contracted salaries. While there are likely some caveats, their salaries are promised even if they have a bad game, several bad games, fail to perform well the entire season, or have injuries that prevent them from playing at all.
Therefore, more than other professional sports, golf has better resembled the adage that hard work pays off. At the 2022 Open Championship, Tiger Woods expressed concerns that the 54-hole no cut format would diminish the “incentive to practice.”
🗣️ “I just don’t see how that move is positive in the long term”
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) July 12, 2022
Tiger Woods has his say on the LIV golf series 👇 pic.twitter.com/sPyfUwMqwc
Now that the PGA Tour has made no-cut events key to its season, it is no wonder that it has faced its own criticism – both for taking away the cherished meritocracy and for being hypocritical.
The PGA Tour has two counter arguments to this criticism. The primary one being that there is precedent for no-cut events. To the tour’s benefit, the most popular player in the world thrived in no-cut events. Of his 82 wins, Tiger Woods won 26 at no-cut events.
Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus also captured multiple wins at no-cut events. However, the exact number of their no-cut wins is somewhat unclear. In separate press conferences, Jay Monahan and Rory McIlroy contradicted themselves and it appears that the combined number of wins for Palmer and Nicklaus is roughly a quarter of what either McIlroy or Monahan said.
Nevertheless, 72-hole, no-cut events are nothing new and have been hosts to memorable finishes on the PGA Tour. In recent years, these tournaments have most notable taken the form of World Golf Championships or FedEx Cup playoffs.
In fact, in the 2020-2021 season, there were 8 events on the PGA Tour that had no cuts. Based on what we know, the 2023-2024 season will have 11 events with no cuts (8 designated events plus the FedEx Cup playoffs).
Note: The 8 events figure does not count the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. While the match play is an exclusive and major event and guarantees payouts to everyone in the field), very few players make it through to Sunday and it does not fit the 72-hole nature of the designated events.
At face value, 3 tournaments are not a massive game changer. However, there seems to be a decided transformation in what the PGA Tour is doing.
If you were to pick apart those 8 no-cut events in 2020-2021, you would find that 3 of them are relatively low-profile tournaments: the CJ Cup, the Zozo Championship, and the Tournament of Champions.
First of all, these 3 tournaments all took place in either the fall after the conclusion of the prior season’s FedEx Cup or in the first week of January, certainly the weaker parts of the PGA Tour schedule.
Second of all, the purses were not as intensified at these events as they were at the other no-cut events.
Particularly, for the Tournament of Champions, there were no guarantees on who would play. Only winners from the prior year are eligible, and of these players, not all, often including Tiger Woods, would make the event part of their schedule.
If you remove these 3 events from the equation, there will be more than twice as many no-cut events in 2024. However, given that we do not know which events are slated to be designated events in 2024, it is not fair to discount past no-cut events for reasons that may also apply to future no-cut events.
Yes, it is likely that the PGA Tour will make a strong effort to market these events and the incentives for players could inspire better fields. Though, it is also suggested by the PGA Tour that designated events will occur outside the prime summer months.
Only time will tell how things play out.
The PGA Tour believes that having no cuts will benefit their fans and in turn their sponsors. It is no fun when top players are not around for the weekend.
By eliminating cuts and not players, fans will get to see their favorite players for all four rounds, and the increased viewership will be better for sponsors. Consequently, the PGA Tour should be able to demand more money in its deal with its corporate partners.
There is nothing wrong with this thinking. This benefit should not be overstated, though. I suppose it depends on the golf fan, but unless the absence of a cut keeps someone like Tiger Woods (admittedly, “someone like Tiger Woods” is a bit of an oxymoron), in the field, it is not that interesting watching them anyway.
When players, even top players, are out of contention and are clearly not playing their best, it is only so interesting watching them. There are exceptions when players miss the cut by just a stroke or two and the leaderboard is congested so that two exceptional rounds over the weekend can claim the victory.
Again, this is subjective, but the value given to guaranteeing fans that they will see the best players for 4 rounds is not enormous.
The PGA Tour still believes that its format will promote a tour based on merit. Inevitably, Monahan was asked about how the no-cut designated events “looks very similar to what LIV Golf is doing.”
He responded by asking, rhetorically, “do you think we really look the same.” I wish he would have elaborated on what exactly he believes the specific differences are between his tour and its competitor.
Instead, he decided to explain his perspective on why the PGA Tour will still maintain its meritocracy, stressing that the players in designated events “will have earned the right to compete in them.”
This is true. It is not easy finishing in the top 50 of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup. However, likely those in the top 50 will have a better chance of maintaining their position, as designated events will offer better chances to win secure FedEx Cup points.
Now, if the PGA Tour’s math proves correct, only 60% of those in the top 50 will retain their position the following year. This is in comparison to the historical data that 75% of the top 125 retain their position, suggesting that the new format will be even more volatile and require players to maintain good form year-to-year.
