Following a membership meeting on Tuesday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan presented the public with a press conference Wednesday about plans to increase purses to its marquee events and revamp the fall schedule that’ll include a series of events with the best players in the world along with a final stretch for those outside the top-70 playing for their tour status. The changes made to the schedule will surely have an impact as the top players who typically take the fall off will now be enticed to participate in the limited-field events for a guaranteed payout.
These changes have come to light after the LIV golf circuit has caused friction within the professional golf ranks and driven a wedge between players on both sides of the fence. Like MLB betting trends, there are new reports daily over who is staying and who is leaving.
Let’s dive into Monahan’s press conference and recap the outline of the purse increases and detail the new schedule.
$54 Million Across Eight Events
The LIV International Golf Series and their Saudi-backed funding pushed the PGA Tour to show their hand early with purse increases. Is there a little irony in the PGA Tour making it $54 (LIV) million, probably, but Tour players got what they deserve and that’s a large boost in prize money across events?
The tournaments included in the purse boost are The Sentry Tournament of Champions, The Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, WGC-Dell Technology Match Play, the Memorial Tournament, the PLAYERS, FedEx St. Jude Championship, and the BMW Championship
The PGA Tour doesn’t have the ability to compete financially with a government-backed fund with endless amounts of cash, but the increase in tournament purses is a step in the right direction to keeping the top talent on Tour.
PGA Tour to Follow Calander Schedule
Another note to Monahan’s press conference is the return of the PGA Tour schedule to follow a calendar year. Currently, the new season begins shortly after the Tour Championship in the fall and runs through the remainder of that year and a majority of the next season. Now, the FedEx Cup season will take place from January to August with an additional Fall Series.
The change to a calendar-year schedule is expected to begin in 2024, with next year’s schedule the same as it is this season. With the scheduled shorted, the best players in the world will be teeing it up on a regular basis from January thru August and then be able to take advantage of the supplement fall series.
With the changes comes a change to the FedEx Cup playoffs. Under the new format, fewer players will earn a spot in the postseason, with the field getting shortened from 125 players to just 70. The top 50 will move on to the BMW and the top 30 get to advance to the Tour Championship.
Those who finish in the top 70 will get to be fully exempt the next season, while the top 50 earn the opportunity to participate in the new Fall Series. The new wrinkle to the fall slate includes up to three international events with no cut and a guaranteed paycheck. Those events, taking place in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, will be added to the 2024 schedule and are expected to have purses up to $235 million.
The format for those events is still being decided by the Players Advisory Council but don’t be surprised if the international events take a page from the LIV series and have a team-formatted tournament at one or multiple stops.
The players who don’t find themselves within the top 70 still get a chance at their own fall series. Those individuals will compete in a stretch of events in the fall that will determine their Tour fate for the next season. The added wrinkles to the fall schedule will draw viewers in during a time when most sports fans have shifted their viewing to football.
