LAURA NEAL: Good morning, everybody. We would love to welcome PGA TOUR Commissioner into the interview room to help us kick off the 2023 PLAYERS Championship. As we all know the drill, we'll give Jay the mic for some opening remarks and then open it up to questions. Jay?
JAY MONAHAN: Thank you, Laura. It's awesome to be with all of you here today as we kick off the 2023 PLAYERS Championship. I want to welcome all of you to Ponte Vedra and this our 49th playing.
It's hard to believe that we are just shy of the event's 50th anniversary. It is remarkable, absolutely remarkable to reflect on the tournament's history and continued growth over the last 10 years, including a world-class field that is consistently amongst the strongest in golf.
The 2023 PLAYERS marks the 10-year anniversary of Tiger Woods' second PLAYERS win. Since then, there's been a new champion each year, which speaks to the strength not only of the field but also of the venue and THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
As always, I would like to thank our proud partners, Morgan Stanley, Optum and Grant Thornton. With their support of our flagship event THE PLAYERS has generated over $100 million for charity across Northeast Florida through the years, a shining example of the positive impact PGA TOUR tournaments have each and every week.
For our fans, the 22 hours presented on NBC and Golf Channel will have limited commercial interruptions. At PGA TOUR Live on ESPN+, we'll produce more than 150 hours of live coverage throughout the week over four streams.
I'd also like to recognize Executive Director Jared Rice, director of golf course maintenance operations Jeff Plotts, alongside Gary Young, Stephen Cox and Jason Larson from the Rules Committee, for their perpetual dedication to making this one of golf's premier championships. The Stadium Course is in pristine condition and as always will be one of the stars of the show this week.
With the Rules Committee in mind, I would like to take a moment to remember the great John Paramor, longtime DP World Tour chief referee. He was a giant in the game and worked closely with our team at many PLAYERS Championships. Our thoughts are with his family and the broader golf family that called him their own.
We are coming into THE PLAYERS with a tremendous amount of momentum both on and off the course. Before I get into some of the specific examples, I just want to say how proud I am of everyone of our members and corporate partners who have been so loyal to this organization. I've just come out of a player meeting, and it's inspiring to see the continued level of commitment, communication, passion and investment they're all making in this organization and the level of competition they are exhibiting while doing so.
I'm going to say this: It's a great time to be a PGA TOUR fan and a PGA TOUR player. Competitively we have seen a supercharged first two months of the year. It's clear that the PGA TOUR stars have been inspired by the opportunity to compete head-to-head more regularly on some of golf's biggest stages. Jon Rahm enjoyed a historic stretch with three wins in four starts, including a Genesis Invitational victory where he hoisted the winner's trophy handed to him by none other than Tiger Woods. Scottie Scheffler defended his title at the WM Phoenix Open on Super Bowl Sunday in front of the largest crowds we'll see all year. Max Homa further solidified his position among the world's best with a win at the Farmers Insurance Open. And last week, Kurt Kitayama won his first ever PGA TOUR event against a stacked leaderboard at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.
Over the last month, we have seen the top position in the Official World Golf Ranking ranking change hands on consecutive weeks from Rory to Scottie to Jon, who now sits at the top.
During that same stretch, we've also witnessed the fabric of the TOUR shine through as the ultimate meritocracy. At the Honda Classic, we had 34-year old rookie Eric Cole, whose long and winding path to the PGA TOUR included 54 mini-tour victories. He forced a playoff with Chris Kirk, whose own journey overcoming adversity has been well-documented. It made for great storytelling and amazing theater, and it plays right into our 2024 competitive framework that I'll touch on in a bit.
A point of emphasis for our organization has been delivering the PGA TOUR to fans where they are and making our sport more welcoming through innovation and strategic partnerships. "Full Swing" debuted to Netflix's 230 million subscribers the week of the Genesis Invitational and has been consistently in the Netflix top 10 worldwide.
As a result of such strong performance out of the gate, Netflix announced earlier this morning that they are officially green-lighting season two of "Full Swing." Our streaming partner, ESPN+, brings its 25 million subscriber base to golf, and 60 percent of those subscribers are between the ages of 18 and 44. PGA TOUR Live bookends perfectly with our linear partnerships with NBC, Golf Channel and CBS. Together our collaboration has resulted in mic'd-up players, more golf shots, more technology, new camera angles, new cameras, and some familiar voices in new roles.
We've relaunched both the PGA TOUR app and website this year, and we've averaged 88 million video views each week across our social platforms. Those numbers were nearly doubled at the WM Phoenix Open and Genesis Invitational earlier this year.
In the last three months we've broken ground on both the DraftKings sports book at TPC Scottsdale and the TGL facility in South Florida at Palm Beach State College.
