Major champion hits out at ‘silly’ PGA Tour changes

The PGA Tour is planning some radical changes to its 2024 schedule – but one former major champion is unimpressed.

In a wide-ranging chat with Golfweek, Lucas Glover hit out at plans to decrease the FedEx Cup Playoff spots from 125 to 70, slammed the Player Advisory Council, and conceded that the US-based circuit had no option but to strike a deal with the Public Investment Fund of Saudia Arabia.

Asked about the changes to the FedEx Cup and tour schedule, the 2009 US Open champion said: “It’s very contrived to me. I think if you finish in the top-125, I don’t know why you don’t get to play next week.

• DeChambeau shoots 58 to win on LIV Golf League

• Tiger Woods accepts new PGA Tour role

“I think it’s silly that it’s only 70. I think it’s silly that we’re playing 70 in these elevated events. I think it’s silly.

“We’re touting ourselves as the best Tour in the world, so why wouldn’t you reward the best 125 guys and let them play in your biggest events?

“Same with the elevated events. You finish 125th on the best tour in the world, and you’re in one elevated event, The PLAYERS? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

From next year, it is understood the PGA Tour schedule will comprise 39 regular season events and eight more tournaments in the new Fall Playoff Series, where players will be looking to secure their playing rights.

Out of a dozen designated events, which will feature the newly-elevated AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, only four are set to have a 36-hole cut.

In a further change from this year, the PGA Tour is also reversing its decision to make designated events mandatory in 2024.

This is believed to have been the result of player pressure but Glover is sceptical as to just how much influence he and his peers will actually have going forward.

“It’s a waste of breath, a waste of time,” he said. “I’ve been out here long enough to know that it doesn’t matter. The PAC’s [Player Advisory Council] useless. They’re going to do what they’re going to do. Maybe now we can get some smarter people in the room and talk some sense into them.”

• Jon Rahm: PGA Tour “generated division”

• 8 reasons to buy the latest edition of bunkered

On the subject of the controversial proposed merger of operations between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the PIF, he added: “We couldn’t continue to go down the road we were going. Anyone with a brain knows [the Tour] didn’t have the money.

“[LIV] was going to drag this lawsuit out as long as they could. The Tour can’t prop up $20 million purses forever. Pretty sure the sponsors don’t want to do it either.”

“They’re not getting the return. That’s evident. We know that too. We’ve got some valuations of under $5 million, and you’re asking the sponsor for $20 million. That doesn’t work. So, of course, we were going to have to do something.

“It was just a matter of where the money was coming from.”