The meritocracy will still not be the same. As said, the meritocracy for many players will be year-to-year, not week-to-week as it is currently and has been in years past.
Unfortunately, there is little historical data to reference to understand the qualifying process for the LIV tour. Furthermore, the information available on LIV’s website or elsewhere on the internet is somewhat insufficient.
However, Golf.com does an adequate job explaining how relegation is introduced into LIV. Starting in 2023, the LIV Tour would be comprised of 12 teams with four golfers each. Teams will have alternates but the only time there will be a change in the playing roster is if and when a player is injured.
Throughout the season, the top 24 players will earn points towards a culminating ranking. At the end of the season, the bottom four finishes on the points list will lose their LIV Tour Card. Additionally, captains can choose not to renew deals with any players on their team who failed to finish in the top 24.
In the case of captains, some captains may be exempt from relegation all together.
While we cannot speak with certainty as to the dealings between LIV and its players, Phil Mickelson, captain of the Hy Flyers GC, is possibly a candidate for being saved from relegation due to exemption.
Of his 10 starts on LIV during the 2022 season and the start of the 2023 season, his best finish was 8th (remember, it is only a 48-player field). The only other time he was in the top 24 was when he claimed 17th place in Bangkok.
Okay, so assuming the captains remain comfortable with their lineups and only the bottom four lose their card, nearly 91.67% of the LIV Tour will retain their card. So far, that is an easy win for the PGA Tour in terms of greater meritocracy.
To match the churn rate of 75% that the PGA Tour currently has with its membership, 12 LIV players will need to lose their card. In other words, 8 players within the 25th to 44th spots will have to be eliminated by the 12 captains.
This is possible. It could be a big ask but maybe we will be surprised with an even greater swapping of players. It is too difficult to assess now.
Nevertheless, the PGA Tour’s system still has a majority of events with 36-hole cuts. Furthermore, for all the players who finished outside the top 50 in the prior year’s FedEx Cup standings, full-field events will represent opportunities to maintain, lose, or gain eligibility to designated events.
Ultimately, while different, the PGA Tour has not necessarily lost its meritocracy.
As a side note, one might be tempted to also argue how exempt captains further devalue the LIV Tour’s meritocracy relative to the PGA Tour’s. To be fair, the designated events on the PGA Tour will allow for 4 sponsor exemptions. There are also a handful of players who have attained lifetime membership on the PGA Tour.
It can be debated if these sponsor exemptions and lifetime memberships are really the same thing as LIV exempting certain captains. As fans, we should not mind since these sponsor exemptions or lifetime memberships will likely provide the opportunity, should he want it, for Tiger Woods to enter designated events.
Yes and no.
The fact remains that this new format from the PGA Tour is a reaction to what LIV has promoted and, at the very least, the PGA Tour has upped its purses and made allowances to top players, things it was, for the most part, forced into doing.
If you are wondering what LIV’s view on if designated events and the program around them are a reproduction of what LIV did, the organization made it very clear in the following Twitter post.
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Congratulations PGA Tour. Welcome to the future.#LIVGolf
— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) March 1, 2023
McIlroy and Jon Rahm also have been candid with their belief that LIV Golf inspired the changes on the PGA Tour.
The reason for also answering no as part of the yes and no question is the fact that no-cut events do have precedent. At this point, we do not know exactly how no-cut events will be transformed from what they were to something resembling LIV Tour events.
Additionally, the PGA Tour is not completely going against its word, as it still has a level of meritocracy that is theoretically greater than that of the LIV Tour.
Jay Monahan tried to explain how the changes made on the PGA Tour are not a function of LIV Golf. He is not wrong in pointing out the changes the PGA Tour has made from the period between 2017 and 2021 – before the LIV Tour.
However, it is inaccurate to ignore the fact that without LIV, things would not have changed or, at a minimum, would not have changed so rapidly.
Fans’ perspectives on the hypocrisy or not hypocrisy being played out by the PGA Tour is polarizing. If you read the YouTube comments in Monahan’s press conference video, you will find that many disagree with the commissioner’s explanations and largely believe that the moves by the PGA Tour are nothing but hypocritical.
On the other side of the coin, there are fans who, for valid reasons, argue that the PGA Tour is neither sacrificing its values or directly copying LIV.
Regardless of your take, the information in this article will help you to weigh the soundness of both and form an educated opinion.
There is no mistaking that the PGA Tour has made changes that make it appear more similar to the LIV Golf Tour. There is an element of hypocrisy in what they have done. However, they have likely been forced into that situation given the threat LIV presents to poach its players.
At the same time, we can find validity in the PGA Tour’s arguments that it is simply bringing one of its own innovations, no-cut events, to the forefront.