We recently announced a new mixed team event, the Grant Thornton Invitational, for our Challenge Season as our part of our strategic partnership with the LPGA.
Our strategic alliance with the DP World Tour continues to strengthen. We're looking forward it to again co-sanctioning the Genesis Scottish Open along with crossover opportunities at the Barracuda Championship and Barbasol Championship. Our two organizations are working closely on commercial opportunities, and perhaps most exciting this year, the top 10 finishers in the DP World Tour's Race to Dubai will earn PGA TOUR cards for 2024.
Speaking of 2024, I want to spend some time framing our 2024-and-beyond approach, which we unveiled to our membership last week after much thought and discussion and ultimately unanimous approval from our board. I know you'll have questions on the details, but at the heart of the changes announced is our effort to present the best possible PGA TOUR to our fans and provide maximum benefits for every PGA TOUR member across the board. We've looked at all possible competitive models, and it was evident and perhaps obvious that whatever we do differently, we must showcase our top performers competing against one another more often.
This is what fans want and this is what fans have been asking for. Here's a data point: Consider the last five years on the PGA TOUR. What percentage of the top 10, top 20, top 30 players in the world compete on average against one another at a major championship? The answer: More than 95 percent. What about those same top players competing together at the remaining PGA TOUR events? Answer: Less than 40 percent. Let me repeat that. Less than 40 percent.
We know that designated events can resonate both with core and casual fans, evidenced by the metrics of the WM Phoenix Open and the Genesis Invitational last month. But designated events can't stand on their own. You need strong, compelling full-field events to provide consistency and keep the PGA TOUR top of mind week-in and week-out with storylines and breakout stars.
Now, the analogy that I've been playing around with, one great chapter does not make a great book. A few great chapters cannot stand alone. It is the whole story, the ebbs and the flows, the transitions, the connectivity between each. That's what makes a book great, and that's what you need to do to deliver a bestseller.
That's what we're attempting to do with our new competitive model. I'm confident our fans, partners and players will get what they're looking for, the most competitive compelling consequential TOUR in the world.
Our 2024 schedule will look significantly different, with a consistent cadence of designated and full-field events. Within this framework, those players who qualify for these designated events will be able to better complement their schedules through full-field events, as they return to favorite venues, support their home markets, and solidify positions at the start of the season as well as in advance of the FedExCup Playoffs.
Every single member aspiring to qualify for the designated events has the opportunity to do so throughout the season. I referenced the Chris Kirk and Eric Cole storylines from the Honda Classic earlier. Those two players are perfect examples as to how compelling the PGA TOUR can be with this new connectivity between tournaments.
Will this model be perfect right out of the gate? Perhaps not. But as we've done throughout our history and using the FedExCup as a prime example, we will listen, we will learn and we will adapt each year with the changing needs of our players, partners and fans.
Growth and momentum have been threads throughout my comments today. Both of these themes are not possible without change, which can be uncomfortable, especially when we're all exceptionally proud of what the PGA TOUR has built and stood for over the past 55 years. But thanks to the cooperation, support and input of the player directors, members of the Player Advisory Council, and the membership at large, we're ready for the change to come and what it will mean for our fans and partners along the way.
With all that said, there's one thing I can assure you that will not change. Our commitment to giving our fans reasons to invest their time, their energy in the PGA TOUR and the dynamic consequential competition that will always be our calling card. Thank you, and I'm happy to take your questions.
LAURA NEAL: Okay. We'll take some questions. If you raise your hand we'll bring a mic your way.
Q. You mentioned that this week's event is going to be broadcast with limited commercial interruptions. I'm wondering what, if any, changes have you discussed with TOUR leadership about the commercial load during PGA TOUR broadcasts.
JAY MONAHAN: Coming into this season, we spent a significant amount of time with our broadcast partners, CBS, NBC, with Golf Channel in particular, looking at and assessing our broadcasts over the course of last season. One of the things that we have attempted to do together coming into this year was to show more live golf shots.
I'm pleased to say, as we transitioned from last year into this year, we're showing -- we have more than nine minutes more of live golf shots that you're seeing during our broadcast, and that's something that we are going to continue to lean into. We recognize that our fans want to see as many live golf shots as possible. I think when you look at the double box and keeping the play front and center on Saturday and Sunday, that has been a really nice enhancement. The way CBS and NBC have used their commercial breaks has been really strong heading into this year.
But, I mean, we're running a business. We're fortunate to have the great corporate support that we have, and we're doing the best we can to balance that with making certain that we're showing as many live golf shots as possible. Also, I just think that with the way fans are consuming the PGA TOUR today, watching live golf is front and center but also looking at our apps and live video and the way that we're taking our fans to that journey, we're going to continue to invest in that.
