‘Diminished’ PGA Tour could scale back – McIlroy

There are “definitely too many” events on the current PGA Tour schedule, according to Rory McIlroy, who believes that golf fans might grow “fatigued” by the variety of options available to them.

The Northern Irish golfer, 35, has been a vocal critic of the breakaway LIV Golf circuit in the past, while he is a co-founder of Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL) which is in its first season.

The world number three acknowledged that the PGA Tour’s more traditional offering has been “diminished” by the volume of competition from other countries and suggested following the example of American football’s NFL, which plays a 17-game regular season. The world number three also admitted that the popularity of YouTube golf content has increased.

“I can see when the golf consumer starts to tire of the options that are essentially on their hands,” McIlroy said.

So I believe it might not be a bad idea to reduce it a little and increase the amount of scarcity in some of our activities, such as the NFL.

This week at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, McIlroy will begin his first professional PGA Tour season in 2025, cautioning against overdoing the available changes.

” I don’t think we should try to dumb down golf to appeal to more people, “he said.

At the end of the day, golf is golf. It’s been this way for hundreds of years. I appreciate how good golf is, and I think a lot of other people are, too, but I still get the point where the entertainment product could get better.

“Hopefully people find that entertaining, and if not, then I don’t know what to tell them”.

The pace of play has been a constant criticism at recent PGA Tour events, but the four-time major winner acknowledged that there are no simple fixes.

This week’s Pebble Beach field will only be able to host 80 spectators, which would limit other players’ opportunities to play.

“There’s a lot of different answers, but not every answer is going to make everyone happy”, he said.

“I could say smaller fields. Smaller, faster fields would improve the pace of play, but that would obstruct people’s chances of playing. The other thing to consider is that when we play at this time of year, the tee times must be a little tighter together so that everyone can get through with daylight and everything.