Speaker 1: I ran for the board on the message that I'm
Speaker 1: going to fight for the middle and lower tiers of
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour, and in a very strange and ironic way,
Speaker 1: I just did that. I got thoughts in my head.
Speaker 1: Can't get John nothing, what I'm thinking about. Thoughts in
Speaker 1: my head, can't get them out. Nothing, think what I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about. Hello, Welcome back to their Fire Drill podcast.
Speaker 1: This is Alan Schipnuk big day in the world of
Speaker 1: professional golf. The PGA Tour has announced some sweeping changes
Speaker 1: to the structure of the tour and what the elevated
Speaker 1: events are gonna look like going forward. I am delighted
Speaker 1: to be joined by a gentleman who's been in the
Speaker 1: room where it happened to quote Hamilton, Peter Ramalnaughty, one
Speaker 1: of the five player directors who runs the PGA Tour. Essentially, Peter,
Speaker 1: thank you for doing this, thank you for having me out,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate it's going to be it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a tumultuous time here. So let's put some truth out
Speaker 1: there exactly. So. One of the criticisms of the tour
Speaker 1: in the past is that the player directors and the
Speaker 1: player advisory committee has skewed towards the best, most successful
Speaker 1: players who may not be fully in touch with the
Speaker 1: membership as a whole. And so I think one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why you got elected to the board is
Speaker 1: you were going to represent the tour middle class, if
Speaker 1: you will. Because the other directors are Rory McElroy, we
Speaker 1: know who he is, Patrick Cantley, top ten player in
Speaker 1: the world US Open, Champ Webb Simpson, and Charlie Hoffman,
Speaker 1: who's won about one hundred million dollars in the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: It feels like and and so I think folks were
Speaker 1: thinking Peter mulnaughty is gonna is gonna He's gonna be
Speaker 1: the man who's in an obstructionist as as the delaware
Speaker 1: you know, twenty three you try and reshape the tour um.
Speaker 1: But of course um hasn't quite played out like that.
Speaker 1: I know from our text matches today you've had a
Speaker 1: change of heart and you're thinking about about the structure
Speaker 1: of things. Can you walk us through how how you're
Speaker 1: thinking has evolved and what you think of these new changes? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I definitely can and and I will be
Speaker 1: the first to admit um. You know, I was I was.
Speaker 1: I was disappointed with the tour coming out of the
Speaker 1: Delaware meeting. You know that the the frame that the
Speaker 1: tour tried to put on that was, look, how invested
Speaker 1: our stars are they they're meeting and and to me
Speaker 1: and a lot of my peers, I think it felt like, well,
Speaker 1: I mean, the tour has a governance process and we're
Speaker 1: ignoring it, like, you know, we're just that this isn't leadership,
Speaker 1: this is you know, blackmail like like like like I
Speaker 1: think there was a lot of um, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of angst, for sure, and and I was at
Speaker 1: the very top of that, like I was. I was,
Speaker 1: I was frustrated. I didn't think that was right. I
Speaker 1: felt annoyed. Sure, I do, I do really appreciate and
Speaker 1: did really appreciate that, you know, these guys want to
Speaker 1: be here playing on the PGA Tour, but um, it
Speaker 1: felt to me like they didn't want to respect the
Speaker 1: you know, the forty or fifty years of process has
Speaker 1: gone into building the PGA Tour. So as recently as
Speaker 1: um as recently as last Wednesday, I was adamantly against
Speaker 1: the idea of the PGA Tour adding small field, no
Speaker 1: cut events to its schedule. I just that that seems
Speaker 1: antithetical to me from the tour's mission of identifying and
Speaker 1: rewarding the best golfers in the world. I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, just on a simple, simple scale, it just
Speaker 1: seems less competitive to me to have to be sixty
Speaker 1: nine other guys and it does have to be one
Speaker 1: hundred and nineteen other guys for one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: five other guys for some of our full field events
Speaker 1: in the summer. So so I was I was just
Speaker 1: adamantly opposed. It felt to me like a way to
Speaker 1: put more money into the pockets of the top players directly,
Speaker 1: just just to hand it to them. And that's that's
Speaker 1: that's how it felt. And I was, you know, I
Speaker 1: was standing so strongly against that. UM. And last week
Speaker 1: we had a call the WEB. We call ourselves the
Speaker 1: OPS Committee, but essentially it's the player Directors UM UM,
Speaker 1: you know, the policy board, So none of the none
Speaker 1: of the independent directors, but just the players UM are
Speaker 1: the OPS Committee. And we talk about tournament operations UM.
