When you’re a golf “star” like Davis Love III, you get questions. Because Love has been on the PGA Tour Policy Board in the past, he’s often been in the room where momentous decisions are made.
“All the fall events have always been wondering what's next,” Love admitted, adding that the RSM Classic, which he's hosted since its inception in 2010, has been in three versions of the FedEx Cup Fall series: the beginning of the season format, the wraparound season format, and now the end of the season.
“I was very excited a few weeks ago when the Tour announced a tournament at Asheville in the fall,” he said. “That means they're committed to the fall and maybe not going anywhere for a while.”
That’s music to the ears of many players and tournaments.
This season marks the 16th edition of the RSM Classic, and Love credited Zach Johnson for help in getting RSM as a sponsor.
“When Zach Johnson introduced us to the RSM leadership team and said, ‘Hey, these guys might be a potential sponsor for the tournament here,’ they realized the opportunity to come to Sea Island Resort. They realized working with our foundation they could make an impact.”
Now, $50 million charitable dollars later, they have done just that.
According to Johnson, now getting ready to turn 50 and still in the RSM field, prior to the introduction, the Loves already had a foundation on St. Simons Island. That was one key. The other was that the Loves were well known and respected in the St. Simons/Sea Island community.
“When you have somebody established like Davis, like Mark (Davis’ brother), their families in this community and already, I would say proper pillars, grounded here, that introduction kind of just happened organically,” Johnson said, downplaying his role. “You can't write a better script. And it's not slowing down. So, win-win.”
While the RSM Classic seems secure, the fact that some fields have been shrinking—The Players will now have just 120 players—speaks to the pace-of-play issue that has always nagged professional golf. Love’s recollection of the problem goes back many years.
“I was on the board of the Tour five times, and a lot of meetings, pace of play has always been a question,” he said. “I think it was Wade Cagle maybe, one of our great older rules officials, said we have nowhere to go when we make the turn on Thursday, Friday. We're not going to speed up. We're (only) going to save 15 minutes.’”
Love pointed out that a benefit of smaller fields is that the players aren’t waiting at the turn.
"Until they get field size right, there really is nowhere to go. Sunday twosomes off one tee is always nice,” he said. “That's why 80 or 90 or 100 at the Masters works really well because there's not a whole lot of guys on the golf course.”
Certainly, fields of 144 and 156 are going to be things of the past for many tournaments. And with the smaller number of exempt players, it may be possible for the PGA Tour to do that.
“I've felt like for a long, long time that a smaller number of cards, 125 -- 150, 125, 100, 75, some smaller number was the way to go,” Love noted.
One way to provide starts even though there are fewer guaranteed cards, is with exemptions.
“At the start of the season, we focus on our exemptions, giving guys a chance to play because the young guys, there's some years the rookies on Tour were only getting 16 or 17 or 18 starts. That's tough to compete,” he said. “Then what we look at as board members was the Korn Ferry, the other opportunities if you're not in the top 100 or 125.”
Unfortunately, the number of exemptions have been reduced, too. Sponsor exemptions that were restricted to PGA TOUR members, DP World Tour/Korn Ferry Tour/Q-School category members have been removed. Instead, those go to the next eligible member according to the priority ranking. There are still four unrestricted sponsor exemptions.
Love, whose playing time has been restricted by injury in recent years, would like to play more PGA Tour Champions events.
“I'm pushing for mandatory cart rule on the Champions Tour, so that we have to ride so that everybody, including me, feels comfortable riding. I feel bad when I ride,” he admitted.
As for Tiger Woods, Love doesn’t have any special inside information on whether the Hall of Famer will join him and the likes of Bernhard Langer, Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Retief Goosen, and the rest.
“I'm hoping he'll play ( PGA Tour Champions). Same thing with Zach Johnson. Zach's about to turn 50,” he said, adding that PGA Tour Champions is a lot of fun. “I'm hoping he'll play, and I hope I see him in Hawaii in January. That would be a nice start to the year.”