But I understand the basis of your question, and I think as we look into the rest of the season and into 2024, particularly with these designated events, that's a trend that we will continue to lean into with the partners that we have. The response that we get at THE PLAYERS Championship with limited commercial interruption, thanks to the great proud partners we have, as you can imagine, is very well-received.
Q. Two things. We think of now the designated events as being 20 million, 25 this week. What are the chances that those go up next year, part one. Secondly, I realize you talk about a cadence and a full book, et cetera. But it's still kind of two tours in a way or a two-tiered system of the elite events and the regular events. How can you, or how confident are you that you can convince sponsors to pony up for a field that will not have a majority of the top players? And if you're confident, why are you confident?
JAY MONAHAN: So on the first question, I think when you look at purses and prize money for this season, and as we transition into next year, when we announce the full schedule, that's the point in time we will announce purse levels going into 2024. At this point, I think the expectation should be that they remain at the levels that they're at in 2024.
Then I think it's important to, when you look at -- when I look at your question or listen to your question, I think it's really important to note that what has gotten us to this point was a lot of discussion with our players and with our partners. We're fortunate in that we made changes into this year where we see the impact of moving to designated events at larger field sizes. So when you look to the future, being able to balance our entire schedule between designated and full-field events is absolutely critical.
By keeping these field sizes at 70 to 80 players, that allows us to make the field sizes at all of our full-field events as strong if not stronger going forward. All of our modeling suggests that. Candidly, we have seen some challenges with player fields early in the season. We've had a 20 percent decline in exempt members that are participating in some events. That's something that we recognized was going to happen as we came in this year when we made the changes last summer.
We feel that ultimately by having field sizes the way that we are going to have them next year, that puts the entire body of work, the book that I was talking about, in the strongest possible position because those tournaments are going to have a number of players that are playing in these designated events that we'll be playing.
If you look at the overall cadence, the fact that there are stretches between designated events, the fact that we don't have isolated events, which is a big issue for us this year, the fact that we will not have designated events between late June and the end of the year so players are playing their way into the playoffs and competing for positioning, not only in the playoffs but for the following year, I think all of that together leads me to believe that the incredible corporate partners that we've had -- I look back over, I look at the pandemic and the challenges we've had and the changes we've made to our schedule and the way that they not only stood by but leaned into returning the PGA TOUR and returning golf, to really over the last year, year and a half, we as partner need to make certain we're doing everything we possibly can in the context of this change to make certain that the yield, the value continues to grow.
So when you look at the overall portfolio, the overall presentation of the PGA TOUR and what we stand for, I feel confident that we'll be in a really good place as it relates to 2024 because when you deliver what the fans want, ultimately that's what your corporate partners want. When you have top players competing together more often, as we've said we're going to do, those same storylines are going to come through and the connectivity over the course of the season I think is something that right now we don't fully understand, but when we get into it I think it's going to be extremely compelling and is going to help all of our events grow and succeed.
Q. I think everyone can appreciate why this restructuring benefits the PGA TOUR. You say the strategic alliance is only getting stronger. How can these changes specifically possibly benefit the DP World Tour?
JAY MONAHAN: Well I think when you look at, you know, both organizations -- Keith Pelley has been here, he and his team, the last three or four days. We're spending a lot of time looking at the DP World Tour schedule and opportunities that we have going forward. I'm not going to comment on those today, but when you look at what has happened over the last couple of years, when you look at this year, you know, the DP World Tour is playing for $141 million in prize funds, which we are underpinning. We have made a $100 million investment in European Tour Productions.
We as a team are rolling up our sleeves and working with Keith and his team every single day on that important part of the DP World Tour's business.
I think what we've done from a co-sanctioning standpoint at Genesis, the two crossover opportunities we have with Barbasol, Barracuda, if you look at their -- if you look at the portfolio of sponsors and you look at those that share a relationship with the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour, our sponsors are interested in partnering with the DP World Tour.
You've seen some of that. I think you'll continue to see more of it. Ultimately as we go forward, you'll hear about the benefit of more opportunities because we are -- again, I'm on that board; that's a commitment this organization has made to the DP World Tour and to its members, and it's very important to me that we continue to deliver on that. I think the early signs are that we're on a really good path.
Q. Has there has it been complicated to navigate the fact that the defending champion, Cam Smith, has gone to LIV Golf but also lives in the area?
JAY MONAHAN: Listen, Cam Smith had a great performance in 2022. He was a deserved champion. I think as I look to this week and I look at the field that we have here and the strength from top to bottom, I think when we leave here on Sunday night we're going to crown another deserving champion.
To answer your question directly, yes, it's awkward. But you know, ultimately that's a decision he made, and we've got an unbelievable field here this week and a history and tradition that one of these 144 is going to go seek to get.
