Todd Lewis & Rex Hoggard Debate PGA Tour Crackdown on Tier 1 Players
The Golf Today panel welcomes Todd Lewis and Rex Hoggard to break down the PGA Tour's decision to prevent elite players from competing in tier 2 tournaments.
Video Transcript
Let's move along to a different storyline.
This was reported by Amy Lynch, our, our colleague.
The PGA Tour is potentially going to be strongly discouraging or outright banning players who are in this Tier 1 category, think of the signature events in the PGA Tour, from dropping down and playing in a Tier 2 tournament.
So this could affect players like Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, at the Byron Nelson trying to support their hometown tournament.
What should the PGA Tour do in this respect?
Is it okay if they're banning them, or should they be allowed to coast back and forth?
This feels like a devil in the details kind of situation, because I'm sure Brian Rolapp never really factored in the idea that some of his stars wouldn't wanna play in a Tier 1 event, that maybe they wanna go play a Tier 2 event.
And under this scenario, we're assuming that maybe the Nelson or the Colonial this week at the Charles Schwab is going to be a Tier 2 event, and all the players that live here in Dallas are-- would rather play that than maybe next week at the Memorial.
I think it's going to be interesting because every PGA Tour player has a fifth major, and I'm not talking about the Players Championship.
Every tour player has an event that's special to the- to them.
For Scottie Scheffler, it was the Nelson.
Now, w- that's why last year's victory there was so important.
It was so special to him.
Every player has their Nelson that they want to play.
So it's going to be tough for Brian Rolapp and the PGA Tour to draw such a hard line.
I understand where they're coming from.
They wanna be able to guarantee top fields at these Tier 1 events.
But if you have a player that's always just loved to play, and I'm just gonna pick an event out of nowhere, the RSM Classic, because that's where he lives and that's where his loyalty lies, it's gonna be hard to tell him, "No, he can't do that."
What do you think, T Lu?
Should there be a, a hometown exemption for a Tier 1 player?
If you're a Tier 1 level player, maybe you get to have one or two home games or special fifth majors as it were.
Your thoughts.
Well, as the PGA Tour continues to formulate this new schedule with Track 1 or Tier 1 and Tier 2 or Track 2, they created this issue.
but from what I am hearing, what we all are hearing, and how this is starting to formulate for what looks to be in twenty twenty-eight, I'm actually gonna respectfully disagree with my friend Rex Hoggard.
I think that, yes, if players are gonna be set up with what looks to be 16 Track 1 events, at least that, and then you have the, the playoffs, and then you have major championships, you're looking at 20 to 22 events that the PGA Tour is gonna have in Track 1.
They are going to these title sponsors, these potential title sponsors, and saying, "We need $30 million annually."
So those sponsors are wanna gonna-- are gonna think, "Hey, I, I, I'm thinking about giving you the money, but I wanna have the best field."
And, you know, if Scottie Scheffler wants to skip like he did the Truist Championship to play the Byron Nelson, I mean, from a business perspective, that is very, very challenging for the PGA Tour.
So I, I understand the sentiment here, but from a business perspective in trying to put this new system together, and we can argue if this is correct or not, that's a different argument, but from what they are modeling right now, I think that this is the right thing for the PGA to do or-- to do to at least discourage players from going down to Track 2 or Tier 2 and stay on that Track 1 level.
