A happy July 4th weekend to all my fellow Americans.
And to those who are not, I only have one thing to say …
And since this is a golf newsletter (allegedly), I do need to address this Rory-at-Wimbledon thing before we get to the second part of my thoughts on the PGA Tour’s changes to its system.
You, a smart sports fan: “Ah, that’s sick, he wore the green jacket to Wimbledon.”
Me, a possible degenerate golf/Rory/tennis fan: “Yeah, but did you see the shirt?”
Enjoy the Wimbledon, enjoy the soccer, enjoy the Coffee Golf, enjoy the fireworks — but don’t go full Jason Pierre Paul — and mostly enjoy the hilarious American arrogance around the World Cup.
I can’t get enough of it.
Name drops today: Quail Hollow, J.J. Spaun, AON, J.T. Poston, Cromwell and Andrew Novak.
Today’s newsletter is presented by our friends at OMNI who — again, I repeat that this is not a drill! — are giving away a four-night stay at any OMNI resort of your choosing to one Normal Sport reader/follower.
You can learn more about the details of that giveaway, including how to win it, right here. Entry into the generous giveaway will run through 11:59 p.m. ET on July 12 (next Sunday, right before Open Championship week).
And because I very much know who my demographic is here, I have checked with OMNI, but no they will not offer childcare services for your 3.5 kids while you and your wife get away for the weekend. Maybe I can fold that into the contract for next year.
Regardless, you should enter. Your chances of winning are currently similar to (or slightly better than) the odds that Thriston Lawrence wins The Open this year.
Which …
And now … onto the news.
Following the PGA Tour’s announcement last week about what the future of its league is going to look like, I wrote down a few thoughts in Part 1 of this piece. You can read it right here. What follows is Part 2 as I close the book on some of those initial thoughts and move on to The Open.
1. I saw some chatter around how it’s a bummer that there’s not an easier way to jump from the challenger track to the championship track within this new system.
I actually disagree with this. I like that it’s completely set for an entire year. And this is a bit of what Maverick McNealy was referring to about how players will enjoy their schedules being decided on Jan. 1.
The AON Audited Signature Swing Five But Only If You’re Not Qualified One of Eighty Seven Other Ways is confusing to keep up with. I like that the battlefield promotion is two wins on the challenge series, and that’s it. It keeps everything cleaner and simpler.
One unintended consequence (benefit?) of all of this, however, seems to be that both tracks will value year-long consistency over short sparks of success. This will infuriate the eye test crowd that doesn’t get why Jon Rahm is lauded by the statistical community for his play over the last 10 years.
In all seriousness, I’m not sure there’s a right way to reward good golf — consistent quality across a year or one hot week — but the former looks like the direction the Tour is leaning (not running toward, but leaning).
Example …
J.T. Poston’s year.
And Thomas Fleetwood’s year.
Whose year would you rather have? Who has been the better player this year? If you believe winning tournaments is the goal of being on the PGA Tour (and it is), this is actually a difficult question.
But between clearly incentivizing play across an entire year rather than folks bouncing up and down week to week, and also this quote from Rolapp, I think the Tour leans toward consistency over simply popping up and randomly winning.
And I think that’s probably the correct call.
I think in those discussions we thought, the players thought that it was important to have the season finale culminating in a regular season winner at the end of a regular season, and I could probably argue that if you beat the best 120 golfers over the series of a season, that is the most impressive accomplishment in the sport. I could argue that because you're consistently beating those, and it was important to do that.
Brian Rolapp
2. That having been said, I’m extremely curious about pathways for college players onto the PGA Tour. Now that there are three levels from KFT to challenger to championship, I’m interested to see the on ramps into each of those. Which track would Jackson Koivun receive membership into? Will more PGA Tour U exemptions go to the higher divisions (currently No. 1 gets PGA Tour and Nos. 2-10 get KFT)?
Lots of queries there and plenty of opportunity to really integrate the elite college game with the best tour in the world.
3. On the other hand, I hate hate hate the last chance series, which is “comprised of four to six events to determine some of the final spots” on the championship track and “will include those who failed to retain PGA Tour championship status plus those from the PGA Tour challenger series who failed to earn one of the automatic promotions.”
No! No no no!
I get that it’s inventory you have to fill in the way of tournaments, and it probably won’t matter that much either way, but it undercuts the true meritocracy of the whole thing in a way that feels a little disingenuous to me.
4. One thing that I’m wary of: 10 of the 15 championship series events will likely be …
Torrey
Pebble
Phoenix
Riviera
Bay Hill
RBC Heritage
Doral??
Quail Hollow
Memorial
Travelers
As for the other five?
The remaining events will either be filled by existing events or new markets under consideration, such as Boston, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
PGA Tour
This past weekend with Hovland and Scheffler facing each other in [checks notes] Cromwell, Connecticut (pop: 14,000) showed that small markets can create truly great golf tournaments. I am intrigued but extremely cautious about the idea of the Tour going to five new venues and creating five new tournaments out of thin air and getting everyone to care about them.
Isn’t this … what LIV just tried?
History matters. So does nostalgia. Place might matter most of all, and spots like Cromwell and Hilton Head (combined population = ~fans on the 18th green at the Travelers) are bangers. Why go away from that? Just make them even better.
To be clear, I don’t necessarily think the Tour is trying to go away from those spots, but it begs the question: Would a championship series event be a better product if it is played at the John Deere Classic or at some random golf course in nearby-ish Chicago? Depending on the venue, the answer is probably still Chicago, but I don’t think that’s as much of a given as it seems.
5. What … happens to the Korn Ferry Tour? Can you jump from KFT to championship track in a year? Or do you have to go through the challenger track? Lots (and lots and lots) of questions about the lower levels. It is starting to feel more like English soccer, though, which is probably a good thing.
6. Two more things. First, please just make the world tour! It’s right there for you!
Following the Tour Championship, the top players from the PGA Tour championship series will also be eligible for a limited series of elevated international events, played in the fall. Announced at a later date with the intent to be delivered in conjunction with the DP World Tour as part of the strategic alliance between the two organizations, these events will include prominent national opens.
PGA Tour
It’s RIGHT THERE!
7. Lastly, match play in the postseason. Huzzah!
This could be great but also might be tricky for two reasons.
1. The “rotate among prestigious venues featuring the best of championship series players” is 👀 of course, but I’m dubious that they can get both the level of venues being discussed and also the collection of fans necessary to make an event electric.
2. Match play often falls flat. Even if you accept the premise that there will be a small pool of players — which should make for some great matchups — the telecast for quarters, semis and finals might be a slog.
Goodbye Net Championship
Think about the money matches that have been played in November and December in recent years. They suck because they are 90 percent walking. It’s a difficult thing to telecast. It sounds great in theory, and I do think the Sweet 16 will rule (see below), but everything after that would honestly be better off as a packaged product that is cut down to an hour-long show (almost like a YouTube golf video).
They won’t do it, but would absolutely watch that! TBD whether people will be into the actual way they produce it.
2025 Sweet 16 matchups …
Thank you for reading this ridiculous newsletter. We will be taking the rest of the weekend off before we get back at it next week as Coffee Golf SZN starts in earnest.
Go win the OMNI giveaway!
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