Not everyone agrees with major changes coming to the PGA Tour

I have a lot of time for Lucas Glover. He is a man who calls a spade a shovel and who just gets on with it on the golf course. He picks a club, stands over the ball and hits it. No fuss, no faff.

And it is abundantly clear that he will be bringing exactly the same approach to his new role as chairman of the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council.

Brian Rolapp, the tour’s first chief executive officer, has stated that he wants to reduce the number of tournaments in the schedule. It is also pretty obvious that he wants to see prize money rising even further. He has had a lot of support with his plans to shorten the season, including from your correspondent. I have never been able to understand why we effectively have a 12-month season. Most sports have a break - football, cricket, baseball, basketball, American football. 

Back in the day, the tour’s commissioner was charged with increasing playing opportunities and prize money. But things have changed.

Golf has struggled for both TV viewers and real-time spectators in the USA as it goes head to head with the NFL. And I contend that there is too much golf and if you have too much of anything then eventually you are going to devalue and dilute it.

The future of the tour has been entrusted to something called the Future Competition Committee and ahead of the Players Championship, Rolapp gave a hint of what the future may look like.

As widely predicted, the tour is looking at a schedule from late-January to early-September, with 21 to 26 events on a first track of elevated events which would include the majors, The Players and the postseason. These events would be similar to today’s Signature Events, with the best players competing for elevated purses. That would mean at least doubling the current number of Signature Events (eight). Rolapp also noted there would be a second track of tour tournaments that will ladder up to the elevated events. This is a move that seems certain to anger the rank-and-file.

The committee wants to deliver consistent fields at top events, aiming to move away from smaller fields and no-cut events, with Rolapp indicating they are looking at field sizes around 120 players with a cut.

Rolapp said the tour is evaluating markets with strong existing fan demand and the opportunity to reach new fans in places such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington and Boston. He said said the tour envisions a merit-based system that leans into what makes golf compelling: players earning their way to the top, with every event having greater meaning.

"Ultimately, scarcity is not about the number of events we have," Rolapp said, "but rather scarcity is about making every event we have matter."

He compared the tour’s potential promotion and relegation system to English football, where clubs move between the Premier League and Championship based on performance. Rolapp believes that applying elements of that approach to the tour would lift the competitive standard across the entire platform.

"For our members, the message is simple," Rolapp said. "Play well, and you earn the opportunity to compete in our biggest events - and for more money." And there it is again - money.

"We will continue to move with urgency, but we are more focused on getting this right," Rolapp said. "We are proud of our history and just as focused on building the strongest possible future for our game and the fans. The goal is not incremental change. The goal is significant change."

But not everybody agrees and if he believes he is going to steamroller changes through then he could well be in for a rude awakening because Glover likes a lot about the way things are run just now.

He says: "My opinion is different. The way I look at things is different, and my perspective is mine. You hope that [decision-making] is about the game and not about the bottom line. And the answer to everything [can’t be] ‘Just give them money.’

"I can’t remember the last time I heard somebody talk about the charity we’re giving. I hope we do what’s right for golf."

He also does not like The Players Championship being played in March, saying its old May date was better because the course was firm and fast. He has always seen changes in the way players interact with one another. He harks back to a time when players helped each other on the range, had dinner together and played cards at night. Now, all the top players travel with huge entourages. Glover said that his teacher, Dick Harmon, came to one tour event in all their years together, and was only there to visit his brother Butch. 

Glover is not alone.

Peter Jacobsen, a former tour player and now a respected TV analyst who still has the ear of the players, says: "It’s a huge gamble trying to remake the PGA Tour. I’ve read a lot of the players saying, 'Well, we all know the PGA Tour has to change', and I ask the question, ‘Why?' It was working really well before and if the players wanted to have tournaments where the good players play more often together, they have that at LIV. Go join LIV. 

"The PGA Tour has always existed and thrived based on the communities where we play and the charities that we support. I’m just worried that in the future we’re going to lose sight of the fact that people love their communities, and they love to support and strengthen their communities through charitable work in those communities and the PGA Tour has always been a big part of that. 

"I get scared when I hear people talking about cutting events. Those events are so important to that community and the charity money raised is important to those golf fans. I always thought the PGA Tour should expand their reach rather than contract their reach. Count me as someone who thinks we should be growing the tour and having more events rather than contracting."