Q. When the new designated events structure dropped last week, predictably there were a lot of people who said, limited fields, no cuts, looks very similar to what LIV Golf is doing. Understanding you explained why you did the limited fields to protect the other events, what was the decision process with not having a cut in eight of the TOUR's marquee events next year?
JAY MONAHAN: So to your question, I would ask you, do you think we really look the same? And, you know, the players that are competing in our events in this new format next year will have earned the right to compete in them and they will have earned it through top-50 position in the FedExCup this year as well as their performance in the fall and ultimately in these swings.
So that's what this organization has always stood for. When I think about, when I think about your question, you know the PGA TOUR has always had limited-field, no-cut 72-hole stroke play events. In fact, Jack Nicklaus won 17 times in that format. Arnold Palmer won 23. Tiger Woods won 26. To me, those wins, those, the format did not diminish those accomplishments as we sit here today.
I think as we look out to 2024, 2025, 2026, the same will hold true.
I think when you get to the question about what got you to that point, and you're right, there was and there still is a lot of discussion and debate on whether or not there should be no cuts. But for us to be able to have our stars assured to play for four days is a really important element to this model going forward. We think that's what fans want, particularly given the players have earned their right and their ability to play in those events. So that's first and foremost.
And I think that when you look at the competitive integrity of the competitions, with the strength of these fields, I think it further warrants that you have the players, not only from a media standpoint but from an on-site standpoint, and one of the real takeaways for me is if you think about a field size of 70 to 80 players, and if you think about a higher reward for a top-10 finish, which is what we're talking about in the FedExCup going forward and in these events, FedExCup points, any player that is near the bottom of the cut line in what is already a reduced field has the chance to come back and finish inside the top 10. In fact, I think you'll probably see over the next couple years a player in that spot come back with a chance to win. For us I think that that's very compelling for our fans, and I also think it's very compelling competitively for our players.
Q. Is there a timeframe on when you'll have this schedule completed?
JAY MONAHAN: I gave you guys a timeframe last year at the TOUR Championship. I'm not doing that again. I think the timeframe is, if you look at when we traditionally announce our schedule, which is would be mid to late summer, that's when we'll likely announce our schedule for 2024.
We also -- but I will say that we have not announced our fall schedule, and I would expect you all to have that in the coming weeks.
Q. Which leads to the other question, which is, are you at liberty to discuss at all what the fall will look like and what the players who will play in those events, are they playing for just prize money? Is there a point system for that?
JAY MONAHAN: Well, the fall, as we go forward, as we come into this fall and in future falls, I think it's really -- I think it's important to note that by the time you get to Memphis, the time you get to Wyndham, you're playing to be in the top 70. We get to Memphis, and you're playing in the BMW, which is top 50. Those top-50 players are guaranteed position in the designated events the following year.
Positions 51 to 70 and positions 51 through the rest of the membership are competing for two things: You'll have 10 spots that will be eligible for the first couple of designated events, so it's important that you perform and compete in the fall. You're going to continue to carry forward the benefits of being a winner on the PGA TOUR, including the impact of that on designated events. And, I mean, ultimately you're competing for the ultimate prize, which is continuing to be a member of this TOUR.
So the fall is going to have real consequence and real drama and a lot at stake. I couldn't be more excited about it. More importantly, as we've talked to our partners, who candidly had some concerns when we announced the changes last year about the future of the fall, they're feeling a lot stronger about what this schedule impact will be in a positive way for them going forward.
Q. I'm wondering if you all have sort of done the math because obviously FedExCup points and finishes are even more critical now to try and get in that top 50, of what kind of advantage players in these designated events will have in terms of maintaining that top-50 status or being higher in the FedExCup.
JAY MONAHAN: You're right, we've run a dizzying number of models. To answer your question, the models that we have -- the model right now would suggest that roughly a little north of 60 percent of the players in the top 50 will retain their position. So more than a third will not.
That was an important element to the changes that we're making. We wanted to make certain that there was real consequence and there's real promotion, there's real relegation. I think that accomplishes that.
I think it's also helpful to know that when you look at the top 125 and our current system, the turnover rate there is 25 percent. So the turnover rate within the top 50 is greater than what it's been in the top 125 in the past, which fully supports the fact that players have the opportunity, based on their performance, to play their way into these designated events. Players have the ability based on their performance to play their way out of these designated events, and because we're taking the season-long points list, the top 10 there, the top 5 between swings, you're matching up the hottest players at the time with the top performers from the prior year, that's what creates that variability and the retention rates.
But we're going to continue to look at that. It's something that we talked to our players about this morning, and I think there were a lot of rumors about what that would be. But to me, this is as pro competitive a result as you can find.
