New PGA TOUR Player Schedule Proposal Is Great for the Game of Golf

The beautiful thing about the PGA TOUR season is that it there is only a three week offseason, giving golf fans just enough time to regroup before the wrap around season starts back up again.

Fans of the game are truly spoiled that they get to witness their sport every week of the year without any downtime from the sport.

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Unfortunately, when there are that many golf tournaments, sometimes the fields get a little diluted and the events can lose some of the excitement.

The good news is that the fine people from the PGA TOUR are taking notice and have taken steps to improve the thrill of the game.

The new proposal would have an impact on the players’ schedules, as they make an attempt to beef up the fields at each tournament.

Here are the proposed requirements (from Golf Channel):

• Players in the previous year’s Top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings are required to play in one event they have not played in their previous five seasons on TOUR.
• Players with five years or less on TOUR or any player entering 25 events would be exempt from the requirements.
• Rule would go into effect for the 2016-17 season.
• Penalty for failing to meet the requirements could result in loss in retirement income for that season

The hopes of the proposal is an effort to help out sponsors and the smaller tournaments on the PGA TOUR schedule gain more traction and help their success. Some sponsors feel that they aren’t getting their money’s worth in some of the cities.

The TOUR has made attempts to force players to play in more tournaments before. They’ve toyed around with asking players to play in every event within a five year period and have thought about using a designated tournament concept where they choose 5 events in which the top 30 golfers had to play in at least one of them.

This is a less extreme, but still an effective attempt by the policy force.

There will be golfers on TOUR who hate the idea, but if they fail to comply with the rules then they will be hit where it hurts them the most, their wallets. They players would lose their pension for the season, which for some golfers is upwards of $100,000.

I personally think this is a great idea, especially to help with the growth of the game. It really isn’t asking the golfers too much to add an extra event to their schedules. They should be grateful enough for everything the PGA TOUR has done for them and give back to the fans.

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Take a look at this past week at the Wyndham Championship. The Tiger Effect was in full force, turning an ordinary tournament into one of the most successful years it has ever seen. That kind of impact can do wonders for certain tournaments on the schedule. It can take a small event and give it an electric atmosphere with the feel of a major tournament.

Just by announcing that Tiger Woods would be playing in the event cause the Wyndham Championship to print an extra 49,000 tickets. Imagine if every tournament was headlined by one of game’s best golfers in the world.

If the golfers really cared about the game, they would happily add a few more events to their calendar. This proposal has the opportunity to work wonders in spreading the popularity of the game they love.

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