Top PGA TOUR Players Calling for “LIV Golf Style” Changes?

Rory McIlroy and other Major winners are now calling for changes to the PGA TOUR that sound a lot like LIV Golf’s business model, but could any of these changes really see the light of day?

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We now have Rory maroy and another current major winner weighing in with some very interesting quotes leading us to believe that they’d like the structure of some of the fields to be similar to what we’re seeing on Liv with much more limited fields of the top

Players we also have a lot more Fallout with the official world golf rankings that just came out last week the big announcement from Liv we talked about it here on the show we now have guys like of course John ROM speaking out harshly in criticism of

That and on top of that we’ve got an announcement just these past couple of days from the RNA changing in a lot of ways three big points of the structure of the qualifying requirements for the Open Championship which I think in a large way is a response to trying to

Find alternate ways to expand these fields as we have more players going to live and no longer participating in the official World Golf right ranking so we’ve got obviously a whole lot to talk about but first let’s get into those quotes because we’ve obviously seen a major reversal starting with Rory on his

Overall take and rhetoric towards the towards live in general yeah right um I’ve been just enjoying kind of I’m I’m I’m a couple episodes in watching the unfolding of full swing but see how tired he’s gotten exactly and and just seeing you can this is I mean we heard

It from the outside looking in and we kind of got some idea of what he felt in that moment that the tour kind of turned on him but you now are starting to see the emotion that went with it and him very much feeling like that sacrificial

Lamb so with Rory you know backing out of the policy board and really no longer having any real reason to be the defender of the PGA Tour we’re starting to hear what he would like to see in an ideal world and it’s starting to honestly sound a lot like what we see

From from Liv so let’s get into kind of what what he started off saying so um the the comments that got out there that eventually some others would respond to and double down on was Rory he was he was kind of asked you know what he

Wanted to see in the tour and he said I’m all for making it more Cutthroat more competitive probably won’t be very popular for saying this but I’m all for Less players and less tour cards and the best of the best so of course I I get why he saying he’s

Not going to be popular for saying this and there’s was some Fallout even and we’ll talk about wendam Clark and what he said because he did get a lot of backlash from it um but starting to sound a whole lot like Liv smaller Fields best of the best I’ll keep going

Back to it Phil mikkelson’s um his interview that he did on the Pat McAfee show where he said the the business model of live was to put the best players that they could up every single week and the guarantee is who you’re going to get to see right so interesting

There it is interesting interesting and was there anything mentioned by Rory about less events no he just wanted just shorter Fields I mean I guess less events are just like you’re you’re you’re going to be in this the designated events and the majors and that’s it shorter Fields sounds like Liv

It it does it it does um and but the backlash has come and I I’ll tell you my take on it too because I’ve also personally I’ve been enjoying seeing some of these non-household names come up and and win in recent weeks um but this was kind of like Amplified this

Message and the Rory message kind of it hit a couple of headlines but then it was Amplified dramatically uh when Windam Clark was asked about it and uh he basically he had the reporter was prompting him saying that Rory had made these comments about smaller Fields what

What’s your take on that and he said I mean I think it would be amazing if our tour was a hundred guys I kind of uh said this a few times 100 guys and we have 20 guys that get relegated uh every time every year doesn’t matter who you

Are and okay so again and those 20 guys is the corn Fair’s opportunity to come up relegated meaning they yeah like that’s your turnover 20 guys 20 will go out 20 will come in out yes right out and now I don’t like again who knows where they come from right I

I he and I’ll paraphrase this he basically said this was above my pay grade I’m not the one making this decision so it’s not fleshed out of who comes in and who goes out and how they come in and how they go out uh he was basically just saying that the overall

Idea of being a more competitive product as L was saying and saying that we’re effectively more eyes even more eyes would be on those FedEx Cup playoffs because those would not only be your moment to get in or out of the playoffs it would be in or out of your moment to

Keep your tour card so if you had more guys on that tour card cutline you know he he kind of went on to to say I don’t know what the number is but I think it’s just nice to elevate the product and make it to where the best players are

Playing on TV more often and against each other MH I get that I get that what’s interesting though is is he says it’ll be more competitive if there was less people in the field he’s saying that it would be the top guys in the field and you would be

Competing to be there right he what he was saying in his was less sponsors exemptions and the and the like I get that 56 less people in a field 156 down to 100 don’t you think any golf want that W you think it’ be easier to win