Speaker 1: And so obviously there's the only one real subject right
Speaker 1: now is you know, what does our what does our
Speaker 1: product looked like? What's our future model. UM. And so
Speaker 1: last Wednesday we had a call to talk about this
Speaker 1: and kind of the tour, the tour brass sort of um,
Speaker 1: you know, they they proposed this model that they basically
Speaker 1: the way this was kind of the way this came
Speaker 1: to be. They set it up as as kind of
Speaker 1: a a dicot or not. I don't know. It's a
Speaker 1: trichotomy of thing three three three things. Um. There was
Speaker 1: essentially kind of coming out of the Delaware meeting, it
Speaker 1: seems like there was you know, if if if the
Speaker 1: tour had just given that group of twenty three players
Speaker 1: everything they wanted, we would we would essentially have either
Speaker 1: a two tour system or just you know, one elite
Speaker 1: PGA tour and then something else for the rest of us. UM.
Speaker 1: So that was definitely a two tour system. So that
Speaker 1: was you know, an option that was here at the
Speaker 1: top of the page, kind of at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the page was this idea of well, let's do nothing,
Speaker 1: Let's just keep keep moving forward with you know, we
Speaker 1: got invitations one hundred and twenty player fields, we've got um,
Speaker 1: you know, our regular FETs Cup events. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe throw twenty million dollars in the purse of a a
Speaker 1: few events where we can somehow sell that to sponsors, whatever,
Speaker 1: just just move forward without changing anything. And so this
Speaker 1: this new model, which is in the middle of those
Speaker 1: two was proposed and the tours kind of coined it
Speaker 1: the designated event model. And you know, it's been through many, many,
Speaker 1: many iterations. But I sat in this meeting last Wednesday,
Speaker 1: this OPS committee meeting, and it's like, no paid it,
Speaker 1: absolutely hate it. No, you know, more events, small field,
Speaker 1: no cut. You know, you're taking playing opportunities away from
Speaker 1: the members. It's just terrible. But in the days after
Speaker 1: that meeting, some of the points that they made started
Speaker 1: to sink in a little bit as I, you know,
Speaker 1: your brain kind of you go in with just this idea,
Speaker 1: and as I let this, I let some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that they said sink in. There became these moments
Speaker 1: where it's like, gosh like because to me, like any
Speaker 1: good point that they made in that meeting was just, oh,
Speaker 1: they're just saying that so they can give the top
Speaker 1: players what they want. They're just saying that so they
Speaker 1: can give the top players what they want. But then
Speaker 1: as it sank in and I tried to have a
Speaker 1: little bit more of an open mind about it. I
Speaker 1: started to sense some like there's some some merit to
Speaker 1: some of these things that were saying. And I'll get
Speaker 1: into the details of what it was they were saying,
Speaker 1: but essentially when we got to so by the time
Speaker 1: I got there for the Policy Board meeting on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: I'm still like adamant that I'm going to represent the
Speaker 1: middle and bottom thirds of the PGA tour membership. That
Speaker 1: that's that's my job in that room. So so to me,
Speaker 1: that still means I've got to protect playing opportunities. I've
Speaker 1: got to fight for you know, these these fields to
Speaker 1: be bigger, got to fight for him to be you know,
Speaker 1: you know, full fields, close to full fields, you know,
Speaker 1: more more playing opportunities, and then to be getting the room. Um,
Speaker 1: the Tour head was able between the time of our
Speaker 1: our Ops Committee meeting and the Policy Board meeting, they've
Speaker 1: been able to to create some visual graphics of of
Speaker 1: the data that they've been able to create through through
Speaker 1: some simulations that they've run, and it was really really
Speaker 1: clear that, um, the way to protect the middle third
Speaker 1: and the bottom third of the PGA Tour membership is
Speaker 1: to move forward with this model that has small fields, uh,
Speaker 1: in the in the Destiny events, because that that sort
Speaker 1: of COUNTERINTUITI I want, that's a really key point here.
Speaker 1: Explain that so hard for me to wrap my head around.
