PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The PGA Tour is going to reward the biggest stars with as many as 11 tournaments that have small fields, big money and no cuts.
This should sound familiar.
And there is no denying it would not have happened without the threat and the disruption of Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
But it raises a question that might shed light on the differences between the rival circuits. If this had been in place two years ago, how many of the 36 PGA Tour players who defected to LIV Golf would have stayed?
“Zero to five,” Jordan Spieth said in offering his best guess, which is all anyone can do. “It’s still not guaranteed money, or that level of guaranteed money.”
That remains one of the differences in the two models.
The PGA Tour has put the prize fund at $20 million for its big events, just like LIV Golf, except with larger fields and more fresh faces. LIV is locked in with the same 48 players and the occasional alternate. But without a cut, the money effectively is guaranteed on both circuits.
Not to be overlooked, however, is that LIV players like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau — all of whom have won majors in the last five years — received a signing bonus of what has been reported to be in the $150 million neighborhood.
That was more appealing than a chance to play for the Iron Heads or the Hy Flyers.
Spieth still can recall being at a Rolex dinner during the U.S. Open last year when Koepka was part of a group that was circling the wagons for the PGA Tour. And then a week later, Koepka signed for the Saudi money and was gone.
“The easy way out,” is how Rory McIlroy described players leaving for LIV when their prime years were still ahead of them.
The new PGA Tour model effectively creates two tours, but players — no matter their world ranking or what they have done lately — still have to perform.
The top players are guaranteed spots on LIV for multiple years regardless of how they play. That aspect — more than the lack of a 36-hole cut or 54-hole events — is what led to suggestions the Saudi-funded league would be merely an exhibition.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and his predecessor, Tim Finchem, share more than Irish heritage. Both have taken ideas from Greg Norman, the latter having created the World Golf Championships that were similar — but not identical — to the Shark’s failed plan of a World Golf Tour in the mid-1990s.
The PGA Tour stole a page from LIV’s playbook by not having a cut, effectively assuring sponsors and television that all the best players will play four rounds in the eight designated events, along with the three FedEx Cup playoff events.
