Billy Horschel has ideas on how to make the PGA Tour a more compelling and competitive product — and that doesn’t necessarily mean a few sponsored events in the fall for the Tour’s top players.
Horschel’s opinion on how to boost the round: Decrease the number of available round cards.
“I think, in my opinion, we should make the Tour more competitive,” he said on Tuesday before the season-ending DP World Championships. “Maybe instead of giving out 125 cards every year, we scaled it down to 100. And we cut the Korn Ferry Tour cards down from 50 to 30. Now you get the best players week after week. Guys are kind of happy once you finish the PGA Tour every year and have made a million plus dollars. And they’re actually striving to get to the top of the game on the PGA Tour.”
Another idea: change the structure of payments on occasions. “Where the top 30, 40 players get paid a lot of money, and then you don’t get paid that much down below, that really pushes the players to do everything they can to be the best player they can be. By doing that, I think it takes care of any other round that comes in to compete. With the PGA Tour or the European Tour.
“I think we’re doing great things, but I think we need to make sure we consider all scenarios before we make a final decision on the path forward.”
Horschel, who is a member of the Tour Players Advisory Board, said he’s not the only one on the Tour to share that opinion. He added that “handouts” – whether through attendance fees or a player impact program – are not the answer to this problem.
“If you look at it on a professional level – and I’m not trying to play or beat any other player who is struggling to make money or maybe not feeling like they’re getting enough fair shake – but I know how hard I work. I know how many hours I put in a day I know all the sacrifices I make in trying to be the best player I can be in my career.” “And when I hear other players say, Well, we should get more money, or you guys need to look into sponsoring inferior playersAre these guys doing the same thing I do to be a better player? If they aren’t, why are they getting a handout just because they don’t play like some of the other guys?
Full playing times of the DP World Championship
“So, it looks tough. It looks like I’m probably trying to attack the bottom guys, or the bottom guys in either round, but I’m not. All I’m saying is: Are you doing everything you can to be the best player possible? And if you are, maybe we need to look To something.If you’re not, we shouldn’t just give you handouts because you’ve got your own PGA Tour card and you’re not making as much as some other players.
“We are fortunate that the best players across generations have brought all that money to the PGA Tour, and they have been rewarded for the best play. But we reward for better playing, for playing great golf, not for mediocre performance.”
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