Paul McGinley says what the PGA Tour needs to copy from LIV Golf as he calls for ‘seismic change’ to be made

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While Rory McIlroy is the talk of the town after winning The Players, there was still time for some chat about the future of golf in general.

The constant chatter around what might come in the future between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour continues to dominate certain headlines and there was always going to be a chance to discuss such things at TPC Sawgrass.

With weather stopping play in round four, the ideal opportunity was presented to the analysts in the studio.

• READ MORE: What Rory McIlroy was seen doing on the driving range just before winning his playoff with J.J. Spaun at TPC Sawgrass

And one of those analysts, Paul McGinley, went into quite the speech about what the PGA Tour needs to do in the next years.

Paul McGinley calls on Jay Monahan to make ‘seismic change’ to how the PGA Tour is run

McGinley was speaking about the current state of the game as the weather halted play at TPC Sawgrass in the final round.

As usual, the conversation got onto the way that golf is being run at the moment, with LIV Golf and the PGA Tour still not together as one.

And according to McGinley, the PGA Tour could actually learn from LIV.

“I have had this view for a number of years. Golf has evolved even from the days when we played on tour,” McGinley started.

“Being a members organisation was fine and it worked well then and the tour thrived. But I think as we have moved into the modern day, with billion dollar TV contracts and media rights and multi billion dollar businesses which sport has become and particular golf, I think we need to evolve away from becoming a members organisation. That includes moving away from independent traders, where players pick and choose the tournaments they want to play in for the good of the game.

“If it’s going to be really be run as a business to compete against the NBA, NFL and soccer and all those things, the administration needs to be more in control of the product. It is very difficult to be in control of the product when you don’t know who is playing and you are hoping the players are going to turn up at this or that, then when it comes to big decisions on the board the players still have ultimate control. I think those two dynamics make it difficult to push the game forward.”

• READ MORE: Paul McGinley picks the one part of Rory McIlroy’s game which is better than it’s ever been before after watching him at the Players Championship

PGA Tour told to copy LIV Golf on one key aspect

Going further with his comments on how the PGA Tour evolves, McGinley then suggested that LIV Golf are actually doing better on the sponsors and payments front than the PGA.

“It’s one of things I think LIV have got right. I am not saying pay the players less, I am saying pay them differently. If they are contracted and you know what they are selling it’s a whole different conversation from the business of golf, if the administration goes to a sponsor and says we would like you to sponsor for this amount of money and this is who we will give you in year one and this is who we will give you in year two. I think that’s the evolution of professional golf. I don’t mean straight away change but I think it needs to evolve in that direction over the next couple of years because we are not reaching our full potential at the moment.

“The other thing that is happening is we are not a global game. The top players, particularly American players, don’t travel enough outside of America. Three of the four majors are here. All the money is here in terms of the biggest events. We have great events on the European Tour. I would love to see Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele and those guys travel a little bit more. We have a situation where they finish in August and pretty much they don’t play since then unless it’s a Ryder Cup year or a Presidents Cup until January or maybe February. I don’t think that is a great dynamic for the game.

“It’s a seismic change [moving away from members organisation], but I think it’s one which has to happen if we are going to thrive as a business competing against other sports.”

With Donald Trump now working with the powers that be to get a potential deal done, it does seem like golf could be in for a big change at some point.

For now, though, it seems like the PGA Tour very much have their own business model and for now, they’re sticking with that.