Pro fires “big, big trouble” warning to PGA Tour

PGA Tour star Harry Higgs warned the circuit faces a “huge, huge problem” if sweeping changes announced earlier this year fail to generate enough revenue.

Speaking to the No Laying Up podcast, Higgs – a member of the tour’s player advisory council – predicted a dramatically reduced schedule with less opportunities for players if the alterations fail to have the desired effect.

Among the changes to the tour, which take effect this season and are widely seen as a response to the threat posed by LIV Golf, are a requirement for the top players to play in “elevated” events with increased purses.

“It’s going to be great for seven years with this TV deal,” Higgs said. “Every event other than the elevated events is going to stick where it is, purse-wise, or slightly grow. The growth of the other events will be aided by the revenue generated by the elevated events.

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“If the product is good enough and people watch enough and invest enough, if we hit on those events, that helps every single one of us.

“Basically those events need to generate a s**t-tonne to offset the cost of pumping money into purses and bonuses. If those events generate a tonne of revenue, we’re cool. We’re going to be just great and every event is going to continue to run.

“If those don’t generate the revenue they’re expecting, there is no way there is anything other than a 20-event PGA Tour schedule, starting probably in 2031. The rest of the events kind of mix in with the European Tour and Korn Ferry Tour, and there’s some kind of hybrid event that’s just underneath that feeds X amount of players into the top tour.

“If these things don’t generate the ‘everything’, someone like me is going to suffer. That is scary.”

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Higgs also criticised the PGA Tour and its broadcast partners, claiming they must improve their output if the changes at the game’s top level are to work.

“If we can’t do a good job of highlighting the elevated events and the best players in the game and if people don’t want to hear their story, if they’re turned off by Rory [McIlroy] making another $4million, we are in big, big trouble,” he added.

“My feeling is this is going to work, but if it doesn’t, we are in a huge, huge problem area.

“The suits have got to work. Both the broadcasters and the PGA Tour, neither one of them does anywhere near enough to put confidence in my mind about telling the right stories often enough in a way which will continue to generate revenue.”