I’ve Fixed Professional Golf
The men’s professional golf game currently full of wall to wall drama. That’s without any clubs being swung by the pros. To summarise extremely concisely, the old American PGA Tour is being challenged by a new Saudi-backed LIV Tour with infinite wealth who are poaching PGA players with grotesque sums of money. There’s also other tours which are smaller, and usually more localised, but the challenge for most pros have been always to rank high enough to make it to the PGA Tour. LIV’s schtick is to also have a new-team based format to shake things up and capture a new audience. This in essence has backed PGA against the wall to accept changes or to ultimately merge (which has a host of geopolitical problems).
Now I will caveat this with I don’t play golf (anymore). I hardly ever watch men’s golf these days. I’m quite disillusioned with the politics of the game and the sickening amount of money in it, and there’s even professionals who believe the same thing. Finishing 16th in a tournament and gaining a couple of hundred thousand in prize money should not be celebrated.
This is as much a plea as anything else to the powers that be to now look at a full consolidation, bring it all (PGAT/DPWT) together and create something different. We need open minds and top US based players (especially) to embrace this opportunity.
I stay informed of the goings on of golf via The Chipping Forecast podcast, unofficially the golf podcast for those who don’t really have any interest in golf – it’s an enjoyable listen. But in listening to an episode while walking the dog, I figured out how the game could be saved. Tables. Or rather a pyramid.
In the middle you would have continental leagues. A European League, an Americas League(s?), a Asian League for example and those would be made up of x number of very good golfers who are based in those regions.
Below that, you would have ‘national’ leagues, such as a Thai League, Korean League, Japanese League and so on made up of x number of players. The very best ones from those leagues could enter some playoffs to be promoted to the Asian League. The worst performers of the Asian League would get relegated to their respective national leagues. You could go all the way down, much like the English football pyramid.
At the very top, there would be the “Super League” made up of the creme-de-la creme. A truly global tour where the best duke it out. Winners of the Asian, European, etc leagues get the opportunity to be promoted, either automatically, or through play-offs.
I believe that would create a real sense of intrigue and jeopardy. Tournament rankings, can determine points, much like in F1 to draw the overall table. Have one bad year and that hurts you.
If it so works out that 90% of the Super League players end up being American after a few seasons, that’s just how the cookie crumbles. There could also be concerns around players gaming the system, registering to what could be perceived to be ‘weaker’ leagues to boost their chances. The biggest detriment to this plan is it could take years for exceptionally talented golfers to work their way up the leagues.
A workaround could be to embrace mixed events and other sort of invitationals (let’s include the Majors - keep them special) that dismantles the league structures and allows say the 405th ranked player to play in the same tournament as the 2nd ranked player and challenge them. That’s part of what creates stories and drama and makes sport beautiful. A great finish can parachute them up and let them compete in the higher leagues as a special designation, without other players losing their place in the table through no fault of their own.
Maybe on my next dog walk I’ll come up with a peaceful resolution for the Middle East.