PGA Tour says big changes are coming. Here’s what they mean

On Wednesday at Pebble Beach, several PGA tour leaders met with a group of journalists – including our James Colgan and Dylan Dethier – to answer questions about changes coming to PGA Tour. For months, the trip has been investigating Golffans for his “Fan Forward” initiative, and now, they said, they are ready to act. So what are they doing in what they called a “bending year”? The trip broke it in four categories. Dethis and Colgan run through their biggest takeaways below.

1. “Broadcast -Improvements”

DYLAN DETHIES, Golf Senior Writer: James, my biggest takeaway here was that the trip at least knows your complaints about the broadcast. They know you hate how many advertisements there are. They know you’re bored with tap-in putts. They know you like mic’d up conversations between players and caddies. (One led to a laugh when Jordan Spieth was asked about it a few minutes after our meeting ended. “It wasn’t aimed at me. I think we have enough of it,” he said.) They In short, what you want to see more golf shots and more action. They also mentioned risk-rewarding shoots and “companion” golf shot-plus cut-line watch.

So what now? Now it sounds like they want to try to change things for the better. They already said they have practiced with re -cutting broadcasts from 2024 using this research. It looks different. But I think it’s fair that we believe it when we see it – especially when it comes to the commercial load. What was your greatest learning here?

James Colgan, Golf news and contains editor: Well Dylan, I say first that I am impressed with the thoroughness of the tour here. After an offseasons dominated by headlines about hanging TV rates and existential anxiety, the trip in 2025 with its biggest ever self-assignment report reports. More than 50,000 people responded to the “Fan Forward” study and (as a study respondent I can confirm) No shortage of these answers involved potential corrections for television.

Here’s the good news: PGA Tour is trying to proactively arrange golf on TV in ways that will feel noticeable to fans at home. PGA Tour CMO Andy Weitz said the trip does not leave any stones that have not turned into finding possible solutions, including literally focus group testing of various edits of Pro Golf Tournament broadcasts to see what shots of cads resonate with fans. Based on what we heard I think we will see slimmer and faster due to -tour -telast in 2025 and up with possibility These sponsors could look at subtle forms of advertising, marginally cutting down on the commercial load.

“I talked about sponsors being open to opportunities to be more additive to the broadcast,” Weitz said. “We have seen in recent years examples of what our partners have said, ‘We will not interrupt.’ We understand that consumers’ behavior is changing, and it is another place where we think we can test in ways that bring more vivid golf to our fans. “

The problem is that great Problems with the PGA tour on TV may not be corrected with an examination or a shift on the margins. PGA Tours TV rights earn more than $ 700 million a year because networks get 18 minutes of ads per hour. The trip is betting that one better 42 minutes of golf per hour makes the fans at home happier. And maybe they are right – CBS’s transition to new leadership 4 years ago revolutionized their telecast and public perception of it. But we have not seen enough evidence (yet) that these corrections make up more than a new layer of paint on a condemned building.

Newsletter

Sign up for Golf’s Hot Mic Newsletter!

Wanna have exclusive Golf Media News in your inbox? Sign up for the hot MIC newsletter with James Colgan!

Sign up

2. “Competition Reviews”

Dethis: Okay, here we are talking mostly about slow games – and frankly this is this Q&A session directed most of its time and energy. A few highlights:

– Decisions really clog things. The trip intends to make several “virtual decisions” or at least get officials on stage faster using his video Review Center back on Tour HQ in Florida.

-The will test spacers (distance measurement units, to get technical) started this year. Whether it will accelerate things is still something of an open question, but the tours of the tour said they will collect data at some upcoming events. The Zurich classic was suggested as an example, but they did not become specific.

– There are just too many people on the golf course for things to flow. A quote that stands out: “Slower players have been allowed to hide.” Next year’s reduced field sizes should help, just as their increased data collection.

– The trip is finally considering naming and shaming. They know how long it takes each player on tour to hit each type of shot. They have handed out fines behind closed doors. And they have met slow offenders to try to help them speed up things. But a fine -tuning they are considering is to share this data publicly in interest to greater transparency (and theoretically group press).

James, what am I missing?

Colgan: You are missing the biggest buzzword of our entire Wednesday: Average stroke! The trip said it has secretly kept this data for more than a decade now, but is considering opening the books to the world to watch the sports fastest and slowest players. Tour Exec Tyler Dennis pointed out a few times that such transparency would bring the trip “in line” with his sport league siblings.

