The PGA Tour reportedly introduced major changes to play similar to LIV Golf events.
The two golf tours are rivals at the moment, with a handful of big name players going from the PGA to LIV for large purses. The LIV Tour had interesting tidbits about tournament play, such as no 36-hole cut for full weekend events.
The PGA Tour might make radical changes to liken itself to LIV Golf, in some ways.
“Eamon Lynch of Golfweek was the first to report on these ‘radical’ new changes, some of which are remarkably similar in style to LIV Golf Tour style events,” Cass Anderson of BroBible wrote. “Primarily, there will be no 36-hole cut in select events on the PGA Tour in 2024.
“These changes will apply specifically to the PGA Tour’s new ‘designated events’ with larger prize pools and select fields. However, these changes will not apply to all of the designated/select events. The 4 Major Championships, the Players Championship, and the FedEx Cup Playoffs will remain unaffected.”
Based on changes to the cut, the fields are affected.
“Going forward, there will be restrictions on the sizes of the fields at these events as well as changes to the cut,” Anderson wrote. “But, unlike on the LIV Golf Tour, PGA Tour players will be able to ‘play their way into’ these events through qualification: Having no cut after 36-holes will likely mean these events aren’t eligible for Official World Golf Rankings points. But that is something the PGA Tour can surely work out with OWGR. Furthermore, minimum prize pools of $20 million for field sizes of 70 to 78 players are a LOT more enticing than OWGR points.”
The PGA Tour has yet to confirm these changes, but the initial report from Golfweek had two sources confirm them to Lynch.
LIV Golf Tour Ratings Embarrassingly Low
While the PGA Tour might adopt more LIV Golf philosophies, the LIV Tour itself had low ratings in its American television debut.
LIV Golf kicked off the season at El Camaleón Mayakoba Golf Course in Mexico, recording a Saturday overnight rating of 0.2 on The CW. “World’s Funniest Animals,” which aired on The CW later in the day, garnered more viewers than the Saudi-backed series, per Golf Digest.
Despite trotting out a field consisting of past major winners in Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka among others, LIV Golf failed to challenge the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic, which drew a 2.4 rating for Sunday’s Final Round featuring a generally weaker field.
In preparation for this weekend’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, most of the PGA Tour’s biggest stars decided not to participate in the Honda Classic. 2019 Open Championship winner Shane Lowry was the biggest name to participate in the event won by Chris Kirk, his first victory in nearly eight years.