Speaker 1: It took a week. So so that's what I actually,
Speaker 1: I've written a note that I've sent out to a
Speaker 1: lot of my peers on the tour, a lot of
Speaker 1: people who were who were, in all honesty somewhat counting
Speaker 1: on me, I think to go in and not let
Speaker 1: this happen. Um. So I've written this note because you're right,
Speaker 1: incredibly counterintuitive, incredibly hard to wrap my head around. And
Speaker 1: I told them in this note that a road that
Speaker 1: it took me a week. It took me a week
Speaker 1: of simmering on this for it to kind of settle
Speaker 1: down and make sense. So I don't expect them to
Speaker 1: be okay with it in a day. Um. But but
Speaker 1: the nuts and bolts of it is this, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: the events that the events that the majority of the
Speaker 1: tour can count on to play every year. UM. That's
Speaker 1: not to say that they're you know, lesser events, but
Speaker 1: you know, if we look, you know, if you look
Speaker 1: on the West coast, you've got the MX tournament which
Speaker 1: uses multiple courses. Farmers Insurance uses multiple courses, so there's
Speaker 1: a big fields um. Yeah, yeah, we at pebbles, multiple courses,
Speaker 1: big field um. And then you move move west a
Speaker 1: movie sorry, to Florida, and you've got you know, the
Speaker 1: the Honda Classic, which will you know, still exist with
Speaker 1: a new sponsor moving forward. And then vals bar Um
Speaker 1: in Tampa, which is you know, a great, amazing golf
Speaker 1: of course, but but you know, a bigger field kind
Speaker 1: of falls right around a couple of big events, so
Speaker 1: it doesn't always get supermarket names. So but all these events,
Speaker 1: you know, and you go all the way, take that
Speaker 1: through the summer. And I made this little analogy today
Speaker 1: in my head too, where like, you know, there's all
Speaker 1: these all these people who are like like me've been
Speaker 1: on tour for several years. I've never made it to
Speaker 1: superstar status, you know, never never never sniffed a tour championship,
Speaker 1: but also have kept their card for several years. Um.
Speaker 1: And so I called them like those are the Peter
Speaker 1: Malnaughties of the tour. And then with our tournaments, you
Speaker 1: have all these tournaments that are the John Deer Classics
Speaker 1: of the PGA tour schedule that are absolutely amazing events
Speaker 1: that may not always get or may never get the
Speaker 1: top how like like if if you look at the
Speaker 1: John Your Classic, I think it gets one to two
Speaker 1: of the top fifty players in the world, most most summers.
Speaker 1: Yet if you look at what it does, it gives,
Speaker 1: Like I think the last several summers, it's given more
Speaker 1: than ten million dollars back into the Mulling community and
Speaker 1: to two charities in the Milling community. And it's a
Speaker 1: well attended event. It's a loved event by that community.
Speaker 1: It's a loved event by players on tour. So the
Speaker 1: reason that this new model works for every single member
Speaker 1: of the PGA Tour and helps every single member of
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour is if we had one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty guys playing eight designated events, that takes not only
Speaker 1: the top tier of players out of the full field
Speaker 1: facts couple events, it takes a lot of the middle
Speaker 1: tier out as well, because if they know they're immemorial,
Speaker 1: if they know they're in, you know, whatever events, they're gone.
Speaker 1: We don't know for sure what events they're going to out,
Speaker 1: but we can count on the player hosts invitations. I
Speaker 1: think being being elevated. But if if the top tier
Speaker 1: and middle tier know that they're in these designated events,
Speaker 1: they're going to skip, Um, you know, they're going to
Speaker 1: skip all these events in the middle of the schedule.
Speaker 1: They're going to skip the Classics, the vals, bars, the
Speaker 1: John DearS, they're going to skip them, and those events
Speaker 1: won't be able to sustain the level that they've come
Speaker 1: to to to know whatether it's a purse level going
Speaker 1: back to the players, or a community impact level that
Speaker 1: they have in the towns where they are. But under
Speaker 1: this model, and there's so much about this model that's
Speaker 1: good actually because um, there's always going to be playing
Speaker 1: opportunities to get into the designated events always, and the
Speaker 1: full field regular FedEx Cup events are all going to
Speaker 1: serve as a qualifying way to get into the designated events. Um,
Speaker 1: we're going to see you know, a couple of names
Speaker 1: that I could pick out. If I looked at our
Speaker 1: I guess this season is so so so early. But
Speaker 1: if I look at our our season and just take
Speaker 1: where it is right now, you know, imagine that we're
Speaker 1: a year ahead. We're in twenty twenty four, but we've
Speaker 1: got the FedEx Coup lists that we have currently right now.
