Peter Jacobsen believes that players would not look to leave the PGA Tour even if purses were reduced by 20 per cent in the coming years.
There are likely to be some significant changes to the PGA Tour over the next few seasons. Brian Rolapp’s vision for the tour is beginning to take shape.
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While 2027 is likely to look similar, 2028 has the potential to be a fresh beginning for the PGA Tour. It appears that the plan is to split the tour into two tiers, with promotion and relegation a key selling point.
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Rolapp hopes to have all of his star players playing in every single track one event. And his cause has seemingly been helped by the turmoil LIV Golf is currently dealing with.
It certainly seems that LIV’s days as potential competition are over. With that, the PGA Tour has been encouraged to make a significant change to the riches on offer.
Speaking in an interview with Monday Q Info, Jacobsen insisted that the PGA Tour has moved too far away from the principles that made it what it was.
“We’re now morphing into a generation, I think, that has the focus on the players, which is the wrong focus. Players come and players go. I can remember when I joined the tour, there was a guy named Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and if they didn’t play the tournament, everybody thought the tour was going to fold. Guess what, the tour’s going fine. And there was a guy named Tiger Woods who came along and dominated. Well, Tiger doesn’t play anymore. So players come and players go, but the organisation remains. And that is where you have to keep your focus not on the players, not on the money,” he said.
“The players do just fine. Right now, I think if the tour, with LIV going away, I think they would be smart to make a solid financial decision and reduce purses and reduce title fees by 20 per cent. Nobody on the tour’s going to quit and go away. They’re going to continue to play for substantial purses. But to me, that would be a very smart financial decision to make.”
Peter Jacobsen not convinced about a two-tiered PGA Tour
Splitting the PGA Tour into two tiers has the potential to create a lot of intrigue. You would imagine that more casual fans will be more tempted to watch if they know that Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are facing off every week they tee it up.
However, it seems that the PGA Tour’s desire to be able to rely on their marquee names for track one events will have an extremely negative impact on track two tournaments.
Top tier players will be strongly discouraged from dropping down. And Jacobsen admitted that he cannot see a way that the PGA Tour makes such a structure successful.
“First of all, tier one, it’s not sustainable financially. You can’t request these title sponsors, these major corporations, they’re asking them to pay $30 million for one week. It’s unsustainable, can’t do that. And tier two is unsustainable, because if you don’t have an opportunity for a young player to be able to come out and burst onto the scene, win a tournament, and be able to play at the highest level, there’s something wrong with your system,” he said.
“I think Rory said it during his press conference on Tuesday, a tier two is basically a glorified Korn Ferry. Nothing wrong with the Korn Ferry Tour. It’s a training ground for young people to move on to the PGA Tour. It’s Triple-A baseball. It’s great for those trying to develop, but we always see people like Tiger, like Jack, like a Jerry Pate, like a Phil Mickelson, that are so good so young that they deserve to be playing with the big boys. And until I hear a concept or a path for that to happen, I don’t think either are sustainable.”
Rolapp has a lot of credit in the bank with the way he has started life as the CEO. He appears to be open to lots of ideas, and he has an impressive track record from the NFL.
This is perhaps the first time where his plans have come under quite a lot of scrutiny. Clearly, many are concerned about what will happen if the PGA Tour heads too far down a certain path that they cannot turn back.
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