6 Comments
Nov 30, 2023Liked by Gary Van Sickle

great article gary ! spot on.

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Nov 30, 2023Liked by Gary Van Sickle

Apparently all institutions default to an 'easy button' kinda' financial solution when they are struggling to find directions that almost immediately thereafter appear thoughtless. The PGA Tour fits the bill perfectly. The braintrust first got into a pissing match over $$$ with LIV/PIF accusing those that left of doing nothing but following the $$$ & then denigrating the talent of those by suggesting nobody would miss them. Hmm, reminds me of jilted lovers but I for one miss the talent of guys like Dustin Johnson & Brooks Koepka & don't believe they'd have much trouble earning a living on the PGA Tour these days.

Now, alas, the Tour is doing everything possible to try to pull in as much $$$ thru' partners/sponsors in a veiled attempt to bar the Saudis from taking over control. Once again every attempt at reasoned direction begins to look like they have no idea what to do. It's as if they want the rank & file PGA Tour Member to accept that it is impossibly difficult to flush $Millions$ down the toilet.

The guys who run the Tour obviously know how to run & they should be run outta' town, asap.....

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One could (and will) argue that it’s players like Nate Lashley who are making an imbalanced amount of money for the value they provide. He missed 1/3 of the cuts this year, brought ZERO entertainment value to the tour, and still make nearly 2 MILLION dollars.

Jordan Spieth brought in much more that $7.5M in ticket sales, media value, and corporate sponsors. While he may not have won this year, people come to tournaments to watch him play golf. No one is showing up to watch Lashley. I think the PIP was designed to compensate for that.

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author

Good pt. Lashley is more upset about the pts than money. Pts are heavily weighted in new limtd field events, much harder for unincluded to compete for better status. Most unlevel playing field in tour history. I coulda shoulda got into that but it warrants its own story.

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Sooo much to dive into. Doesn’t sound like the PGA even knows what it will look like in two months 😅

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Dry interesting article on the rich getting richer. A $100m spent on the top 20 players, non of which is hurting for money is a bit ridiculous. I’m all for the journeymen players and the up and comers struggling to get into events . As commissioner for the Monday morning group, I have had to increase my players by 100% to $2.00 per week just to entice them to compete. What next, mulligans or gimmies?

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