Forgot about the caliber of the play I’ll tell you a whole lot of guys who don’t want that who’s that the guys who weren’t in the guys who weren’t in but you take guy like Jake knpp he wouldn’t be in that 100 but he ended up beating

All those guys recently right but that’s what I’m saying those are who’s not going to like it to point in in in case in point here DP World Tour player uh Richard Manzel he went on x uh Twitter and he said and basically firing back at

Clark he said good job they didn’t do this when you were finishing outside the The 100 on the PGA tour not very long ago closed shop idea is a terrible one remember where you came from there a lot of good players waiting to break through that’s the Counterpoint so this is where

I think the PGA Tour has to have a certain Reckoning live and I and I get it I think they’re both good business models I think both of them independently are are wise in in their business model and have have reasoning behind those business models that make sense for

Example Phil Mickelson explaining Liv’s model of saying we are going to make sure we have a lineup of guys who are in the field every single week now they take it one step further with no cut to ensure they’re there every round and his idea being it benefits the sponsors and

The fans that nobody’s left out they’re always there and it’s the it’s it’s their top guys that they’re able to piece meal together you know like you get a ticket to a live event John ROM’s going to be playing you know Brooks Kea is going to be playing and you’re going

To get to see them and you’re going to see them all the way through on the other side the PGA Tour you have a guys obviously commit and and you can see if your favorite players is committed to the field or not but you have a much more fluid and everchanging field right

The benefit to that is that guys have the opportunity to come up right and the exact point that manel’s making here is that great to say that now but if they said this two years ago Windom you wouldn’t be there you’d be out so it’s it’s interesting and and I I think what

It’s a backlash of is now as you now have a competing tour now whereas the the PJ tour lived in the luxury for many years of not having a competing tour and being able to put this product up how when and where they wanted to right now

I think the knee-jerk response is when you have a non signature event and it doesn’t have household names and now the tour is kind of competing for for eyeballs with live and some of you know the competition that’s arising it makes more sense for them to say whoa we got

To put our bet best foot forward every single week yeah but by doing so you could cut off your nose to spite your face and now you have less of the young talent coming up yeah it’s tough because I’m I’m asking the asking the question a

Lot now like what is the point of some of these non-designated events now I understand it’s for these younger players to move up the ranks but there’s like no one in the field you know what I mean they’re almost just throwing those tournaments out there for the heck of it

And I get it there’s other players out there that are young they’re trying to earn their Spa they’re trying to move up the ranks those are the events they do do it in you’re not going to see Rory at this event Scotty Sheffer the idea is

You can’t do away with him right unless you cut off the form system of golf you know what I right and and what I think the PGA Tour is planning on doing is alternating which events are signature are elevated year toe so that one event doesn’t fall by the wayside so this year

We saw the Arnold pal Invitational was a signature event brought a huge field I believe next year it won’t be they’ll rotate to something else um but I do think that if we got away from golf being every Sunday I think a lot of us would miss it

So as a fan yeah I I and I understand that you can’t support 28 or whatever it is weeks of Signature Events big purses guy every guy showing up right but I I’d rather have weeks when I still have golf to watch even if it’s not a s event and

I’ll watch some guys who I haven’t seen play before and get the opportunity to play M it might not have the as broad of appeal to bring in as many television sets you know what I me but you what I’m saying when you’re a golf fan you can

Watch anybody any person male female play golf on TV we we joke we watch the Jean L the old school Pine Valley um you know those if it’s on TV we’re going to watch it but I think some of these other people are kind of just tuning in to see

Some names and that’s where it’ll hurt no doubt it’s no different than how um some people will just tune in for the majors like like and and I I can like this other sports like I don’t watch every tennis event yep but I’ll watch the US Open I’ll watch wimon you know

What I mean so there are people like that who aren’t like us who are have a golf podcast or watching golf no matter what I’m just saying that I think that there’s still a place for it but regardless the there there is still there’s these voices now are speaking up

A Rory Windom of of wanting to have it be more competitive more High Caliber you know Less in the field but where how do you implement that is is the tough decision because I think if you start to cut out the rising Talent opportunity to rise to that occasion and get

There then you’re you’re lessening the product for all of us yeah I agree with that so there’s got to be a way to solve this and the good news is we’ve got the again hopefully a Reckoning with this framework agreement the master is a couple weeks away I’m hoping as Windham

