A shake-up of the PGA Tour will see eight of its main occasions outdoors of the majors have smaller, restricted fields and not characteristic 36-hole cuts.
Often known as designated occasions, these have greater purses because the PGA Tour goals to cease gamers defecting to LIV Golf.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan says the revamp will “ship substantial, can’t-miss tournaments for the followers”.
Rory McIlroy stated he “loves” the transfer, nevertheless it has drawn derision from the breakaway LIV collection and its gamers.
Financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF) to tune of $2bn (£1.65bn), the LIV collection options 48-player fields break up into 12 groups and has no cuts.
“Imitation is the best type of flattery. Congratulations PGA Tour. Welcome to the longer term,” LIV tweeted.
The 4 majors – the Masters, the US Open, the Open Championship and the PGA Championship – and the Gamers Championship will stay with a full area of as much as 156 gamers and have cuts on the midway stage after two rounds.
What are the adjustments?
The PGA Tour had already launched 12 designated occasions for the 2023 season, price a median of $20m (£16.5m) and aimed to maintain their largest stars joyful.
However extra radical adjustments – to be carried out from 2024 – have been introduced on Wednesday.
Whereas the complete particulars of the designated occasions has but to be labored by means of – and which eight will fall into this class – the PGA Tour confirmed they may have between 70 and 78 gamers.
The sector will embody the highest 50 gamers from the earlier 12 months’s FedEx Cup standings and the highest 10 gamers from the most recent factors record.
5 gamers may even be capable to qualify by means of non-designated occasions.
The highest gamers is not going to need to compete in a compulsory variety of tournaments, with the PGA Tour aiming to offer extra flexibility.
“The main target can be on purse dimension, elimination of a lower, and FedEx Cup factors distribution sufficiently incentivising prime performers to take part,” stated the PGA Tour.
How have gamers reacted?
Northern Eire’s McIlroy, ranked third on this planet, says the adjustments will make the PGA Tour “extra aggressive”.
“I am all about rewarding good play,” stated the four-time main champion.
“It is making an attempt to get the highest guys versus the new guys, proper? I feel that creates a very compelling product.”
American world quantity two Scottie Scheffler lately received the Phoenix Open – one in every of this 12 months’s designated occasions – and insists the brand new format is not going to result in a closed store.
“You bought to earn your manner nonetheless out right here on tour,” added reigning Masters champion Scheffler.
“There’s loads of avenues for guys to earn their manner into these tournaments, whether or not it is this 12 months or subsequent 12 months.”
The arrival of the LIV collection has modified the panorama {of professional} golf and led to what many have described as a ‘civil struggle’ within the sport.
Final 12 months, the PGA Tour banned its members who performed in a LIV competitors with the DP World Tour – previously referred to as the European Tour – following go well with.
13 LIV gamers appealed towards the punishments imposed by the DP World Tour in a week-long listening to at the beginning of final month, with English Ryder Cup veterans Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood amongst them.
Poulter stated the adjustments within the PGA Tour’s shake-up sounded “similar to one other product that is been spoken so badly about by media and commentators”.
Westwood believes the brand new plans contradict most of the considerations which the PGA Tour has outlined since LIV’s emergence.
“I’ve spent the final 12 months studying how good full fields and cuts are!” tweeted the previous world primary.
The choice to take away the lower from extra occasions is “one of many worst issues to occur to the sport within the final 12 months”, stated English participant Eddie Pepperell, 32.
“Lacking cuts is crucial for progress as an expert golfer,” he wrote on Twitter.
“You would be shocked how a lot it means to make a lower when your again’s up towards the wall and also you’re struggling. It is a mini win and it breeds nice issues.”
‘Sponsors need the assure of superstars’ – evaluation
Iain Carter, BBC golf correspondent
There can be lots on the LIV facet who will see the irony of the PGA Tour limiting area sizes for sure occasions and never imposing a midway lower.
However this has been a protracted standing mannequin in World Golf Championships occasions so there’s loads of precedent.
On the coronary heart of all of this can be a need to get the largest gamers collectively extra regularly and taking part in for the largest purses.
Sponsors need the assure of celebrity gamers being there for all 4 days of their tournaments.
However the absence of a lower dilutes the aggressive fringe of tournaments within the eyes of purist observers.
