The PGA Tour Thread

Dan Steely

Internationals still too much to do but it's getting interesting at least.

srfc d16

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122661143#Comment_122661143

Surely some of the best wins to have are against people you know well? I would rather a match against one of my mates and the bragging rights that come with it than over a stranger I may not see or speak to for months/years at a time.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122671257#Comment_122671257

Yeah that's nice on your local golf course. Would you watch a bunch of people from another club playing their friends on TV?

srfc d16

My point isn't about it being local golf course it is that the familiarity of the players contributes to the needle between them. Look across sports all around the world, rivalries are heightened by meeting more often whether it be boxers having rematches/trilogies, federer/nadal/djokovic in tennis, formula 1 drivers, football teams from the same league being drawn against each other in cup or european competitions. I do find it odd that you cannot seem to recognise that.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122671526#Comment_122671526

They are different sports and there's no comparison.

This is a competition billed as Europe against the USA but it's a bunch of pals playing against each other. They have a club competition in the US where members of different clubs play against each other, I'm talking about the top golfers. That's more real than the Ryder Cup.

Those tennis players were winning every week and played each other in the big tournaments, they were guaranteed to meet if they kept winning. these big Premier league teams win multiple games and then the best play each other to decide the trophies. This doesn't happen in golf. Rory could be playing against a wildcard and Scottie the same.

As for Formula 1, this season is the first in about twenty years that there is a competition between two teams. Normally it's a one horse race with the favourite driver of the best car winning nearly every race.

paulos53

2 holes in one from the kids at the PNC showing Tiger and Padraig how to do it.

https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/1870881184735187309

https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/1870887812263719224

Dan Steely

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122983430#Comment_122983430

Rte news reported on Charlie woods 1 but not a dickie about Paddy.

bobster453

And so it begins...

No Rory, No Scottie, No Shane.

But still a decent lineup.

Who do you fancy to win?

Can Xander maintain his decent run of form?

Personally I think Morikawa or Theegala to win.

abff

I’m surprised at all the absentees. I thought it was more or less mandatory to play in the Signature Events? And why is Seamus Power not playing after all the effort he made to qualify for the first two signature events via the Fall Series?

Ottoman_1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123010698#Comment_123010698

Is Seamus not inured??

coillcam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123010698#Comment_123010698

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123013169#Comment_123013169

I'm fairly sure this is replacing the "Sentry Tournament of Champions" but open to correction. Used to be only the winners from last year who played in a small field. Scotty winning too much makes a balls of it tbf 😂.

It's now a signature event, which consists of last years winners plus the rest of the Fedex Top 50 (as of main season not the fall comps). Seamus didn't make the Top 50 so he doesn't qualify. It's Pebble and Genesis for him by being in the top 60.

Ottoman_1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123013687#Comment_123013687

You're right, I went to check to see was Seamus injured, an it turns out he didn't qualify.

Scottie is injured however, out for at least a month with a hand injury apparently.

Mantis Toboggan

Changes coming for the tour championship

MOD EDIT, please avoid links to paywalls

Deeper Blue

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123014195#Comment_123014195

How it's been in its current form for so long is perplexing. Awful format

Mantis Toboggan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123014938#Comment_123014938

I actually like the format, much better than the European one anyway.

blue note

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123014195#Comment_123014195

What are the changes? They want $.38 from me up read the article. That's too expensive.

Mantis Toboggan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123015559#Comment_123015559

The PGA Tour is in advanced discussions to revamp the Tour Championship format into a bracket-style event, according to people briefed on the matter. The championship, the culmination of the official PGA Tour season and the three-event FedEx Cup playoffs, could be reimagined as early as this year, if ongoing conversations with player directors, TV partners and corporate sponsors continue as planned.

The sources, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the tour is eyeing a bracket-style format with head-to-head play — a structure familiar to most sports fans because of the NCAA basketball tournaments and College Football Playoff. Both stroke play and match play are being discussed as options, with the possibility of players earning a “bye” based on their FedExCup points heading into the season finale.

If format changes are enacted for the 2025 season, the 30-man field and tournament dates (Aug. 21-24) will remain unchanged. But long-term planning for the event could involve an even more significant evolution.

A source said the TV broadcast could be adapted for a bracket-style format relatively easily. NBC, set to broadcast the 2025 Tour Championship, has experience broadcasting non-traditional golf events, including the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup and NCAA golf championship.

