00:00You saw this press conference.
00:02You had a chance to talk to people at the tour
00:03and kind of ask questions about things
00:05that were particularly interesting to you.
00:07What was your reaction to Brian Rolap unveiling this,
00:11given all we've discussed on the show
00:13for the last couple of years
00:14about just wanting some clarity
00:15as to what the PGA Tour structure should look like?
00:19Well, definitely.
00:19There's a ton of lines and a ton of notes
00:21to get through in all this,
00:22but I would say that none of it
00:24has been overly surprising.
00:26Maybe just the name of track one and track two.
00:29I think in the past,
00:31there's always been this potential of,
00:34oh, what could the PGA Tour look like?
00:36It's been kind of released step by step along the way.
00:39It feels like they've been leaking this
00:41for quite some time.
00:42So based on all the players that I have talked to,
00:45the general communication has been good
00:47from the PGA Tour and the players.
00:49I think when it comes to mistakes
00:53that the tour has made,
00:55especially just from the live
00:57and the PGA Tour debacle,
00:58when they tried to make that deal,
01:00there was no communication with the players.
01:02Now, the player directors and the board
01:05and the new FCC,
01:07it seems like they've been working
01:09to get to this point
01:10to where they have
01:11what I think is potentially
01:15a future for what the PGA Tour
01:18is going to operate like moving forward.
01:20Now, I do think that Brian Rollup's one thing
01:24when he got to the PGA Tour,
01:26he spoke with all the players,
01:28got their feedback.
01:29But I think when he was looking at
01:32just how the tour operates,
01:34we've talked about it.
01:36It's already a track one and a track two system,
01:39but everything's a PGA Tour event
01:42and their top product,
01:47which doesn't make a whole lot of sense
01:48when you're looking at the fields.
01:50You're seeing who gets in this
01:51and who gets in that.
01:52From what I had heard,
01:55Rollup saw it as,
01:56we kind of have our major leagues
01:59and our AAA all in one league.
02:02We need to make that easier
02:03for the fans to be able to figure out.
02:06And I think now this system is definitely
02:08the championship series is the major leagues.
02:11And then the challenger series
02:12would be the AAA,
02:14Corn Ferry's AA,
02:16PGA America's single A.
02:17It's very much like how a baseball
02:21major league process
02:23and just their hierarchy, if you will,
02:25on how their league works.
02:28And it does make sense.
02:29We have enough players
02:30that are playing professional golf
02:32to fill these tours.
02:34The question becomes,
02:36is the championship series with 120 guys,
02:40that's a small amount of players
02:42compared to what we're accustomed to
02:43for everyone keeping a full PGA Tour card.
02:48It's not dissimilar in some ways
02:49to the sort of stratified tennis model
02:51that we've seen,
02:52where there are different tournaments
02:53that have different sort of,
02:54I understand the tours are split,
02:56but I think that the key piece
02:59of what has been done here
03:01is for the last couple of years,
03:03we're just asking for,
03:04tell me what this event is
03:06and don't sell me on something
03:08that it's not, right?
03:09And this seems like
03:10it's going to very clearly be,
03:12you know what you were watching
03:14when you're tuning in.
03:15You know what the difference is
03:16between a championship series event
03:18and a challenger series event.
03:20And you know the players
03:21you're going to see in those fields.
03:22I actually think it's not too dissimilar
03:26to what we had prior
03:28to the last couple of years
03:30of experimentation,
03:31you know, whether or not,
03:32some of it I think was,
03:33there's a quote in here
03:34from Brian Roloff,
03:35I'm not going to be able
03:36to pull up right now,
03:37but it's essentially saying
03:38that it wasn't like Liv forced
03:40any of these changes,
03:41but Liv sort of exposed
03:43some of the inefficiencies
03:44in the way we do things.
03:45And so there was this,
03:46it seems like the last couple of years
03:47we've had this interim period
03:48of to keep guys on the PGA Tour,
03:51where we have to create events
03:53in ways, you know,
03:54that they're going to get money
03:56in their pockets,
03:57you know, sort of free
03:58of having to play good golf.
04:00We're going to do no cut events
04:01for guys that have earned
04:02their way in the previous year.
04:03And that's going to keep
04:04these guys satisfied
04:05and feel like they're not
04:06missing out on a big payday.
04:07What this feels like
04:08is we're back to everything
04:10that happened before
04:12in many contexts,
04:13120 player fields, cuts,
04:15but it's just better organized.
04:17It's just more streamlined.
04:18It's just easier to understand.
04:20And I think, I think ultimately
04:22for everyone that's been,
04:24you know, a fan of the PGA Tour
04:25for years and looking
04:26at the last couple of years
04:27and saying,
04:27I don't know if this really
04:29represents the type
04:30of meritocracy I want to see.
04:32This very much feels
04:33like a meritocracy.
04:35And like, maybe one of the things
04:36we'll get into
04:36as we continue discussing this
04:37is there are still things
04:39out there they have to figure out,
04:41you know, eligibility criteria
04:43for both series career,
04:45you know, milestone,
04:46medical extension rules.
04:47There's still like minor details
04:48they have to figure out.
04:49But by and large,
04:51you know, the only way
04:52to lock up your card
04:54going forward
04:55on the championship series
04:56is to be one of the top 90 players
04:57at the end of that season.
04:59That just keeps shrinking
05:01and that's going to make
05:01it very competitive.
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