Speaker 1: You would have guys, you know, you would have guys
Speaker 1: like you know, Billy Horshell's and Gary Woodlands, and guys
Speaker 1: that fans love, fans know, fans root for, that need
Speaker 1: to play these events, these full field, regular FedEx couple
Speaker 1: events because they might not necessarily be in a smaller
Speaker 1: field designated event, and so they're going to play. And
Speaker 1: it's going to make those events easier to sell the sponsors,
Speaker 1: easier to sell the media partners. Those events are going
Speaker 1: to be able to not only sustain the level they're at,
Speaker 1: I think they will truly be able to grow. And
Speaker 1: there's really wise people on the policy board that agreed
Speaker 1: with that, like that thought that they could realistically see
Speaker 1: growth for those events even though they're living in a
Speaker 1: world now that consists of eight of these designated or
Speaker 1: elevated events. I think we can realistically strengthen every event
Speaker 1: on the PJ Tour under this model, and I don't
Speaker 1: think we could if we at the larger fields that
Speaker 1: I originally fought so hard for. So, if I'm hearing
Speaker 1: you correctly, you think it's that middle tier of players
Speaker 1: that are going to support the lesser tournaments on tour,
Speaker 1: and they're going to be difference makers, but I still
Speaker 1: think it's a star driven enterprise. And by kind of
Speaker 1: codifying that there's these two different tours in some ways,
Speaker 1: the John Deers and the Bob Hopes and some of
Speaker 1: those are are they ever going to get top players?
Speaker 1: And if if they don't get the top twenty or
Speaker 1: thirty guys, can they really survive? As as as the
Speaker 1: tour becomes more bifurcated, I think one thing that the
Speaker 1: tour is getting so right here that I didn't give
Speaker 1: them any credit for this. M A smaller field also
Speaker 1: means it's hard to be in those designated events. So
Speaker 1: if you look like like a superstar has a couple
Speaker 1: of meetings on tour, like the superstar is the person
Speaker 1: who's playing great right now, and obviously the top ten
Speaker 1: in the world, you know, like Addie Scheffler, absolutely a superstar.
Speaker 1: But but in terms of our fan base, like Ricky
Speaker 1: Fowler's having a great year right now, so he's a
Speaker 1: he's back up to a level. But for the last
Speaker 1: several years Ricky would not be in these designated events
Speaker 1: and you can't call him anything other than a superstar.
Speaker 1: And if you look at like, um, you know a
Speaker 1: fran Molinari. Frand Millinari is an absolute superstar in the game,
Speaker 1: but he hasn't played well for a couple of years.
Speaker 1: So he's not going to be in these designated events
Speaker 1: and he's going to need and want to get in them.
Speaker 1: Like that's the world strife for so this year, the
Speaker 1: schedule sucks and we all know that, like, like the
Speaker 1: Tour knows that, every single constituent group knows that, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, the Honda Classic being Sandwich designated designated Honda
Speaker 1: designated players terrible. No one wanted that. It was a
Speaker 1: trans It's a transition year. It's tough. The thing that
Speaker 1: got me to open my mind in the first place
Speaker 1: was looking at the cadence of the schedule for twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. It's beautiful. I truly think that even even
Speaker 1: the Rory mcelroys, and I mean they're going to have
Speaker 1: to play some of the full field events because they can't.
Speaker 1: Like that's another good thing the Tour got right is
Speaker 1: the number of these designated events, Like there's not too many.
Speaker 1: They don't dominate the schedule, but the full field Regular
Speaker 1: Effects Cup events, some of the top guys, they're going
Speaker 1: to pick one out of the three pretty much every
Speaker 1: time I think to play, you know, because there's like
Speaker 1: I said that, the schedule has a beautiful flow. It
Speaker 1: goes like designated event full field, full field, full field,
Speaker 1: designated designated full field, full field, designated players, full field,
Speaker 1: full field. So there's always two and a lot of
Speaker 1: times three full field events between designated events. And so
Speaker 1: I think even the top players will will most of
Speaker 1: those blocks pick one of the full field events to play,
Speaker 1: especially when they're in blocks of three, and so that helps.
Speaker 1: And then like I, like I was saying before, I
Speaker 1: just think, you know, there are several names in this
Speaker 1: middle group of tour players who have great, great, great
Speaker 1: name name recognition with fans and and are easy sales
Speaker 1: for for title sponsors who are like, oh, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get Gay Woodland this year. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: Ricky Fowler this year, We're gonna get you know, whoever
Speaker 1: the case may be that maybe didn't have their best
Speaker 1: best play, because honestly, at a number as small as seventy,
Speaker 1: these destinated events are going to be hard to get in.
Speaker 1: And you know, another thing, I just really I truly
Speaker 1: believe that the strength of the entire schedule will be
Speaker 1: improved by this, which I that's a one eighty for me.
Speaker 1: I must admit that that's a one eighty for me.