Q. We know some players this morning, they said that the recent announcement about the changes in policies were much needed. They said that LIV Golf was one of the reasons why the PGA sort of rethinking its policies. Why did it take until the arrival of an upstart and new rival like LIV Golf to arrive on the scene for the PGA to really rewrite its playbook, as you said, or rethink its product?
JAY MONAHAN: Well I think it's important to step back and look at what's happened over the last several years. You heard me say this a few times, that we're running a business. If you go back to the period of 2017, 2018, we as an organization recognized that it was important for us to end our FedExCup Playoffs prior to the start of college football and the NFL.
In order to do that, we had to reduce our FedExCup playoff events from four to three, which we did. Okay.
Then for our TOUR Championship, at the time we were competing for two trophies. We recognized that to put more focus on season-long performance we needed to have a singular champion and a single trophy at the TOUR Championship. So we worked with our membership, and we came forward with a single scoring format which is now in operation today, and we have produced four great champions since that point in time.
So we have that, plus we also administered a regular -- brought forward a regular season bonus pool for the first time that, again, rewards season-long performance. Then we get into the early stages of the pandemic. The PGA TOUR responds; we respond on June 11, come back at a point probably sooner than a lot of people were comfortable coming back with, but we were very confident in it, and during that period of time we continued to look at the ways that we could continue to evolve and improve the PGA TOUR.
I think that the commitment that we made at that time to Netflix, some of the real innovation that we've had around concepts like TGL, all that starts to manifest itself at that point in time.
We come to last year. We go to our board and say, how do we continue to make the PGA TOUR stronger and even more competitive. What we did at that point in time is we reduced our FedExCup playoff sizes from 125/70, down to 30, to 70/50/30, which we thought was a really important result for us.
At that time we announced increased purses in our events, the events that we're yielding this year. It's really important to note that back in that timeframe we were also in the midst of extending our domestic media rights deals, and those didn't take affect until the beginning of 2022. In running a business, you can only spend the money you generate. For us, that was a big moment for the PGA TOUR, and when you think about how the resources have been allocated, that comes from the great loyal membership that we have on the PGA TOUR, their incredible talents, their commitment to the model, to the meritocracy of the PGA TOUR and the game, to the corporate partners that we have that support all of our tournaments, to the communities where we make such a huge impact, to our fans who want to see more of our -- all these things really come as a result of the business having these changes that we could reinvest in our product.
So to me, the credit goes to all of our players out here and also goes to our fans. We've listened to our fans and we've responded and we're returning to our fans what they have told us that they wanted. So that's really how we got to the amount of change that we've had over the last five or six years.
Q. There's been a lot of talk recently amongst players about whether there would be any path back to the PGA TOUR for people who left for LIV. I'm wondering what the organization's current position, and is there any room to evolve should that scenario arise where a player comes back and says, I would like to explore the opportunity to come back and play on the PGA TOUR? What would that look like?
JAY MONAHAN: Yeah, for some reason I've been hearing that a lot lately, and I'm not certain where that's coming from. I mean, players that have, the players that are playing on that TOUR are contractually obligated to play on that TOUR. So any hypotheticals at this point really aren't relevant, and I think you know me well enough to know I'm not a big fan of hypotheticals. But our position, to answer your question directly, has not changed.
Q. I know you've been a little busy with the big picture, but this event, as you noted at the top of this press conference, not only is being played for the 50th time next year but it's a 50th anniversary. It's a little quirk because you guys didn't get through 2020. Do you anticipate that week, any preliminary thoughts about how that week is going to be special in any way?
JAY MONAHAN: How it's going to be what? Sorry?
Q. The week of next year's PLAYERS.
JAY MONAHAN: I expect to be in front of you guys at Tuesday at 11:00 o'clock next year talking about the 50th anniversary.
But to your point, look, I think it's going to be an awesome year, moment in time, to reflect on the rich history and tradition of this championship, of our champions, of the uniqueness of this golf course the democratic nature of it, the advancements that we've made through THE PLAYERS Championship for our TOUR and the game.
I think when we come back here next year, we're going to have an incredible field, and we'll be celebrating this year's champion, and we'll be telling the story of what makes this event so special and why we're so proud of it, and most importantly, hopefully our players will have the opportunity to do that.
Q. Rory's been on some run here not just as a player but as a spokesman, too. Three years ago I'm sure you remember he was really the first person to say it's going to get worse before it gets better, talking about the pandemic. I'm wondering, of course Arnold Palmer has his tournament, Jack's got one, Tiger has got one. Do you envision the day when Rory will have a tournament in a similar kind of capacity?
JAY MONAHAN: I envision a lot of things. I mean, that would be -- I mean I don't want to get ahead of that because I don't want to put Rory in that spot. But I think that the thing I will say is that his leadership, coupled with his extraordinary play, his leadership in the game and his extraordinary play, all the trend lines are when you look at Jack, when you look at Arnold, when you look at Tiger, that's an opportunity that would be in his future.
