The world of men’s professional golf is getting far too complicated – and sadly it’s only getting worse says Northern Golfer editor Dean Bailey
While writing features for this edition, I received information from the TMRW Golf League about how the new screen golf tournament will incorporate long game simulation with a rotating short game area as six teams of three players… at this point I just couldn’t take any more!
The world of men’s professional golf – from the PGA Tour’s signature events with their plethora of qualifying criteria to LIV’s team championship combining doubles and singles matchplay with strokeplay on the last day – has become impenetrably complex for anyone who isn’t spending far too long trying to work it all out.
Add on the FedEx Cup, the Official World Golf Rankings, a Tour Championship where players start under-par before a ball is hit, and now an indoor league with a combination of nine- and six-hole matches – and it’s all just too much.
Why does it need to be this complicated? The biggest events in the men’s game – and let’s be honest, the only ones most people care about – remain steadfastly uncomplicated. The Masters, US PGA, US Open and Open Championship have big fields, a cut, and a champion with the lowest score over 72 holes. At the Ryder Cup, you win holes and you lose them, and at the end the team that wins the most is the winner. So why do the PGA Tour and LIV need to make it so complicated?
I’d love to see more matchplay tournaments with one-on-one knockouts – and none of the complicated brackets and round-robins which spoiled the old WGC Matchplay. Even shorter formats, like 54-hole events, are a decent option to get to the final-day action sooner.
From what I’ve seen in the last few years, all of these strange formats and systems are gimmicks which have tried to make the sport more entertaining, but have missed the mark by miles. If you’re going to have a team element, make it all about the team and have them face off against each other every week. If you’re going to have your season culminate in playoffs, make them real playoffs with matchplay – head-to-head matches at the Tour Championship in the PGA Tour’s case and a full team matchplay event in LIV’s case. Yes, that might mean Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler aren’t on TV on Sunday at East Lake, but we’ll still be tuning in to see two players face off for the FedEx Cup – and we’d understand what was going on!
