Given the underwhelming start to the new PGA Tour season, it is hardly surprising that Justin Thomas decided to take action and send a letter to the members to encourage changes.
The PGA Tour has certainly not hit the ground running in the opening weeks of the season, with pace of play frustrations dominating the discussions. It has certainly not helped that TGL has proved that many of the world’s best players can indeed play quickly.
But there is another side of the game Justin Thomas believes needs to be improved upon. Thomas wrote a letter to PGA Tour members in which he encouraged players to provide a lot more access to the media before, during and after rounds.
Thomas was making the point that fans will care a lot more about the PGA Tour if the characters of the game are able to shine through a lot more. Certainly, someone like Joel Dahmen appears to have become even more popular after appearing in Full Swing.
Scottie Scheffler reacts to Justin Thomas’ letter to PGA Tour members
But there has been plenty of debate regarding whether Thomas’ proposed changes are going to address a lot. Clearly, fans do not want to see fake characters, particularly in rounds which are taking nearly six hours to complete.
And it seems that Scottie Scheffler is not entirely convinced by Thomas’ suggestions. Speaking ahead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the world number one suggested what he thought Thomas overlooked with his letter.
“The reason why I always watched sports is to see the competition. When I think about like the football games this weekend that I was so excited to watch, great competition, great teams going against each other. So when I think about something that would be good for the game of golf, I think the more we can get back in the competition of things, I think that’s what’s best. And when you have great players going at it, I think that that’s what’s interesting about sports,” he said.
“People tune into Tiger because he’s a great player. Tiger, his golf clubs always did his talking for him. He wasn’t going out and trying to do anything extra or try and put on a show. He was going out there to compete and play golf. It was electric at times because he would kind of go nuts when things would go well, but he also was really, really good at going crazy and getting right back into a different state of mind like that. That’s something that I’m — I try not to get too amped or too come down, I try to stay as even keel. Tiger was like a crazy person. Like you would see him go nuts and by the time, like he would get his ball out of the hole and he would be like [noise] like that.
“I try to not turn down many media requests. I always come in and do a press conference each week. I very rarely will ever turn down interviews after the round. I think being open and honest when you’re answering questions is always a good thing. I try to be as honest as possible, but there are certain aspects of my life that I like to keep private. I never strived to be an entertainer. Always loved playing golf. This is what I love to do is come out here and compete. If people want to watch and enjoy, then come on out and have a good time, but I’m not going to put on a show or do anything crazy to try to get more people to watch me. Just try to come out here and do my thing.
“I think Justin did bring up some good points about being open to doing a bit more stuff, but at the end of the day I think what people like is competition. I think the more we can stop talking about all the other BS that’s going on in the game of golf. I mean, we’re playing Pebble Beach this week and I’m sure a lot of the talking points in here are about pace of play and TGL and all this other stuff and we’re playing Pebble Beach this week, one of the most beautiful, iconic golf courses in the world, and we’ve got some of the best players in the world competing. Like let’s soak that in.”
What Scheffler seems to have got wrong in his assessment of the current game
It is interesting to get Scheffler’s perspective. It may be slightly frustrating to be, by far, the best player in the world and yet, see interest in the sport decline. Scheffler is arguably playing as well as anyone has done since Woods was at his peak – but that is not coming across in the viewing figures.
Scheffler is not a player who tends to dramatically move the needle with viewing figures, which is alarming given that his 2024 season hints that he could go down as one of the all-time greats.
But clearly, golf is working for the players at the very top given the money some of them are playing for right now. So it is probably not all that surprising that Scheffler is struggling to see the bigger picture.
However, it does feel that the current game is not sustainable, with the best players playing on separate tours but playing for unspeakable riches.
Perhaps Thomas has missed the mark in suggesting that brief interviews before teeing off are going to make a difference. But, despite what Scheffler may think, golf surely also needs its potential superstars to entertain crowds and bring people in.
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