| PGA Tour just complimented LIV Golf, but the new Designated events look good…  Golfers Tiger Woods, left, and Rory McIlroy share a laugh (Source: AP) If two of the main criticisms for LIV Golf are that it is a closed tour that is lucrative only to the 48 contracted players and that it takes away from the traditional thrills of golf by following a no-cut policy, then the PGA Tour seems to validate Greg Norman’s model. Starting 2024, the PGA Tour will have eight Designated events that will have fields of 70-78 players. They will play for the $20 million purses in these events, as well as elevated FedExCup points. All players in the field are guaranteed four rounds as there won’t be a 36-hole cut. The PGA Tour contends this makes the Designated events a ‘much better product’ with the fans and sponsors with all the ‘top’ players competing in all four rounds. The field of these events will feature the top-50 players from the previous year’s FedExCup standings; the top-10 players, not otherwise eligible, from the current year's FedExCup standings; top-5 players, not otherwise eligible, earning the most FedExCup points through ‘collection’ of standard events (in between the designated events); current year tournament winners, not otherwise eligible; PGA Tour members among the top 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking and four sponsor exemptions (restricted to PGA Tour members). To be fair, there is still room for ‘not-so-top’ players to qualify for the designated events, but not much. And that is where many players and critics have an issue with the PGA Tour. Once again, as it has done with the Players Impact Program (PIP), it is just trying to financially reward the top players so much that they are unable to move to LIV Golf. My issue is, being the biggest Tour in the world, they have ignored their responsibility towards other Tours (which is okay considering they have to think about their own membership first), but they have also ignored what I have referred to above as the ‘not-so-top’ players of their own Tour. It’s simple… once you have broken into the top-50 of the FedExCup standings, it will now be almost impossible to get out of it when you are playing for guaranteed money and more FedExCup points in at least eight events compared to your competitors. Without the backing of any data, I’d reckon the churn rate from top-50 would be around 15-20 per cent every year. If you are in the top-50 one year, you’ve got to have a very poor season to throw yourself out of the PGA Tour gravy train. But then, here is the good part. By reducing the number of Designated events to eight, from the current 12, the PGA Tour is giving 'top' players some wiggle room to choose and play their events. It means somebody like Viktor Hovland will be able to travel and defend something like his Dubai Desert Classic title, instead of tying his schedule up completely in the United States. It is something that Hovland has openly admitted he doesn’t like. How does the rank-and-file players on the PGA Tour feel about these changes? In an excellent interview with Adam Schupak in Golfweek, James Hahn laid it out. “Right now, they’re just covering their ass and saying everything what the PGA Tour basically has trained them to say, have taught them to say and try to make it not about money when everyone knows 100 percent it’s about more guaranteed money being funneled to the top players in the world. We’ve been talking about money for the last two years and for them not to say that that’s not the No1 reason why they’re making these changes —it’s very, very hypocritical,” Hahn said in the interview. There are other aspects of the announcement that have drawn criticism. Take this Lee Westwood tweet for instance… Obviously, one can argue that Westwood belongs to the opposition camp and will always try to pick holes, but this is a genuine concern. Let’s just say Shubhankar Sharma qualifies and gets a PGA Tour membership in 2024 as one of the 10 top players from the DP World Tour. Even if he gives his full attention to playing in the US, he would have a highly fragmented schedule to contend with and will have to play lights-out golf in the limited chances he gets to secure his card for the following year. It’s always difficult for players to adapt to a new Tour within one year, and even more so now when they will have such a stop-start schedule. One announcement that could have made this whole new ‘limited-field, no-cut’ Designated events so much more palatable for everyone, would have been the abolition of the PIP. There are so many ways those millions of dollars would make more sense. How about a grant for veteran journalist Steve DiMeglio, a long-serving soldier of the game who has been battling cancer these last few months? How about using that fund for long-time marshals at events who have fallen upon hard times? Coming back to the designated events once again…having spoken to so many sponsors and fans over the years, I completely understand why having all the top players around for the weekend makes for a ‘better product’. But then again, how many top players are so critical to a tournament that their absence would make a major dent to the TV ratings and spectators’ idea of having a fun day? I can only think of 2-3 names right now. Among other things in the new Designated events, I love the fact that there are going to be four spots reserved for sponsors’ exemptions. What I don’t like is the qualifying statement in parenthesis next to it – these are restricted to PGA Tour members. If a sponsor like MasterCard has worldwide business, why not let them invite someone (they can still restrict it to being a non-LIV Golf member) from a big market for them like Asia? As with most new products, I guess the Designated events will also take repeated tweaking. But this is a step in the right direction - so much better than what we have this year. | 
