3 New Tournament Formats PGA TOUR Should Adopt

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans is an untraditional format for the PGA TOUR, but maybe untraditional tournaments should be more common on tour.

Although 95 percent of PGA TOUR events are done in a 72-hole stroke play format, they’re still different every week because of the location. Every golf course is different so it keeps fresh on a week-to-week basis.

However, even the most die-hard golf fans get tired of the same shenanigans week after week. It’s the reason why the Match Play event is a welcomed event for many and it’s why this week’s Zurich Classic is so much fun.

Golf is supposed to be entertaining and it doesn’t have to be this old-school stuffy sport every week. When you see Team Mullet consisting of Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith get welcomed to the tee with walk-up music, it’s fun.

Nobody wants to see a two-man better ball and alternate shot format every week, but once a year is good for the fans and it’s also good for the players.

With the excitement around this week’s event, let’s look at three other untraditional formats that the PGA TOUR should look to adopt in future years.

PGA Tour’s The “Cut” Championship

Let’s keep the traditional 72-hole stroke play tournament, but instead incorporate four cuts into the event.

For example, instead of one cut after 36 holes, there will be four cuts:

• After 18 Holes:
  • Top 90 and ties
• After 36 Holes:
  • Top 60 and ties
• After 54 Holes:
  • Top 30 and ties
• After 63 Holes:
  • Top 10 and ties

In golf gambling, everyone talks about the “cut sweat” which only happens once in four days. For this event, you get four cut sweats, making every putt crucial.

There would be so much drama from start to finish as players try to crawl and make every cut to give themselves a chance at winning the event on Sunday. It’s a crazy idea but it’s almost crazy enough to work.

The Monkey Golf Invitational

For those of you unaware with “monkey golf” it’s an old game where you’re only allowed to play with three clubs.

There’s a lot of strategy with this format and it would be very intriguing golf to watch the best players in the world battle it out with only three clubs.

Do you balance the bag and go four-iron, eight-iron, sand wedge? Or do you go three-wood, six-iron, pitching-wedge? It’s a tough one to figure out, but watching them struggle would be fun and it would be impressive to see just how low they can go with only three clubs.

The Stroke Play/Match Play Cup

This is just stealing the format for the US Amateur Championship, but it’s a perfect solution to the current Match Play format.

Take the top 64 players in the world and play a 36-hole stroke play tournament for two days. After two days, the top 16 players make the Match Play format of the event where you’d have 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, and so-on.

You’d more than likely have a few players tied at the 16th position as well, so that would be incredibly exciting theatre to see a potential 5-10 player playoff fighting for that last spot.

On Saturday, you’d have your Sweet 16 and Elite 8 matches and then on Sunday, you’d have your Semi-Finals and Finals. It’s a lot of golf, but it’s definitely entertaining for everyone in attendance.