Speaker 1: A week ago, I thought small field no cuts were
Speaker 1: just horrible for the tours model and for the middle
Speaker 1: and bottom of the membership. And I have I haven't
Speaker 1: nudged myself toward thinking it's okay. I'm flipped to where
Speaker 1: I think this is a really good idea. Well, let's
Speaker 1: talk about the no cut because this has been a flashpoint,
Speaker 1: and obviously hovering over all of this is live golf,
Speaker 1: and you know, I thought the strongest talking point the
Speaker 1: tour had is that that we are a hardcore competition
Speaker 1: and live is more of an exhibition and they don't
Speaker 1: have to earn it out there. And now all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the tour has gone to smaller fields, no
Speaker 1: cut guaranteed money. This feeling by some people it's a
Speaker 1: clothes shop, even though there can be some turnover, But
Speaker 1: once you're in these elevated events, it's going to help
Speaker 1: you stay in the elevated events. So do you worry
Speaker 1: that that a fundamental component of the PGA tour is
Speaker 1: being lost that that need to make the cut to
Speaker 1: earn your spot and to prove it and at the
Speaker 1: same time also delineate yourself from the competition. Like a
Speaker 1: lot of people are upset about losing the cuts, especially
Speaker 1: in the most important event. So what is your response
Speaker 1: to that. I worry about that a lot. That that
Speaker 1: is something, um, you know, from as far down as
Speaker 1: you know, I get to UM, I'm really lucky I live.
Speaker 1: I live near the University of Tennessee. They have a
Speaker 1: wonderful practice facility for their golf teams, and so I
Speaker 1: mentored some of the kids on that team who are
Speaker 1: really really good, and and you know they'll ask me
Speaker 1: a lot, you know, you know, what's the biggest step?
Speaker 1: What do I need to do? How do I? And
Speaker 1: I always tell him was like in the college Chennamant.
Speaker 1: You know, if you play, allows you the first two
Speaker 1: days and you'll play great the third day, you still
Speaker 1: help your team, you still feel good, it's all good.
Speaker 1: Pro tournament you play allows you the first two days.
Speaker 1: You just spent you know on a minute tour. You've
Speaker 1: probably spent fifteen hundred to two thousand bucks on a
Speaker 1: PGA tour. You've spent you know, four to eight thousand
Speaker 1: bucks and you don't you don't get anything. You go
Speaker 1: home like you're done, and and that's that sucks. And
Speaker 1: that's a real thing in professional golf. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I've thrown this in the Commissioner's space a lot of
Speaker 1: times that the first week Live played, it was, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't even know where they played, somewhere in London
Speaker 1: or something. We were at the RBC Canadian Open, and
Speaker 1: Commissioner went on CBS in the Sunday broadcast and he said,
Speaker 1: what we do at the PGA Tour is true and
Speaker 1: pure competition. And I've I've I've thrown that line at
Speaker 1: him incessantly over the last months because like, we can't,
Speaker 1: we can't have no cut events and say we do
Speaker 1: true and pure competition. That's just And I've been I've
Speaker 1: been adamant about that. And so I'll tell you why
Speaker 1: I'm why I'm at peace with this new model, UM,
Speaker 1: And it's it's the fact that I'll tell you the
Speaker 1: difference between between us and whatever I'm supposed to call
Speaker 1: him Live, UM. The differences Live guys were handpicked, not
Speaker 1: always based based sometimes on popularity, not based on recent
Speaker 1: results or anything like that. They were handpicked to play
Speaker 1: in a field where they're guaranteed to make a lot
Speaker 1: of money. These UM, these designated events will have nobody
Speaker 1: that was handpicked. They're gonna have UM there, there will
Speaker 1: be there will be sponsors, exemptions maximum of four I
Speaker 1: think I don't know if I'm even maximum of four
Speaker 1: for sure, But but they're not going to be they're
Speaker 1: going to be restricted to there's gonna be we haven't
Speaker 1: hammered out all the details. They're going to be restricted
Speaker 1: to either life members, which is Tiger, you know, or
Speaker 1: people who are in form right now, like they're not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to just you know, the tournaments aren'
Speaker 1: gonna able to say, oh, yeah, well we sponsor this guy,
Speaker 1: so we want tom nd. It's got to be someone
Speaker 1: who is you know, whether whether the que with some
Speaker 1: crew criteri we talked about was top hundred in the
Speaker 1: world currently for sponsors, invite or um multiple wins on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour in the last five years, um, something
Speaker 1: along those lines. There will be nobody in a designated
Speaker 1: event who is being handed a spot and being handed
Speaker 1: you know what, it's last place money or anything like
Speaker 1: every person in those fields has played well to qualify
Speaker 1: for them, and it's either he played incredibly well the
Speaker 1: last season consistently over an entire season and so that
Speaker 1: got you in, or you're hot right now and you've
Speaker 1: played really well in the you know, the weeks or
Speaker 1: months leading up to this designated event to get in them.
