The PGA Tour schedule has come under intense scrutiny after a surprising development this offseason.
Harris English revealed that Brian Rolapp is planning major changes to the PGA Tour schedule, which could come into fruition as soon as the 2027 season.
Signature events will be scrapped, and in their place will be around 20 events of equal value, and the season could be shortened, with key events early in the calendar shelved.
When he was introduced as CEO, Rolapp said he won’t be bound by the traditions of the PGA Tour, but Justin Thomas recently said he’d love to see the tour move back to its traditional schedule with a major he has won twice.
Justin Thomas’ proposed changes to the PGA Championship and The Players
In 2019, the PGA of America and the PGA Tour made a risky decision to move the PGA Championship from its traditional August slot to May. Since 1969, the PGA Championship has mostly been the final major of the year, but now it’s the second, after The Masters.
It was a move that threatened the 2023 event at Oak Hill, as players faced frost delays and near-freezing temperatures. While playing the event in May has opened up the possibility of Southern courses, it’s mostly discarded courses in the colder North East.
Thomas, who won the PGA Championship before and after the schedule change, was asked if he would like to see the tournament return to its traditional August slot on Straight Facts Homie!
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He answered: “I would love that too. I think it’s so condensed. It’s a totally different wave of golf courses, too. Think of the number of golf courses in the Northeast that are likely thrown out because of May. For the PGA Championship, that was ballsy.
“Bethpage, Oak Hill, Winged Foot, all these places that we could be going for, how good they could be in August. To me, I love The Players, and I want it in March, so obviously I like it, but TPC Sawgrass in May is unbelievable.
“I think it is so much better in May than it is in March because it’s Bermuda. It’s so much firmer and faster. It’s more difficult. [It’s not] so soft. In March, it’s overseed. There’s mud balls everywhere.
“Hitting the fairway takes way less skill and shot shaping in March than it does in May. And how hard it is for the course to actually get firm in March versus May is completely different.
“But then again, you know, that kind of goes back to some of the stuff with the scheduling and and and just making it maybe make sense. But just because I like one course more doesn’t mean that it makes more sense.”
Justin Thomas hits on solution to golf technology threat
Technology in golf is an existential threat to some of the most iconic courses on the planet. St Andrews is being renovated to keep up with evolving technology, and Rory McIlroy said Royal Melbourne is suffering from the distance players can easily achieve in the modern game.
Worryingly, McIlroy said the golf ball rollback won’t work because manufacturers have been given too much time to find loopholes, leaving the golf world to scramble for a sustainable solution. We can’t just keep lengthening iconic venues. We will run out of space.
But instead of making them longer, some of these courses can be made more challenging by moving the schedule. As Thomas says, TPC Sawgrass is harder in the summer, as its firmness makes it more of a challenge.
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The opposite is true for some Open Championship venues, where playing them earlier in the year would increase the chances of more difficult weather and prevent balls from rolling out long distances, making links courses more challenging.
If golf truly wants to tackle the technology crisis, then it should take a long, hard look at the schedule and put the biggest events where they will cause players the most difficulty. That would be a significant step in the right direction.
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