Esteemed British author and critic Peter Ackroyd has written on an astonishing range of topics, but not (yet, at least) on the global golf landscape. Still, one of his acidic observations should be displayed at the entrance to the PGA Tour World Headquarters.
“To be an islander is to be independent,” he writes. “But it’s also being alone.”
The Tour has long been content with its own business, rigidly protectionist in its outlook and operations. Even its strategic alliance with the DP World Tour was forged under duress to prevent the Saudis from buying off their poor European friends. His busy schedule also suggests more than just a solid book of business. Members must obtain permits to compete elsewhere when a PGA Tour event is held, and there have only been two weeks this entire year where the Tour had nothing on the schedule (both were this month- ci). By Thanksgiving, the dark weeks will total only three, meaning the calendar effectively functions as a year-long device to control work.
But the provincialism of Ponte Vedra has had its day.
Right now, the U.S. has the only large-scale monetizable audience for golf, but that remains a tough sell in the fall. The PGA Tour’s eight scheduled stops can produce exciting finishes, worthy winners and gripping storylines, but they don’t have enough impact. The fans are otherwise distracted by football or desperate at the idea that the Republic might call the village idiot to lead it, but they do not consume golf. The PGA Tour playoffs ended a month ago and the 24 or so days remaining don’t look very promising. The DP World Tour delivered quality finishes at Royal County Down and Wentworth, but will otherwise run mostly budget events until its November finale in the Middle East, while LIV ended its season with a now-familiar whimper , its final rewarding Jon Rahm. $18 million, or $200 for every viewer who watches.
Everywhere we find diluted products, all impacted to varying degrees by political divisions and the apathy of fans and players. This dark period in the calendar can be used by the PGA Tour to boost the game and its reach beyond the FedEx Cup season, which will (and should) be protected. A radical overhaul of the fourth quarter is necessary, and this requires a long-term, long-distance vision (preferably further than hosting an “international” team event 30 miles from the New York border) .
If the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai end at the same time, the American and European circuits will have plenty of time to jointly reimagine a global product that grows business, from September to December. The markets are obvious, even if the events alternate between them: Europe, Middle East, Korea, Japan, South Africa and Australia. A series of six to eight tournaments would do more for the long-term health of golf than the current, depthless, balkanized menu served to fans this time of year.
This concept raises two obvious and troubling questions: who pays and who plays?
Lucrative media rights are virtually non-existent outside of the U.S. market, and the DP World Tour’s efforts have shown that finding high-end sponsorship is difficult, even more so with today’s purses. Unless we one day attract a streaming service willing to pay handsomely for a nascent experience, is global expansion guaranteed by Strategic Sports Group investors who have just invested $1.5 billion in the Tour? Or are they turning to Riyadh? The latter solution would inevitably mean a tournament in Saudi Arabia, where a crowd of supporters would be conspicuous by their absence.
And who is playing? Top golfers have repeatedly expressed their disinterest in traveling abroad at the end of the year, which must astound the guys at SSG who are not used to talents hindering their ability to make a profit on their investment. It’s not like Red Sox pitcher Brayan Bello can tell John Henry that he goes to every Yankees game because he hates the traffic in the Bronx. The reality is that not every star is needed at every event. To wit: the presence of McIlroy, Rahm and Brooks Koepka significantly raises the profile of next week’s Dunhill Links in Scotland. A handful of stars is enough to elevate most events, provided there are a dozen tournaments throughout the year that feature all the top players. And eventually, more international travel will become the norm, even for parochial players.
None of this will happen for 2025, the calendar of which is locked. Maybe it won’t happen at all. But it is sadly clear that changes are needed if the golf industry is to derive real value from this dark time of year. Protecting the strong U.S. market makes sense, but it also makes sense to fit in the schedule to grow the business and meet the expectations of consumers outside the United States.
“Sometimes the silences, the gaps, tell us more than anything else,” wrote the critic Ackroyd. The gap we find ourselves in now, the silence in the calendar, should tell those charged with running this sport everything they need to hear.
This article was originally published on Golfweek: Lynch: US golf fans aren’t eating in the fourth quarter, so the PGA Tour should blow up a tired schedule and expand its feast globally