Speaker 1: So the players who play in a designated event have
Speaker 1: earned the right to be there with their scores on
Speaker 1: the course and nothing else, and so that that is
Speaker 1: a big difference. That is still a gray area for me.
Speaker 1: I've even pitched the idea, which you know, we're not
Speaker 1: going to do this in year one for sure. I
Speaker 1: don't know that we will ever do it. But I've
Speaker 1: even pitched the idea of embracing the small field, but
Speaker 1: embraced a smaller cut, Like you know, we could have
Speaker 1: a seventy five player field cut to top forty and
Speaker 1: ties after the first two days. That's possible, and I
Speaker 1: think that would achieve everything that we've talked about wanting
Speaker 1: to do, but not going to do that in your
Speaker 1: one um, but the cut, the cut is massively important.
Speaker 1: I'm at peace with this plan. I can sell this
Speaker 1: plan to the membership because of the fact that you
Speaker 1: have to earn your right to be in a designated event.
Speaker 1: There are no spots handed out to anyone in them.
Speaker 1: What has been the reaction from your your peers in
Speaker 1: the last twenty four to thirty six hours as the
Speaker 1: details have leaked out? Yeah, I mean yeah, predictable Like
Speaker 1: where was I? Where was I seven days ago? I was?
Speaker 1: I was adamant that no no cut, small field, no
Speaker 1: cut events were just a cop out and a horrible
Speaker 1: path forward for the PGA Tour. So when when my
Speaker 1: peers learned that they feel the same way, UM, I
Speaker 1: will say, Um, the tour did a tore did a
Speaker 1: really really, really good job of actually giving us we
Speaker 1: asked for an ops ops committee. I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: on an island. Like like, Rory is an incredibly thoughtful
Speaker 1: leader and quite a appreciate him. Obviously, he's been a
Speaker 1: superstarring golf since he was a teenager. UM, so his
Speaker 1: perspective will be different than mine. But he is a
Speaker 1: thoughtful guy. I appreciate him. UM. Charlie Hoffman and Web
Speaker 1: Simpson UM are particularly a tune to the voice of
Speaker 1: the entire membership. So it's not like I'm on on
Speaker 1: an island, like the only one in there, fighting fighting
Speaker 1: for this. But but I was. I was particularly impressed
Speaker 1: with the tour Um in the data that they were
Speaker 1: able to give us. You know, they they they have
Speaker 1: a I don't know how it works. I'm pretty ignoranous
Speaker 1: to the details of the technology, but they were able
Speaker 1: to run simulated a thousand simulated seasons under the projected
Speaker 1: plan that we've put forward um and and you know,
Speaker 1: the results and these thousand simulated seasons were actually really
Speaker 1: impressive to see. You know, what percentage of players playing
Speaker 1: in the full field events came from the top one
Speaker 1: twenty five from the previous year category or higher, versus
Speaker 1: what percentage came from you know, the corn ferry tour
Speaker 1: category or below. And if we did one twenty player fields,
Speaker 1: it was not a good ratio, Like there were only
Speaker 1: you know, the average event was only going to have
Speaker 1: I'm going to butcher the number, but approximately like thirty
Speaker 1: to thirty five percent of the field of in a
Speaker 1: full fiel event would be from one twenty five the
Speaker 1: previous year or above, and the rest would be you know,
Speaker 1: the corn frarier category and then below that whereas at
Speaker 1: small field for these events, it was significantly more than
Speaker 1: fifty percent of the fields being filled by top one
Speaker 1: twenty five and above category. And so to see that,
Speaker 1: to see that data, um, you know, really really really
Speaker 1: swayed and influenced me. And the other thing I'll say, um,
Speaker 1: if I may, without even asking m the other thing
Speaker 1: that that was incredibly important to me. I remember, I
Speaker 1: remember a conversation I had with Maverick nearly. Maverick is
Speaker 1: a very very smart, smart leader on the tour, an
Speaker 1: obviously great player too. But Maverick and I talked about
Speaker 1: the ideas that were being sort of rumored coming out
Speaker 1: of the Delaware meeting, and Maverick, you know, smart, uses
Speaker 1: big words. He said, it's okay, it's okay to create
Speaker 1: He's I think it's okay to create a stratified tour
Speaker 1: where you have, like, you know, a higher tier events
Speaker 1: and a lower tier events. The problem is if you
Speaker 1: have stratification with no mobility, you have to have mobility.
Speaker 1: And when he said that, I was like, because I
Speaker 1: wasn't really okay with a stratified tour at that point.