But we're a long way from that. I think he would be the first to tell you he wants to win this week and he wants to win more championships. But I also, you know, when you look back over the last 12 to 18 months, Rory sat in a board meeting for seven hours last Tuesday night and finished one shot off the lead last week. I mean, it's extraordinary. He was in the room this morning for an hour and a half, and he was here with you all today.
The thing that's been so impressive about what he's done and having seen where we were coming out of Delaware last year to where we are now, his leadership has manifested itself in a way where he has a very good grasp on and balance on the full picture and on the entire membership, and where we were last summer to where we are now is largely a reflection on the amount of time and energy he's put into understanding that.
He's not alone. I mean, he -- and I'm not going to start listing other players, but I think you've talked to a lot of them. You've talked with some of them today; you'll talk to them tomorrow; you've heard their voices along the way. He would be the first to tell you that what's happened here is that is exactly what they said would happen, which is they were going to come together and they were going to help identify the best path forward for the PGA TOUR. I believe that's what they have done.
I'm proud to partner with them, proud to partner with Rory and all the players, and our entire membership, make no mistake about it, it was as important to -- it's very important to me, but it was certainly important to Rory, certainly important to our player directors that every member of the PGA TOUR benefit from the changes that we're making. That's something that we feel we're going to accomplish going forward.
That was a long answer, sorry.
Q. A couple things real quick. Since most of the events on the PGA TOUR going forward will be non-elevated - you've said that a majority of those events are - if a sponsor or a tournament wanted to up its purse to a level that may be beyond an elevated event, would you be in support of that?
JAY MONAHAN: That's a conversation I would be happy to have with our sponsors. It's not a conversation we're having right now, but as we get into this, I think there are a lot of different ways these conversations will go, and that may be one of the considerations.
Q. And then secondly, there's been a lot of reporting about the World Golf Championships and the Match Play in less than a month and that it's going to be gone. Are the WGCs, have they run their course in your mind?
JAY MONAHAN: Well, you know, first as it relates to the Dell Match Play, the WGC-Dell Match Play, I do want to thank Austin Country Club and Dell. They have been tremendous partners to the PGA TOUR.
I think as we go forward, we're going to continue to -- to your question have they run their course, right now the only remaining WGC we have on our -- you know, that we're currently contracted to would be the WGC HSBC Champions. We've not played there in three years, and it's difficult to foresee when we would play. So part of the decision we're making as it relates to the WGC-Dell Match Play is a result of that.
I think that running their course, I would never say anything has run its course. But I think right now you see the direction the PGA TOUR's heading in. It is with these designated events; it's with the concentration of the best players on the PGA TOUR competing in them, and I don't really, I really don't expect that to change as we go forward.
Q. We hear a lot from leaders in the sport like yourself about growing the game and what's best for the game. I just wonder if there's any part of you that believes it is best for the game that there is this divide, you know, with the two tours here and obviously the guys having made their choice to go to LIV and I just have a follow after that.
JAY MONAHAN: I think, to me, "grow the game," I don't fully understand that expression. It's what's your impact on the game; what's your positive impact on the game. So for us, focusing on the things that we control, obviously being able to generate over $200 million for charity through our tournaments every single year, getting fully behind First Tee and teaching young people life skills through the game of golf, and then all the efforts that we have around Make Golf Your Thing, those are our priorities.
There's no question that there's been more attention to not only the men's professional game but to our sport over the last year, year and a half. As it relates to growing the game, the expression you're using, I'll leave that for you guys to answer. We're growing the PGA TOUR. We're growing the PGA TOUR in the ways that I've outlined, and that's the result of, again, the great members we have and the great support we have from our corporate partners and our media partners.
Q. I was going to go more -- I wasn't using the growing the game. We obviously hear that a lot, but --
JAY MONAHAN: Neither was I.
Q. -- more for the sport, what's best for the sport in general. But do you see there's anything down the line? Obviously not anything immediate, but do you see anything on down the line, and would you like to see a merging of these two ideas, concepts or however you want to put it for the betterment so you have your defending champion here for example this year and you have some of these other top players in the world who aren't who you guys have obviously banned from the TOUR?
JAY MONAHAN: What I want to see is us continue to grow with our membership, and to me getting into hypothetical situations given where we currently are is not a worthwhile effort. That's not a possibility.
So what I want to see is, we are who we are. We're the most pro competitive legacy-driven TOUR in men's professional golf. We're about to get stronger. We're about to create more opportunities for our players, and we're about to inspire future and younger generations to continue to play the game and be inspired to get here.
So that's how, that coupled with what I mentioned earlier, that's how we contribute to the game that we're a part of and that we're a party to. I think any other hypotheticals are just not worth talking about.