Said the guys with higher it’s above my pay grade I’m hoping that the powers at B are finding out ways to work this out yeah because it’ll benefit all of us but in the meantime we had talk about John ROM now we had the official world golf

Rankings we had uh Greg Norman making the announcement we covered it here on the show where he said they’re withdrawing their application they’re no longer chasing official world golf rankings right um so there’s this is an opportunity where some of these guys are starting to voice

Up I said from the beginning I’ve always liked the quality of John ROM to speak his mind I’ve always thought that that was something that endeared him to a lot of people that he speaks his mind in fact I think one of my least favorite John RW

Moments was when he went first went to live and it sounded like he was more reading a scripted press release of what they wanted to say than his natural feelings but I don’t think that lasts long with John ROM now you’re starting to hear John ROM speak up again um so he

Was asked about the world rankings and he said is I’m going to be honest I didn’t know they were still trying to get the world ranking points speaking about Liv when they backed out he didn’t even know they were still trying to pursue it he goes but the one thing I

Can say is that I’m going back to what I said two years ago in the DP World CH uh TOUR Championship I didn’t think it was a good system back then and if anything the more time goes on the more it proves me wrong so he’s showing that like he he

Had his gripes with the official world golf rankings back then and now I think the continued shared opinion of a lot of people on Liv and even a lot of people on the PGA tour is that it’s no longer a fair accurate representation because there are guys who are not acre points

And they’re clear top in the world yeah I don’t think that debate will ever go away you know what I mean I mean you think about it I mean a guy like Rah DJ I mean cam Smith these guys are the best players in the world they’re just not

Getting recognized for it anymore it’s got to chap him it’s going to continue to bother him that’s for sure yeah and bother me forever we went into the um we went into it last week talking about how the the response official world golf rankings is like this we’re not doing

This to you on purpose we’re not trying to inflict this on you this is not a political thing they were saying that it’s it’s a math thing and we can’t I’m again paraphrasing but they’re saying we can’t reconcile a way in your current structure to have Equitable or Fair um

Rankings right so is it just a catch 22 who knows but similarly uh Neiman was was kind of um he was asked about it and this is kind of ingest joke inly saying a rep Porter was basically saying to him he has to be one of the favorites to win

A major this year and he said well how’s that possible if I’m like ranked a 100 in the world right like how’s 100 in the world so just kind of jokingly saying like how his ranking is laughable yeah exactly I’m not good enough yeah you know but this is so interesting um but

Just on John ROM real quick and this is not a full swing spoiler alert I don’t think it is at least but in the last episode when they’re at the Ridder cup there was this amazing moment between Rah and Rory and they’re hugging each other after they won and like they’re

Crying and you can the microphones pick up Rory say to Rah you make me better you make me want to perform better and in that moment Rah starts to cry it was the end of September Rah went to live like a couple months later I think I if

I can ask John ROM one question is did you know in that moment that that was it for you you were not going to be on the PGA tour anymore you’re going to live it’s so interesting when you do get to it and watch it it makes you think cuz

It was like literally a month and a half later he signed you know that that deal didn’t start so then just happened so quick there was Lawyers and talks and probably months of thinking about it yeah I think Rah knew in that moment after ho NE up like this is it for me

I’m going to live it’s just interesting to see I and and similar to the Rory experience of where he you could see the emotion now with the with you know video of him in the cars and like that that stuff that wasn’t just a press conference you could see the emotion and

The energy drained out of him when he felt betrayed y I saw the same in John Rah because you saw the interviews he was giving right up until the US Open when he still seemed like one of the guys who was more in defense of the PJ

Tour and and saying that you know his gripes with live and and the the competition that was there and the structure of it but it felt like a lot of guys when they were left out in the cold it’ll it switched real quick it switch quick for sure but kind of

Continuing on that um and where we’re kind of going from here with the official world golf rankings uh Rah went on to say I’m very happy to see jao get invites speaking of neeman’s invite to the ma to the PGA Championship and to the uh the Masters and he said while we

Don’t have a clear path to Majors yet uh through live yet I think there should be they should be taking everybody under uh consideration and this is something that we’ll talk about in a second about some of the changes that we saw to the Open Championship in the RNA because now at

Least we no longer are waiting to see if they’re getting official world golf rankings by taking that off the table now I think that the majors in general MH have to stay relevant sure and if and and we’ll see how it sways and you guys can tell us in the comments what your

General feelings on the official world golf rankings right now but if the relevancy of the official world golf rankings starts to wne in popular opinion because at the end of the day majors and everything it all comes down to to people wanting to watch yeah so right if popular opinion wains that that

