Former main champion Lucas Glover referred to as out what he labeled the “cool child conferences” in criticizing the proposed adjustments to subject sizes starting in 2026.
The PGA Tour Coverage Board was set to satisfy Monday to debate a number of adjustments, with essentially the most controversial being the discount of some subject sizes. Glover, the 2009 U.S. Open champion who’s at present ranked fiftieth on the planet, mentioned the proposal is being pushed by a small group of people who find themselves hiding behind the tempo of play concern.
“I believe it is horrible,” Glover mentioned, per Golfweek. “After which hiding behind tempo of play, I believe challenges our intelligence. They assume we’re silly.”
Within the proposal, a full-field occasion performed on a single golf course would shrink from 156 gamers to 144. And full-field occasions on one course earlier than daylight financial savings time would shrink from 132 gamers to 120. Tournaments performed over a number of programs would proceed to have 156-player fields.
The variety of exempt gamers on the PGA Tour would even be lowered from 125 to 100, though the 25 spots eradicated below the proposal would keep conditional standing.
On the coronary heart of the talk is that tournaments performed throughout fall and winter months typically wrestle to finish the primary and second rounds on schedule, resulting in the 36-hole lower typically transferring to Saturday. Nonetheless, Glover mentioned the answer is implementing the principles in place moderately than eliminating gamers’ jobs.
“Do not lower fields as a result of it is a tempo of play problem,” mentioned Glover, who estimated the variety of sluggish gamers has grown from a handful to “50” since he began on tour. “Inform us to play quicker, or simply say you are making an attempt to appease six guys and make them glad so they do not go some other place and play golf.”
It was a thinly veiled reference to the measures the PGA Tour continues to soak up an effort to stop extra marquee gamers from bolting for LIV Golf. However Glover contends the board’s job is to maintain the perfect pursuits of the complete membership on the forefront.
“There’s 200 guys that that is their life and their job,” he mentioned.
Gary Younger, the tour’s senior vp of guidelines and competitors, mentioned lowering subject sizes “completely” will enhance the tempo of play. He mentioned the Participant Advisory Council conferences included discussions about what the best subject dimension can be in the event that they have been beginning the tour from scratch, and that straightforward arithmetic reveals that two waves of 78 gamers every creates “a parking zone” scenario.
“As we talked it via with the gamers on that subcommittee, there was settlement within the room that you’d by no means construct it in order that teams can be turning and ready on the flip,” Younger informed Golfweek. “In order that’s the place the entire thought of 144 being our most subject dimension, everybody felt that that was the best quantity, and the arithmetic on it labored. You will see that a few of our different fields have been lowered even additional, and that is attributable to time constraints.
“So a terrific instance is we play a subject dimension of 144 gamers on the Gamers Championship, and there is not sufficient daylight for 144 gamers. However we at all times positioned an emphasis on begins for members, making an attempt to maximise the variety of begins they may get in a season, and generally, sadly, it was on the detriment of everybody else within the match.
“Now we checked out it from strictly what number of hours of daylight do we’ve, and what is the correct subject dimension for every occasion on Tour. So we went straight by dawn and sundown constructing in about three hours between the waves, which is what you want. After which that provides the afternoon wave some room to run, they don’t seem to be beginning out proper behind the final group making the flip and backing up.
“So we predict that we have carried out a pleasant job constructing the schedule and at last getting all the sector sizes appropriate for the longer term.”
The present tempo of play guidelines name first for warning a bunch that falls out of place, adopted by placing them on the clock. It is provided that a participant has a second dangerous time after the preliminary warning {that a} stroke penalty is levied.
“You’d must be considerably loopy or not being attentive to ever attain that ultimate stage,” Younger acknowledged.
Glover believes the scenario may very well be fastened by disposing of the warning after which exacting penalties.
“You get a greater tempo of play coverage or implement the one you could have higher,” he mentioned. “If I am in a sluggish twosome and an official got here up and mentioned, ‘You guys are behind, this isn’t a warning, y’all are on the clock and should you get a foul time, that is a shot penalty,’ guess who’s operating to their ball? That is what we have to be doing.”
Glover, 45, is a six-time winner on the PGA Tour. That features following up a win finally yr’s Wyndham Championship with a victory on the FedEx St. Jude Championship to start the playoffs.
Whereas that wasn’t sufficient to be chosen to final yr’s United States Ryder Cup group, Glover is a part of the TGL’s Atlanta Drive Golf Membership together with Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas and Billy Horschel. Cantlay is one in every of six participant administrators on the PAC together with Tiger Woods, whereas Thomas can be a PAC board member.
–Area Stage Media