Q. Another TV question. Given the stacked field and the exciting finish at the API on Sunday, do you foresee the possibility wherefore the sake of the fans and viewership that that last hour of television, specifically in designated events, might be commercial free and restricting the sponsor messaging during that time?
JAY MONAHAN: It sounds like that's what you would like to see. Yeah, listen, we're -- I don't want to get ahead of myself, because we're having conversations with our tournament organizations and title sponsors, but we will not have delivered if we don't make changes that benefit not just our players but also our fans.
We have great partners: NBC, Golf Channel, CBS, ESPN+, Discovery International as well as our 48 international partners. We have partners that think the same way. So now we're at the point where, how do you make that happen. And we'll report back when we get further, when we get closer to the '24 season.
Q. The sport resolutions panel met a month ago, and we haven't heard a decision, and it looks as though it could be some time. I know this is hypothetical, and I'm sure you'll be able to answer that, but what would happen if they were to rule in favor of LIV? How would that affect the special relationship that exists between the PGA TOUR and the European Tour?
JAY MONAHAN: That is --
Q. I'm sorry, I know this is hypothetical, but what would the reaction be? What is your feeling about why there's a delay? Do you think it's ominous, or do you think it's encouraging?
JAY MONAHAN: I can't speak to, you know, what's happening with the resolution panel. Our commitment is to Keith Pelley and the DP World Tour and every member out there.
So as it relates to what, how this is all going to play out and what we should be feeling about it, I'm going to leave that for you guys to understand, and I'm not going to comment on it.
Q. Dovetailing off the World Golf Championships question, are the designated events just the new look World Golf Championships?
JAY MONAHAN: Well I think if you go back, this is the 25th anniversary of the World Golf Championships. If you go back and you look at them and look at how they have evolved, and you look at field composition, I think depending upon which of the four events that you choose, you had field sizes anywhere in the high 40s up into the low 70's, and anywhere between 20 percent and 35 percent of those players were not PGA TOUR members. So you look at who is actually in those fields from the PGA TOUR, and they're very different from what we're presenting here with designated events going forward.
Also I think as we're talking about today with these designated events, the criteria is very well understood. It will be consistent. That was not the case with the World Golf Championships in the past, and there are ways over the course of the year to play yourself in or to play yourself out of these events, which I think is an important characteristic that doesn't necessarily like in real time the hottest player exists the way it is in this model going forward.
So the World Golf Championships for 25 years have been a real, been a strong portfolio. We've had great events and great champions. But the business evolves and it adapts. That's not a knock on the World Golf Championships; that's more about where we are and how we think the TOUR can get stronger in the years ahead.
Q. And then as far as your conversations with those events that are not premier league events, so to speak, what are the concerns that they have, in that getting some of those top 20, top 30 players, they're obviously looking at the designated events. How are they going to best market their tournaments?
JAY MONAHAN: Well I think for, you know, as we are here in 2023, there were a couple of concerns that we heard from our tournaments. One, you don't want to be in isolated weeks sandwiched between designated events. There was a concern because we were thinking about it, that you may have a number significantly larger than 16 and the impact that that could have on field quality. So now that we've made the decisions that we've made, and we're having conversations with our tournament organizations and our sponsors, I think tournaments themselves realize that they're in a position to compete for fields, which is what tournaments have always done. I've run tournaments.
Now I think when you think about starting the season, and whether you're a player that's qualified to play in designated events or not, you're going to have to get off to a fast start. You're going to see players try and get themselves well positioned at the start of the year, adjust their schedules. I think the fact that certain players have historically played certain events, we maintain that flexibility, which has always been so important, there aren't rules from which to play and then when you get to the back end of the year where everything's at stake going from late June to the Wyndham Championship, you've got six or seven events there that are not going to have designated events, and our players are going to be really running hard to the end of the season to finish out the year and get themselves hopefully into the TOUR Championship top 50 or in the FedExCup Playoffs themselves, and if not, preparing for the fall and retaining their card.
Q. I think you've said this publicly yourself, but if not members of your staff have, that there's more than eight tournaments that would like to be these designated events. How do you decide who these eight events are, and why are you opposed to the idea of rotating them?
JAY MONAHAN: In terms of how you decide, it comes back to the cadence of the schedule. When you see the cadence of the schedule and where you're going to put these events relative to whether it's the PLAYERS, the major championships, you know, how this all flows, we've given a lot of thought to that. We feel like we have the right cadence, and in doing that, you kind of self-identify the tournaments that would be eligible or would be likely candidates to do so.
I never say never. So as it relates to rotation, I think we'll listen to our tournaments, we'll listen to our fans and as this develops that there's -- if there's a need to or we think we can get stronger by virtue of doing that, it's something we'll do. But right now as we look to 2024, that's not something we're planning on doing.