The the official World Golf ranks are no longer as viable as they once were if the majors want to stay super relevant then they’ve got to find other ways to get the best players in those fields because if you get to a point where let’s say a guy like Neeman who is

Thought of as one of the guys who’s playing the best right now was not invited you could start to see more fans back away and saying it’s not what it once was yeah I know and it’s going to be hard because it’s always going to still come down to those 54 holes you

Know like we we I think on a recent episode we were saying something like uh top three money earners on live get an inite but there’s always going to be the people like yeah but money earners for what a 54 whole event schedule you’re not the same as the other people on tour

There’s always going to be that so I don’t know how they’re going to come to this agreement of letting live guys in unless it’s a live based qualifier where all live guys go and play aeven 72 whole event and the top three I don’t know well yeah and it’s going to be largely

Looking to some other tours which we’re going to kind of get into in a second and just finishing that thought on Rah he said and kind of like expressing what I think a lot of people are feeling he said if anybody in the world doesn’t

Think Joo deserves to be in the top 10 or doesn’t know that he’s a top player in the world I don’t know what game you’re watching we can tell I think anybody who watches golf can tell who the best players in the world world are obviously I don’t think the ranking is

Effective uh of that right now to its entirety so see what I’m saying like that’s just it it’s it’s the it’s the the court of popular opinion to a certain extent and and reason in common sense to say and and and but I I agree with you

Like how do you then reconcile that it’s like common sense says that Neiman and Rah are some of the best players in the world but they’re playing in a structure that’s so vastly different than all of the other tours how do you then compare them to

Each other but I’ve said some the start there’s got to be a way there’s got to be a way um so let’s take a quick word from our sponsors there and then we’re going to come back and we’re going to talk about those changes that the RNA announced for the Open Championship

Which seems like they’re clearly trying to find a way aside from the official world golf rankings to still make sure that their Open Championship reflects the best players in the world y so let’s do a word and then we’ll come back to it so listen guys nothing can do more to

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Could promise you that all right so again we got obviously the official War golf rankings and we’ve got the The Fallout that’s come from that and the attempt of the majors to respond one we’ve already saw right out the gate was the Masters uh and the PGA Championship

Both extending invitations to Neiman uh largely based on his big win in Australia um but again looking at other places the the key thing that I’ll keep coming back to is so far none of these majors have directly identified performance at live MH as a qualifying event there’s still they’re not saying

Hey if you finish here at Live or whatever they’re not saying that they’re still looking to other vehicles to get to get them qualified in wins on other tours or other things that weren’t otherwise looked at so they made three big changes the RNA the first is in the

Past if you were an Open championship winner you were exempt to play in the Open Championship until the age of 60 uh in fact just a few years ago that was 65 and that dropped down to 60 so it’s nothing new for them to reduce that but they have been seeing reductions in

Recent years this time they’ve announced that they’re reducing that from 60 to 55 years old uh I think in a way it’s it’s a smart move it it really if you think about it and really are are true to yourself thinking about like there aren’t any 55y old olds 60y olds who are

Really going to be competitive right I think the only thing and then I got to give credit where credits du what Phil Michelson did at the ocean course winning at his age kind of almost proved Like Anything could happen and now we’re in in a world where uh advancements in

Nutrition and and all that type of stuff are making it where guys who are older are able to compete but I do like the idea of just like that threshold you know getting into that 60 and up getting some younger opening up some spots for some younger names whereas

Other guys might be doing you out there non-competitively just kind of as a Victory lap right uh I think it’d be great to see some younger names I agree but one name this does definitely bring in and you’re going to get a few I’m sure conspiracy theorists who think this

Is a knock against live um I don’t think so I think that because I said this is not the first time they’ve made a move like this but Phil Michelson himself is 53 years old MH that means means that Phil will unless something changes because he’s no longer AC crewing any

Official world golf rankings points Phil would could possibly be out of the Open Championship in the next two years now I say very possibly because Phil came in second at the Masters right he did there is the possibility of Phil winning you know another major or or placing high

Enough that he gets in uh also keep in mind both the US Open and the op championships are truly opens uh any of these guys if they’re truly still competitive at any age can play through the qualifiers and qualify their way in yeah I would not uh bet against Phil at

