• Home
  • /
  • Golf
  • /
  • Paul McGinley Has Interesting Suggestion To Help PGA Tour Battle LIV Golf

Paul McGinley Has Interesting Suggestion To Help PGA Tour Battle LIV Golf

Paul McGinley Has Interesting Suggestion To Help PGA Tour Battle LIV Golf
Gary Connaughton
By Gary Connaughton
Share this article

Despite one of the majors taking place this week, much of the conversation within golf is centring around the new tour that is attempting to upend the traditional structures within the sport.

LIV Golf has brought a huge influx of money into the pro ranks, attracting some big names to their tour as a result.

While most of the top players in the game remain committed to the PGA Tour at the moment, many fear that they could struggle to keep them in the long-term. It is likely that some changes will be needed to the current structures in order to ensure the continuing health of the tour.

Paul McGinley on how PGA Tour can compete with LIV Golf

Paul McGinley has one suggestion on how the traditional competitions can keep up with LIV Golf.

It would see the PGA and European tours extend their current partnership, giving the American based competition a more international flavour by bringing tournaments across the globe.

Recommended

Writing in his column for Sky Sports, the Irishman said this is a natural step for the PGA Tour to take.

The current situation in golf is divisive, as it has divided the players, it has divided the fans, it has diluted the product of golf and created a lot of confusion in the game for everybody involved. It's not a good reflection on the sport.

There's a strategic alliance that has already been in place for a number of years now between the DP World Tour in Europe and PGA Tour. We are the two dominant tours in the world before LIV Golf came on the scene.

The idea was that at one stage we would go further in that relationship and unite, maybe creating pathways between the two tours and for Europe to take a lead in giving an international flavour to the PGA Tour, with some high-profile events to complement the very American-centric existing platform the PGA Tour currently is.

I'm hopeful that vision is going to evolve and maybe even be accelerated, as happenings with the emergence of LIV Golf over the past month may well have forced the potential of that alliance to become something bigger.

The one carrot that could change things is the majors.

A number of LIV Golf players are in the field for the US Open this week, while they are also likely to take part in the remaining majors this season.

However, that could change in the years ahead. With no world ranking points available in the new tour, those players are set to plummet down the rankings and will no longer automatically be entitled to a place in the four biggest tournaments in golf.

Advertisement

McGinley is interested to see how that will affect things moving forward:

What is clear at the moment, with LIV Golf being 54-hole events and not offering any world ranking points, the guys who are top-50 in the world are slowly going to lose their ranking and fall outside the top 50.

The only guys who will probably be eligible by the time next year comes around at the Masters in April could well be past champions, under the current criteria, because the others may all have fallen out of the top-50. It will be interested to see what is going to happen, as there are so many things and scenarios that can play out.

Behind the scenes there is a lot of turmoil in the game, a lot of divisiveness, and we're in danger of having a very diluted product. Hopefully we're going to have a solution where all parties will be happy with some kind of solution, but that's going to take a lot of time, a lot of negotiation and a lot of will.

It will certainly be interesting to see how things play out over the next couple of years.

SEE ALSO: Rory McIlroy Has No Regrets After Taking Out Frustration On US Open Bunker

 

Join The Monday Club Have a tip or something brilliant you wanted to share on? We're looking for loyal Balls readers free-to-join members club where top tipsters can win prizes and Balls merchandise

Processing your request...

You are now subscribed!

Share this article

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Developed by Square1 and powered by PublisherPlus.com

Advertisement