The PGA Tour has been going through an overhaul the past few years.
Fewer full-time Tour cards awarded. More emphasis on the signature events. And, perhaps coming soon to a theater near you, fewer events altogether.
In short, the Tour is looking to put a greater emphasis on competition while catering to its more valuable players. Play well or beware.
For decades, veteran Tour players have been given exemption after exemption—past champion, career money, etc.—as careers get endlessly extended based on previous accomplishments. These players could make a schedule of 12 to 15 lower-tier events, clinging on to their glory days and squeezing whatever juice remains of their dwindling careers.
Now that the Tour is taking those opportunities away, the journeymen who have benefited are pissed.
And they have no right to be pissed
I’m going to pick on Ryan Moore, a veteran Tour player who recently tore into the Tour during an interview with Golfweek.
Moore is the latest (but certainly not the first) in a long list of Tour vets who have come out of the woodwork to dump on the league that gave them a platform in the first place.
In this interview, Moore, like others before him, says the Tour has abandoned its middle-class.
“I feel like the first 10 years I was on Tour they appreciated people in my position who had been there, done that,” Moore said. “They did everything to kind of create some playing opportunity for past champions; they appreciated that player a lot more.
“Now they’re like, ‘What have you done for me lately? Please go away. Go away as fast as you can. You mean nothing to us.’ Like, that’s how I feel. My issue with everything they’ve done is they just throw everything out there, claim there’s a trickle down, but it doesn’t trickle down past 20 players. Everything the Tour is doing is working against you and you feel like you’re beating your head against the wall.”
Let’s reset for a moment.
Imagine you are a bench player in the NBA. You can eat a few minutes and average four points a game and serve a small role on your team. Every now and then, you make a meaningful impact. You make your money and keep your spot throughout your career.
But at a certain point, you are not serving that role anymore. You are not one of the best 13 players on your team. You would not be one of the best 13 players on any team.
Should the NBA call one of their teams and say, “Hey, guys, let’s prolong this dude’s career a few more years. Can you keep playing him?”
No, of course not. Virtually every sport in the world is based on competition.
Yes, there are contracts signed. But in terms of the product and who gets in the game, it is purely a meritocracy.
What sports league would defend a player who is no longer competitive?
The answer is the PGA Tour. The Tour was going to bat for its has-beens, carving out playing opportunities so players who haven’t been relevant for 10 years could ride off into the sunset.
That philosophy contributed to the bloated nature of professional golf. It’s part of why there are so many (too many) tournaments. It’s part of why the Tour was so susceptible to LIV coming in and snatching players.
Moore should be grateful, not spiteful
For those who don’t know, Ryan Moore had a very nice career in golf.
He was a standout amateur, winning the U.S. Amateur and NCAA Championship in the same year while at UNLV. Only four other golfers in history have done that.
Moore won five times on the Tour (all lower-tier events) but fell short of the lofty expectations people had for him coming out of college. In 42 major starts, he never finished better than T9. He was a pretty forgettable figure, a journeyman who had a few meaningful moments, such as qualifying for the 2016 Ryder Cup.
And Moore made more than $34 million in his career. He did pretty damn well for 20 years.
He’s 43 years old and basically finished as a competitive golfer at the highest level.
Now he wants to be coddled like those before him.
“They have no idea what they’re doing,” Moore said when asked about his Tour playing opportunities this year. “They keep saying a lot of things that turn out to be very wrong.
“If you go back three or four years ago with the exact same status, I would have played in at least 12 tournaments, maybe as much as 14-15, with fall (events) and with opposites and all that kind of stuff. But certainly a solid 12 and I think I got in four last year.”
What a shame. What a shame the Tour is transitioning to a more competitive model and you can’t have your retirement plan of taking a few victory laps so you can finish T45 at the Barracuda Championship.
You were just a random guy who brought minimal value to the more than 450 events you got to play on the Tour. The only people who specifically came to an event to watch you play were your family members and they didn’t even have to buy tickets.
You played golf on the best tour in the world for 20 years, reaping the benefits of a player who rarely rubbed elbows with the game’s elite.
And now you are shamelessly lobbying for the Champions Tour minimum age to be changed from 50 to 45 so you can go and make more money there.
It’s kind of embarrassing.
I’m glad the Tour is becoming more cutthroat
There is a balance to strike between competitiveness and ruthlessness.
Tour players can’t sign contracts and it would be a bridge too far to say one bad year should take a guy away from his livelihood.
At the same time, this is an entertainment product. The Tour won’t be successful if it’s constantly catering to the 150th-best player.
No other sport would do that. Once you can’t perform, you don’t play.
What do you think of Moore’s complaining about the Tour structure?
Let me know below in the comments.
Top Photo Caption: Ryan Moore isn’t happy with the Tour’s system. (GETTY IMAGES/Carmen Mandato)
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