Augusta by the way ever right I mean there’s one place I don’t care how old that guy gets 60 65 70 but he showed us he could do I know that’s for sure and I wouldn’t bet against Phil if he wanted to go through the qualifiers and qualify

His way in yeah true so I I don’t think that that’s as big big of an effect as the headline it might grab of saying that they reduce the age and it’s closer to Phil’s age but there’s some other ones that are important the the RNA has introduced a

New exemption category that effectively another way in will be a top five finisher in the international federations ranking list so to give you an example live player Andy ogal tree is he’s currently second in the International Federation rankings list right what this is built upon um and and

You know kind of to quote from the from the original Source it said the new exemption will offer players competing on the Asian tour the Japan golf War uh golf tour and the PGA tour of uh Australia and the Sunshine tour the opportunity to qualify so keep in mind those tours are also

Still tied to official world golf rankings but these are not necessarily tours that have issued a b against Live players like the PGA Tour has so I said this in the last episode I’ll say it again I think that you will start to see if this becomes the vehicle for these

Guys to play their way in you’re going to start to see on live off weeks Live players going and playing in these other Asian tour DP World Tour all those events to acrw the necessary points to get into some of the majors and I would not even be surprised if the live

Schedule gets strategically planned around certain events yeah that get all their guys over there to play in right I mean they want their product in those Majors no doubt Y no doubt about it I mean again coming back to full swing a lot of people calling it a major major

Turning point when you know showed up to Augusta yes Reed Brooks and Brooks winning the majors that he won y you know proving that that a guy on live is still you know his game is is still good enough to win a major right right um the RNA also announced the third exemption

Was for the Africa amateur Champion um and I think that that’s wise I think as we become more and more of a global game I think that opens uh and Majors should put you know amateur and other champions from different regions of the globe should be invited to play in because I

Think it it motivates more growth of the game in those areas uh it gives more worldwide visibility to some of those players get their chance to play in in an event that everyone is watching so I think that there there are three I think wise smart changes but it really comes

Down to like I said before the majors are going to have to find a way to stay relevant um because if you if you continue to go down this path where where’re Liv and and who knows if if what if Liv BL Blaze the new Trail for even more leak

To start maybe there’s additional startup leagues and and and of all different structures if either the if the World Golf Ranking system can’t get together and find a way to make them the numbers work then to stay relevant the majors have to find a way to to include

The top lers that’s true man I I can’t wait to see how this is all going to unfold I hope they don’t push it down the road more you know cuz we’re a few weeks away with the framework agreement yeah you know I I think it it’s at some

Point it’s either going to happen or it’s not going to happen um and I think that point is rapidly approaching and I’m the way I’m starting to kind of like read the tea leav so to speak is I’m starting to be in the camp that it might

Not happen and then it would just be how it is now I think it’ll be how it is now you’ll choose the tour you’re going to play on and if you’re on the PGA tour you’ll play through whatever changes are made to its structure and if you’re on

The live tour you will find ways to win your way into the the majors that you want to whether that be through alternate tours or whether it be through changes to the major qualifying structure yeah I I just when Rory was was calling for a change when Rah left

Because his head was at Ryder Cup they lost Ramen haton off that team last year mhm I mean and they didn’t have a big enough they didn’t have a I should say they didn’t have on paper good enough team as it was even though they ended up

Winning but I don’t know I can’t see them losing Ramen hatan I think something has to get done something yeah yeah I mean we talked all the time we didn’t talk about Ryder Cup I know but that’s another thing that it comes in and and Ryder Cup its own relevancy and

To stay relevant right you have to ask yourself the question is the Ryder Cup still relevant with guys like Rah Hatton all those guys if they were all out it’s tough to say right and no one’s yet to pick a captain’s pick well was only the first year of it that was on

Live well wasn’t keco no keco keco earned his spot he earned that spot Z said in the episode he goes well he’s even jokeing the good news is I don’t I didn’t have to pick Brooks right you know right right but it might it might happen where they might have to pick ROM

Can they are they well they can on the US side because the PGA which runs the the Ryder Cup has no specific ban on Live players okay however the DP World Tour which runs the European side does have its own fines and bans so I do not

Believe that you could pick a rder cup you know I don’t think you could take a captain’s pick for Ridder Cup on the European side and have it be allowed on the US side you can interesting but this is how messy everything is so hopefully

It gets cleared up we can only hope for this uh this framework agreement to give us some something uh anyway that’s everything we have you guys subscribe wherever you get your podcast we’ll see you in the next one