Lucas Glover criticized the PGA Tour a few days ago after the leaders of this Tour announced changes, which were not so well received. Namely, the leaders of the PGA Tour want to reduce the number of participants in the tournament, stressing they want to solve the problems with the pace of the game. Although there are many changes in circulation, Glover is especially angry about the decrease in the number of participants. The 45-year-old American doesn't understand where such changes come from, advocating golf as we have seen it for years.
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According to him, these changes are the result of "meetings between 'cool' golfers", such as Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Tiger Woods, and other famous players, who allegedly asked for special privileges.
Glover also pointed out that reducing the number of participants under the pretext of improving the pace of the game is not justified and that he believes that the PGA Tour, by disrespecting players, shows a lack of respect for their intelligence. He stresses that instead, the organizers should directly say that they are trying to satisfy the interest of only a few selected golfers, in order to keep them within the system, instead of worrying about the improvement of the quality of the game and its pace.
It seems that a similar opinion is shared by a large number of golf fans, frustrated by what the leaders want to present. Golf fans, although they want to watch top players, think that it is crucial to leave the essence of golf and let golf be as it was years ago. The well-known name of the golf scene, Matt Fitzpatrick, also reacted, stressing that the problem of the pace of play is being talked about year after year.
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"Hes so right," wrote Fitzpatrick.
"Pathetic that pace of play is spoken about every year and nothing ever gets done."
Gary Young explains the changes
Gary Young, the PGA Tour's senior vice-president of rules and competition, analyzed everything so far, and responding to criticism, wanted to explain to everyone what they actually want to achieve with the changes. Young believes that the changes will speed up the game, and everything should last about four and a half hours. He believes that it is easy to do the math in this story and understand what the goal of such changes is.
"Its something that weve been saying for years that 156-man fields are too many players. Its basically 78 players in a wave, 13 groups per side and our pace of play is set somewhere around four-and-a-half hours.
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You do the math and if they play in time par, which is basically two hours and 15 minutes, they make the turn and all of a sudden the group ahead of them is just walking off the tee because theres two hours and 12 minutes of tee times.
It becomes a parking lot. Theres nowhere to go. We asked ourselves: if we were starting the Tour from scratch, what would be our maximum field size?"- he said.
Michael Kim reacts to the changes: I don't love the changes
Many famous names from the world of golf reacted to the changes that should see the light of day. Michael Kim is one of the first to react, admitting that he doesn't like the changes that will come, but he also points out that the number of PGA Tour cards that will decrease causes him fear. His wishes are to raise the level of the game, progress, and try to remain part of this story. Many of his colleagues also have the same fear, aware that this will make it difficult for them to stay on this prestigious Tour.
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To be honest, I dont love the changes but thats probably because I feel threatened by the number of cards going down from 125 to 100. Its my job to improve and continue to get better and make sure Im not in the situation I am this year.-he said.
Kim admits that these changes were necessary. The slow play problem has been going on for a long time, so it was important to find a solution for such a thing.
The future will give the best answer as to what can we expect when it comes to such changes. PGA Tour leaders expect these changes to lead the world of golf into a positive future, and make work easier for many. In addition, these changes could increase the excitement and surprise factor on the golf scene. In any case, an interesting future awaits us, and what the results will be remains to be seen.
