STRIPED or SHANKED: Monahan, Norman Must Step Down to Save Golf

The PGA TOUR has started its 2022-23 golf season, while LIV Golf has just wrapped up its inaugural season, and, unfortunately, tensions couldn’t be higher between the two professional golf platforms. Acknowledging the potentially destructive force this division is causing, Rory McIlroy recently pleaded that the two tours “compromise” and come together, which the guys recently explored in greater detail on the Golf Podcast.

And while the guys weren’t overly optimistic about the two leagues coming together around the campfire, I have a little more optimism. Unfortunately, my plan, described below, starts with the most difficult step: Jay Monahan and Greg Norman both need to step down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Indeed, rather than trying to find a solution, both of these individuals can be attributed with stoking the fires (and pubic animosity) between the two tours. Indeed, only a few weeks ago, Monahan shot down the idea that the PGA TOUR and LIV could coexist during an ESPN interview. And while Norman has not publicly taken the same strong anti-competitor stance, he recently stated that he would be abandoning attempts to find common ground with the PGA TOUR.

Consequently, if the PGA TOUR and LIV are to have any hope of coming together, the first step will be that the faces of each respective league must step down and take their unhelpful comments with them.

NOW, presuming that we can get past, arguably, the biggest hurdle, here’s how I see the two leagues coming together without abandoning their respective identity.

First, this new, combined tour will retain aspects of both individual and team play. Golf is, indisputably, an individual competition as you live and die by your own performance, but the team competition has, likewise, added an exciting element that supercharged what has, arguably, become very stale, rinse-and-repeat stroke play tournaments largely played at different, uber-exclusive clubs that normal golfers will never step foot on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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To accomplish this, the schedule would loosely be restructured as follows:

• Majors — The four preeminent events will see some slight scheduling modification.  While the Masters will still be held in early April, the PGA Championship will be moved forward to early May, and the U.S. Open and Open Championship will be briefly delayed to the middle of July (post-Fourth of July) and early August, respectively.  This will provide some additional spacing to integrate team events, including the Team Championship, as well as giving the players a little more rest (a factor that seemed to be very important to several golfers who migrated to LIV).
• FedEx Cup — The FedEx Cup Championship will also remain to celebrate the top golfer from that season.  But instead of being held throughout August, the event will be delayed to mid-September/early October.  Again, this provides a brief-rest period between The Open and the start of the month-long FedEx Cup Playoffs.
• Team Play — 8 (like were held in LIV’s inaugural year) to 10 events, including the playoffs and championship, seems like a sweet spot for team events.  Not too many, but enough to keep team play (and golf) fresh and fun.  The Team Championship will be hosted in June. By moving the Majors around, having a team event in June is isolated enough that golfers can get together with their team while also having some prep time before the U.S. Open. Additional changes will be made to the Team Play, discussed below, to add a new, exciting element.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Other team events can be played globally—Bangkok, Jeddah, England, United States—during the period of time between October and June while being considerate of the Masters and PGA Championship.  Naturally, other high-profile events, like the Waste Management Phoenix Open, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and THE PLAYERS Championship, will need to be moved around, but such changes will be necessary to accomplish this enhanced product.

And now for the pièce de résistance. As it currently stands, the respective LIV teams remain player-owned and, therefore, coaches can recruit, sign, add and even drop players, just like Dustin Johnson recently did.  Because the team events will offer an opportunity at heightened, special event earnings, players who don’t make teams will be encouraged to play in individual events to not only earn World Ranking/FedEx points to ensure their place in the Majors and FedEx Cup, but also demonstrate their value as a potential team member.

Certain aspects of the team events should also be modified to add a new element.  First, teams will also be expanded from 4 to 8 (providing a 4-player bench) and require that each team member at the start of the season play in at least one team event.  This will create an interesting implication: coaches will not be able to drop and add players recklessly and must more carefully consider the team composition.  Second, team events would just be stroke play. Instead, two events will be changed to Ryder Cup-style alternate-shot match-play events.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The most important part of the integration is that the best golfers are all back and capable of playing in every event. But as alluded to above, the new combined tour will also need to do something it’s struggled with: there does NOT need to be 44 events during a 52-week year.

While golf is unique in that golfers don’t need to compete in every event, golfers also shouldn’t be pressured or obligated to play and travel nearly year-round without any breaks. Also, by reeling in the calendar, the combined tour should enhance and supercharge the remaining events, as well as increasing pots on the complementing tours (e.g., Korn Ferry, PGA Tour Latinoamérica, etc.).

Cover Image Via BroBible