Speaker 1: I was just like, you know, I liked the idea
Speaker 1: of you know, all of us playing together all the
Speaker 1: time and whatever. It's just thought. You know, I didn't
Speaker 1: want it to be I didn't want anyone to tell
Speaker 1: me it was gonna be harder for me to play
Speaker 1: in the memorial because I like the memorial, darn it um.
Speaker 1: But this new model like another thing they were able
Speaker 1: to do with that those thousand simulated seasons. What it
Speaker 1: revealed was that there was sixty four percent retention within
Speaker 1: the top fifty from one year to the next, which
Speaker 1: means thirty six percent turnover, which means eighteen guys in
Speaker 1: and eighteen guys out. That's pretty good mobility. Honestly, if
Speaker 1: you think about what like, you know, if you're handing
Speaker 1: the top fifty eight no cut events with higher concentration
Speaker 1: of fis cup points to the top ten. The fact
Speaker 1: that there's eighteen guys that you know in an average season,
Speaker 1: you know, some seasons more some seasons if you last,
Speaker 1: but always centered right around eighteen guys, that's a pretty
Speaker 1: good amount of mobility. I was. I was very worried
Speaker 1: when this was when this was presented, that we would
Speaker 1: have you know, eight or ten guys able to move
Speaker 1: in and out of the top fifty. So if if
Speaker 1: eighteens the average, that that actually that that to me,
Speaker 1: that says to me and to the other you know,
Speaker 1: the other one hundred and thirty male natties of the
Speaker 1: PGA tour, go work your ass off, like go go go, go,
Speaker 1: go get good, like go do it because you can.
Speaker 1: This is not closed like it's tight. It's small, but
Speaker 1: it's not closed. So go and and I really I
Speaker 1: left the pack meet or the board meeting like proud
Speaker 1: of the fact that I had had an open enough
Speaker 1: mind to see this and excited about the future. But
Speaker 1: as much as anything motivated to go be a part
Speaker 1: of it, like that was, it didn't. It didn't feel
Speaker 1: like a closed shop to me, and the data really
Speaker 1: proves that it's not or reveals that it's not. So
Speaker 1: I'm super excited. It's a rallying cry for this chaotic
Speaker 1: era stratification with mobility, like I love it. Did you
Speaker 1: see some of the chortling from the live golf guys
Speaker 1: on social media and otherwise basically saying, hey, thanks for
Speaker 1: stealing our idea of how did that land with you?
Speaker 1: I didn't see anything. I don't see anything. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny it was out there, I'll put it. Put
Speaker 1: it that way up. Well, I mean that's predictable obviously. Yeah,
Speaker 1: very fanciable. I Uh, I had my first my son
Speaker 1: was born in October of twenty nineteen, and yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I was. I never had a huge Twitter following
Speaker 1: or anything of it. I was never I was never
Speaker 1: very good on Twitter. Um. I'm no Maxilma. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm no Maxilma, no Joel Damon um Um. But you know,
Speaker 1: I just I decided when my son was born. I
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, it may make me less valuable,
Speaker 1: it may make my my my my bay, hurt my brand.
Speaker 1: I'll have a brand, don't really care. Um. I deleted
Speaker 1: all my social media and I'm I'm happier, I am wiser,
Speaker 1: I am more sane for doing so. Like I really,
Speaker 1: you know, I really feel, I really feel a greater
Speaker 1: sense of peace. Not always knowing what's going on. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I don't need to be on social media to know
Speaker 1: what the response is to what we're doing is it's
Speaker 1: it's I mean, it is a hard time. Like ideally
Speaker 1: I would not have ever chosen to have events on
Speaker 1: tour with no cut I just don't think that's I
Speaker 1: think cuts are essential to competition at the highest level
Speaker 1: and professional golf. But given where we are, I think
Speaker 1: this model that we just proposed is damn good and
Speaker 1: I think it's going to really, really, really help the
Speaker 1: entire PGA Tour from top to bottom. It's I ran
Speaker 1: for the board on the message that I'm going to
Speaker 1: fight for the middle and lower tiers of the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: and in a very strange and ironic way, I just
Speaker 1: did that, like I just did, and and that's I
Speaker 1: didn't think that going in. But it takes you know,
Speaker 1: we always I's cool. I got to meet U, one
Speaker 1: of the new I have a fellow rookie on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour Policy Board named Jimmy Dunn, and Jimmy Jimmy
Speaker 1: said to me, I actuald say something because I told him.
Speaker 1: I told him what my thoughts were going into this.
Speaker 1: I explained to him where and why, and you know,
Speaker 1: he was really you know, I think he saw merit
Speaker 1: in my concerns too. And then at the end of
Speaker 1: the meeting he said to me, he said, you know what,
Speaker 1: you can't be sure if something unless you doubted it first.