The current iteration of the Tour Championship hasn’t necessarily struck a chord with golf fans, leading to calls for the event’s makeover. The convoluted format and scheduling conflicts against the start of the NFL season have proven to be major issues. That’s why a unique twist, such as a match or stroke play bracket, with an added level of suspense and more potential storylines, has been floated by influential voices in the golf industry for several years.

The current Tour Championship format debuted in 2019, when the “starting strokes” model was first introduced. Top players in the FedEx Cup ranking are given a scoring advantage — effectively, a “handicap” or head start as a reward for season-long play. First place in the FedExCup points system begins the event at 10-under-par, second starts at 8-under, third at 7-under, and so on.

From 2007-18, the Tour Championship often crowned two champions: The player who performed the best in Atlanta, and the one who finished at the top of the FedEx Cup points list, making for a confusing and oftentimes anticlimactic finish. In 2018, fans mobbed Tiger Woods as he stormed to victory at East Lake but Justin Rose still hoisted the FedEx Cup. The most recent event format has prevented the possibility of two winners. The PGA Tour once promoted it as an improved, more digestible model for fans and sponsors. It hasn’t always been perceived that way.

Now the event is en route to its biggest change yet.

The PGA Tour featured a bracket-style matchplay event from 1999-2023, the WGC Match Play Championship. But when the PGA Tour schedule was reworked for 2024, the tour removed the event from the calendar, leaving open the possibility of a match-play tournament returning in the future. Byes and a stroke-play bracket event could remedy some of the issues presented during the WGC Match Play, such as matches ending earlier than anticipated and top players being eliminated early.

The discussions around the reimagination of the event coincide with some other significant shifts in the way the PGA Tour operates. Starting in 2026, the tour will offer only 100 players full membership, instead of 125. Many open qualifier events will be eliminated from the schedule and fields will shrink in size. The PGA Tour is rapidly getting smaller, but believes that will better competition and create a streamlined product. The tour is also actively searching for a chief executive to act alongside commissioner Jay Monahan.

Mushy

Oh matchplay please bring it back! The season needs something different than another stroke play birdie fest

eagle eye

The playoffs are the least appealing part of the season to me. The Majors, players championship, Phoenix, Riviera, Arnie's, Jack's, Farmers and pretty much all the rest are what I like.

These limited fields annoy me. If there's a second event on those weeks it interests me more.

spacecoyote

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123014032#Comment_123014032

Yeah I believe it may have been an injury involving a knife and the Christmas dinner? Bad enough to require surgery

bobster453

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123018714#Comment_123018714

Shoulda choked the turkey before he went to cut it up I heard😆

eagle eye

Hideki breaks the record for the lowest ever 72 hole score on the PGA tour at -35.

He was superb all week. If he can stay healthy he could have a great season.

slave1

It's hard to take that tournament seriously, the course is simply not up to the challenge for that level of competition, it's too open and the average scores over the years show it.

eagle eye

Well the average winnings score is probably ten shots lower. There's been a -34 and -30 before but -24 and lower has won it plenty of times.

DJIMI TRARORE

Was it a par 3 competition ?? ridiculous that a top level tournament being win by practically birdiering every 2nd hole

RoadRunner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123026198#Comment_123026198

It's a par 73, It's got a 550y par4 and a 522y par4, and finishes with an almost 700y par 5. However a number of the fairways have massive run in certain parts and the fairways are wider than the average tour event. There's also some drivable ar 4's. It's a course on very hilly land that is exposed to the elements. The wind is often very strong, but when the conditions aren't as tough as they can be then the course plays easy for these guys. The greens tend to be soft holding balls that are sent at it.

They could make it harder. But there's not many courses on the island and hawaii doesn't naturally lend itself to golf course design, and making it harder or longer for the pros would make it less playable for the people who play it throughout the rest of the year. I imagine they'll let it pass somewhere else if the low scoring is too much of a problem rather than make it inaccessible to the rest of the people who play the course. Apparently its hilly nature makes it the toughest walk of the year as is.

wackokid

It's unwatchable unless you have a bet and even then it's boring.

Having said that, it's a relief to have any kind of golf to watch when

our courses are closed and there's snow on the ground.

Dan Steely

Is there a reason for 10 withdrawals at the Farmers? Seems a lot.

Trampas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123095299#Comment_123095299

I guess players who had no chance of making the cut decided they’d head home last night than hang around to play a few holes this morning

Deeper Blue

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123095299#Comment_123095299

The Genesis is being played at Torrey in a few weeks now so I'd say a few of the bigger names didn't bother with this week as a result