Professional golf is learning that less is more

This year’s Rocket Classic (formerly the Rocket Mortgage Classic) will be the last. 

The tournament holds an unfortunate place in the PGA Tour’s schedule, just after The Open Championship, and that means it has always struggled to attract stellar fields as players take a breather following the final major of the year.

Tournament director Mark Hollis said: "After nearly 13 years as a PGA Tour title sponsor, including eight years in Detroit, 2026 will mark the final Rocket Classic. We are incredibly proud of what this tournament has meant to the city, from creating unforgettable moments for fans to raising more than $10 million for local organisations."

Under normal circumstances you would expect the tour to be working furiously to find a replacement sponsor but, by all accounts, that is not the case. In any event, if Rocket could not attract a world-class starting field, what chance would any other sponsor have?

You will probably know that the two tournaments that normally kick off the season in Hawaii have already been axed. And you can expect further widespread changes.

I have always said that there is too much golf. 

Both the PGA and DP World Tour seasons are far too long. Week in, week out, tournaments are staged featuring average fields. You don’t need me to tell you that almost every other sport has an off-season and PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp seems determined to bring the PGA Tour into line with the rest of the world.

You can expect to see a continuation of Signature Events, with huge prize purses for the elite players. The Masters and US Open are both immediately followed by Signature Events in an attempt to ensure that the world’s best golfers turn up. Rory McIlroy has singularly failed to do so, insisting that nobody will dictate his playing schedule to him.

But it is becoming increasingly clear that Rolapp also plans to introduce a series of second-tier tournaments.

The current PGA Tour schedule has been largely unchanged for 30 years, albeit with the introduction of a series of tournaments boasting $20m purses that are aimed entirely at the best players. This is something that, unsurprisingly, has attracted much criticism from the rank and file.

Television viewing figures for many tournaments have fallen dramatically. Of course, fewer people are watching TV now but there is a bigger issue here. In Signature Events, are the public growing weary of seeing the same players contending week after week? Conversely, is there any appeal to watching unknown golfers winning lesser tournaments? 

Surely as golf fans we want to watch the likes of Scottie Scheffler and McIlroy going head to head while being challenged by the likes of Chris Gotterup, a golfer who was relatively unknown 12 months ago but who made the most of the opportunities presented to him, won the Scottish Open, nearly won The Open and has gone on to climb the world rankings. 

Something clearly has to change. Remember that when the winning putt is holed at The Open in July we will have to wait for eight months for our sport’s next major. How much genuine excitement is generated by the battle to become the FedEx Cup champion or the Race to Dubai winner? When all is said and done, these are events that serve simply to further line the pockets of already hugely wealthy young men. 

You will remember who the 2026 Masters champion is. You will know who won the US Open last year. But can you honestly recall who won the 2025 BMW Championship? If it wasn’t for the fact that Tommy Fleetwood finally broke his duck there, would you know who won the 2025 Tour Championship? I doubt it.

The DP World Tour finishes in Dubai on November 15. Two weeks later it will all kick off again in Australia. The tour will point to a series of short breaks throughout the season but I have to ask: is 42 tournaments too many? I am utterly convinced that it is. 

The powers-that-be will claim that the DP World Tour is a different animal when compared with the PGA Tour on account of its global reach. While that is clearly true, what is also beyond dispute is the quality of fields at many of those destinations. There are times when less is more.