Speaker 1: And I don't really know if that's just one of
Speaker 1: those things you hang on the wall, or if there's
Speaker 1: actually some truth in that. But I really like, I
Speaker 1: really feel really confident that the decisions that came out
Speaker 1: of this meeting yesterday are going to make the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour stronger, way more marketable, and honestly, for every single
Speaker 1: member from top to bottom, we're going to have more
Speaker 1: high quality playing opportunities. And that's that's what I went
Speaker 1: in there to fight for, and in a way that
Speaker 1: I didn't expect, I think we came out with that result. Well.
Speaker 1: A sign of intelligence is that you're willing to change
Speaker 1: your mind when confronted with new information. So I salute
Speaker 1: your ability to change course because that's not easy to do.
Speaker 1: That takes a certain humility and an open mindedness that
Speaker 1: a lot of us don't have. So I mean that
Speaker 1: that's impressive. At Another sign of intelligence is deleting social media.
Speaker 1: So Peter Monody, possibly the smartest man in golf, we've
Speaker 1: established on this podcast. I will I will tell the
Speaker 1: listeners that I promise Peter we'd keep this short because
Speaker 1: it's almost nine o'clock on Orlando. He wants to put
Speaker 1: his son to bed. And oh, by the way, you've
Speaker 1: got the little golf tournant to play in bay Hill tomorrow,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna let you go. Peter. You've been quite
Speaker 1: a sport and a gent so thank you for doing this.
Speaker 1: I think your thoughts are valuable to the golf fans
Speaker 1: out there who are trying to make sense of this
Speaker 1: changing landscape. So thinking the time, definitely yeah, And I'll
Speaker 1: leave them with one message. It's it's this is hard,
Speaker 1: hard because this is big change and this isn't what.
Speaker 1: This isn't what I this isn't what I wanted to
Speaker 1: see come out of this. But now that I know
Speaker 1: the I know the details, and I know how how
Speaker 1: this change will affect the PGA Tour, it's gonna make um,
Speaker 1: it's going to make the The designated events obviously will
Speaker 1: have you know, close close to one hundred percent attendants
Speaker 1: from the top fifty players in the world. You know,
Speaker 1: we'll miss a few, but close to two hundred percent tents.
Speaker 1: So they're going to be they're going to be a spectacle,
Speaker 1: you know, eight times through out the season. We're going
Speaker 1: to have that in addition to the majors. What this
Speaker 1: is really really going to do is you know, last week,
Speaker 1: for fans that watched UM Chris Kirk and Eric Cole
Speaker 1: battle it out down the stretch, those two guys are
Speaker 1: both ballooned out in the stretch, and the winner is
Speaker 1: going to be exempted to the designated events for the
Speaker 1: rest of the season. And the guy that finished the
Speaker 1: second is certainly going to accrue enough points during that
Speaker 1: swing to be in the next as a designated event.
Speaker 1: And these events are going to be big enough and
Speaker 1: fun enough and and cool enough that there's actually going
Speaker 1: to be cool storylines from the events in between. So
Speaker 1: the tour, the tour got more compelling yesterday, and honestly,
Speaker 1: it really didn't even get I was worried that it
Speaker 1: was going to get less fair. It didn't. It got
Speaker 1: more compelling, more interesting. And yeah, it's gonna be harder
Speaker 1: for the Peter mile mondage at the tour to be
Speaker 1: in these designated events moving forward, But if I play
Speaker 1: well enough, I'll be there, and so will Eric Cole,
Speaker 1: and so will Joel Damon, and so will you know,
Speaker 1: the rookie who just got his card. If they play
Speaker 1: well enough, they can be in these designated events. And
Speaker 1: so that's that system is is shockingly to me. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be amazing and so let's go. Must be ready
Speaker 1: for it. I love it all right. Well again, thank
Speaker 1: of your time. That was pure ill naughty. This is
Speaker 1: alan Ship Knock. There's another Fire Drill podcast and uh
Speaker 1: we will keep bringing you the breaking news of the
Speaker 1: golf world, which is fast and furious these days. So
Speaker 1: thanks Peter for his time and thanks for listening. That's
Speaker 1: the end. I bet big and I played the win,
Speaker 1: made a fortune within my ship game. I ran the table,
Speaker 1: never thought I could fall. Then the winter time hit
Speaker 1: me like a cannon the ball and now I can't
Speaker 1: shake this losing the stream. Every road I take is
Speaker 1: a dead end stream. I got thoughts in my head,
Speaker 1: can't get him out, trying not to think what I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about. I got thoughts in my head, can't get
Speaker 1: them out, trying not to think what I'm thinking about.