Distance measurement units (or, as literally everyone else in the world calls them, Rangefinder) Is an interesting pace in the play solution, but as our friend Max Greyserman pointed out on the range, your golf is only faster with them “If you know how to pull.” A worthy exercise, but I’m questionable for a silver bun -fix here.

As for the question of enforcement, Dennis also said that fines and other penalties have been handed out “behind the scenes” for the past several years. I’m not sure I would expect it to change under the new world order. I think the trip hopes that Golffans between a more frenetic TV product and marginally faster/leaner tournaments will get what they need, without needing to offend the tour players.

(Aside: I’m obsessed with Video Review Center and Yes, I give it the title case. It’s actually kind of insane that it took a $ 95 million production study to have a virtual command center for decisions, but I’m glad , that it exists.)

3. “Player Content”

Dethis: I’m not really sure what we learned about this, but they referred to Justin Thomas’ letter to co -players about guys raising their hands to help when it comes to the broadcast. They also mentioned that for young viewers, others’ on-Course persona “is incredibly important in forming a connection with fans. I know I know – you could have told them. But while the idea of ​​walking and-talk can connect a viewer to a player, it’s probably a simpler way to get to the same place to have a player wearing his heart on the sleeve.

What else, James?

Colgan: Dylan, I was actually quite shocked by this information. According to the Tour, Golffans performed in the very important 18-34 demo their three most important factors in the assessment of fandom as 1. Personality on the field 2. In other words, young sports fans are more interested in entertainment than they do by winning.

The tour invests a lot in business that incentives the player personality (TGL), but it is a migrant paradox for a company monolith like the trip to own the funds for player distribution. Young sports fans are almost universally allergic to the kind of image -conscious, overly disinfected content that is likely to be well received within the Tour HQ.

Rawness and reality would go a long way in reaching this audience, but there is only so much that the tour’s (excellent) player content team can do. This strikes me as an area where the trip should be open to outside help.

“>

4. “Experience on site”

Dethis: Did we hear anything about upgrades on site? I’m not snarky here, James. I’m just not sure we really tackled this one.

Colgan: Yes, only briefly affected, but the universal agreement between the PGA Tour fair was that the competition is best with good players at big venues. As for whether the trip would be willing to adopt the USGA and R & A’s upcoming golf ballback, which could allow it to participate in new, large venues? The higher-ups of the tour later the question.

“We have worked closely with the USGA to understand it,” Dennis said. “It is something that our board of directors is very focused on, and we are in the process of ending this analysis.”

5. “Format changes”

Dethis: I add a fifth category because even though they did not specifically put things out this way, this one seemed significant. James, the Tour Championship format could change very literally this year. It sounds like it could also change dramatically. We’re talking match-play, bracket style, big money. The data (I am now tired of that phrase) was clear that viewers want “companionship” and that the competition “needs meaning” but that it still has to be an entertaining process. In other words, the idea of ​​crown the most deserves The year endmaster can give way to a more entertaining final.

Andy Weitz repeated Commissioner Jay Monahan’s statement from last month that “everything is on the table” and it sounds like they are continuing to evaluate other formats and compositions. But so far, the Tour championship seems like the big one. James, is this a good thing? Are there other changes?

Colgan: Man, I think it’s a good thing. And I think the best piece of it is what Weitz said at the end, which is that if there is a universal agreement between the board and the players, a change of the Tour championship could arrive as soon as this year. Expedience! Adjustment! This Is the kind of PGA tour we have been looking for the last half decade.

I like the idea of ​​seeing Ryder Cup-style team golf at least once on the tour calendar before Ryder and Presidents Cups every year. I like the idea of ​​game-style match to crown a season ending champion. Golf is so much more than 72 holes with stroke playing, and the trip finally seems to acknowledge it.

As for Weitz’s point about the Tour championship that needs “Collaboration”, I’m with him! Eagles may be winning the Super Bowl with the third-East test SOS and a cupcake walk through NFC does it make them unworthy masters? What about Florida Panthers in 2023 who were NHL runners despite entering the playoffs at a Wild Card place?

The answer is no. Sometimes Fluky things happen and the best competitors don’t win, but it doesn’t make a sport bad or a playoff system deficient.