PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp is making some drastic changes in the near future.
In a press conference prior to The Players Championship, Brian Rolapp announced that he is considering introducing match play to the FedEx Cup Playoffs, reducing the PGA Tour schedule to around 21 events (including majors), and, shockingly, introducing a promotion-and-relegation system to the tour.
The former NFL executive said there are still plenty of details to be ironed out, but the system would work by establishing two “tracks” on the PGA Tour, the first with the best venues with the biggest purses, and the second at smaller venues with smaller prize pools.
Players can be relegated and promoted between those two tiers, but we don’t yet know whether this will take place throughout the season, event by event, or at the end of each season, as it does on LIV Golf.
That is a massive decision Rolapp has yet to make, and one of those routes could be a major benefit to the Saudi-backed league.
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Why relegation on the PGA Tour would be a big win for LIV Golf
While the details are yet to be ironed out, there is a big opportunity for LIV Golf in the PGA Tour’s relegation plans.
In theory, any player can be relegated from the tour. We don’t know what exceptions will be made for injured players, or players with lifetime exemptions, but an out-of-form superstar could theoretically drop down to the second track.
Rolapp likened the model to the Premier League, where any of the top teams could be sent down to the Championship. That’s the threat Tottenham Hotspur are facing this year. So what if the likes of Xander Schauffele hit a speed bump and saw themselves relegated?
You can imagine LIV Golf would immediately swoop in with an offer for any star going through a tough run of form. Faced with the reality of playing lesser golf courses in lower-rated events on the PGA Tour, the allure of the Saudi-backed league would grow ever stronger.
This is especially true if relegation occurs at the end of every season. Rather than spend an entire year on the second track, some players would much rather take their millions from LIV.
With that said, the PGA Tour must be incredibly careful in how they introduce this model.
What Brian Rolapp said about promotion and relegation on the PGA Tour
Rolapp made clear that this idea is exactly that, an idea, at this current moment. Speaking in the press conference, he said, “We are evaluating the role of promotion and relegation between these two tracks within our competitive model, an added element that we would bring to life in the second track of events I described earlier.
“What we envision is a merit-based system that leans into what makes professional golf so compelling, players earning their way to the top, with every event having greater meaning.
“You see this work powerfully elsewhere, including in English football, where clubs move between the premier and the championship based on their performance. Applying elements of that approach to the PGA TOUR creates real consequence, lifting the competitive standard across the entire platform.
“For our members, the message is pretty simple: Play well and you earn the opportunity to compete in our biggest events and for more money.”
When asked how this second track would work alongside the Korn Ferry Tour, the PGA Tour’s development tour, Rolapp said, “Well, I think we’re working out the promotion/relegation.
“I think there’s clearly a lot of talk and momentum around a promotion/relegation event at the end of the season. It’s a question what you do during the season. It’s an open question.
I also think what the intention is is to take both of these tracks and elevate them all, right. What I don’t want people to think is that we are creating a good track and subordinating another track. That’s not the goal, and that’s not what we’re doing. We’re trying to create a cohesive competitive system that lifts the quality of our entire competition.
“Now, we will also have, as I mentioned earlier, a pathways program that we’ll invest in. We short-stroked that today in today’s parlance of Korn Ferry Tour or PGA of Americas. That will still be a really important part about what we do, and we’ll focus on that, if that answers your question.”
It was a promising press conference from Rolapp as he outlined his ideal plans for the PGA Tour’s future, but there is still so much to be seen as to whether this is all actually possible.
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