Q. Do you think that fans like no-cut events?
JAY MONAHAN: I think fans like seeing the best players competing together more often and being there on the weekend. And I think in a -- listen, 75 percent of our events don't have cuts. I would say to our fans that this is just a different form or flavor of a cut. Because as I was alluding to earlier, if you're coming into the Wyndham Championship and trying to get into the top 70 in the FedExCup, you are putting yourself in a position to get to BMW, and once we finish in Memphis, 20 of those players are going home and are not eligible for these designated events. To me that's a cut, okay.
Then we move our way through the TOUR Championship and ultimately we crown our FedExCup champ. You get to the fall, you're going to have seven or eight events. The top 10 performers from that fall period are going to qualify, so there's a cut because there's players that aren't going to qualify.
Then you get into the first three swing events, and the top-5 performers from those events are going to make their way into the designated events. So there are cuts along the way.
As I said earlier, what we're considering here is to have players, having 70- to 78-player field sizes, recognizing the depth of that field and depth of any field in the PGA, but those players can come back and put themselves in a top-10 position.
Given the way that we are, given the emphasis that we're placing as it relates to FedExCup points, the way prize money will be allocated, the importance of that concentration of players in the Official World Golf Ranking, there's going to be an awful lot to play for Thursday, Friday Saturday and Sunday.
I think the tradeoff and having a quarter of your events be that way, particularly given that that's something that we've done in the past with up to eight events in 2019 versus 11 this year. So I really feel that fans, as we get into this, and you actually see the results of it and some of these storylines develop, I think fans will appreciate what we've done here. But they will be the judge, and we've given a lot of thought to making certain we put ourselves in that position.
Q. Rory was in here earlier, and he was asked about the difference between the final product, what's going to be the schedule next year versus what was kind of recommended at the Delaware meeting, and he kind of pointed out some pretty dramatic differences. Seems to me there was more designated events and smaller fields. How delicate was that balance between what we ended up with and what they wanted to see?
JAY MONAHAN: It was delicate. I mean, it was delicate. When I go back to that point in time -- and I was referring to this earlier when I was talking about Rory, and it applies to all the players that were in that meeting.
I mean, coming out of it, you were looking at, if your retention rate is in the low 60 percentile, if it was close to 80 percent and the field sizes were a lot smaller, how does that look to the broader PGA TOUR membership? How does that look to fans? Is it the most pro-competitive model that we can put forward?
To everybody's credit in that room, once we saw, once we knew what the interest was, there was an openness to make certain that we could adapt it in a way that served the broader membership, served our partners and actually benefited everyone.
So it has been -- there have been a lot of conversations. There have been a lot of bad ideas that we came up with along the way. But candidly, I think the level of discussion has been really helpful and got us to the point that we're at today. But I would -- that's where we were last summer. That's the spot we were in.
Q. You covered this earlier with the Match Play, and obviously you've got a lot of priorities here, a lot of things you've been talking about. But is the idea of a Match Play format not in the immediate future, or could that just become a -- is there a chance that could just be a regular non-designated event somewhere at some point?
JAY MONAHAN: Yes. Yeah, I just think, I think for right now, for next season's schedule it didn't work. But Match Play has been a staple out here. It's been a staple on the DP World Tour. I think that there's -- that will certainly be a consideration as we go forward.
Q. These designated events are designed to obviously have the best players playing at the best events. But I think something that has left to LIV are the Brooks Koepkas, the Patrick Reeds, the Bryson DeChambeaus. These guys were kind of pivoting to wrestling the heels, and they sort of generated a lot of storylines outside of you're going to have some of the best players playing at THE PLAYERS Championship. Do you think having the top 30 players at these isolated events is going to generate more of these, not to say venom, but more of a rivalry storyline, because as we have seen in "Full Swing" and covering the sport, a lot of these guys are friends. I'm wondering if you've kind of thought about that.
JAY MONAHAN: We think about everything, and I think you've seen early on in this season with these designated events and the strength of field and the names at the top of these leaderboards that there is, they want nothing more than to beat each other. They want to do that every single week. There's tremendous respect amongst each other for the talents that are there, but that drive is as ever present as it has ever been on the PGA TOUR. I think that will continue, not just in designated events but every full-field event.
Winning out here is extremely difficult to do every single week. That's why you see the emotion and the energy and passion every single Sunday night when we crown a champion. I think that the rivalries on this TOUR are strong and will continue to be stronger, particularly as we shine more light on our stars and all of our players.
The reality is you can't look at this in a short timeframe because the stars of the future are the stars you don't even know exist yet. This platform is going to produce them and identify them and bring them forward to compete in full-field events and to compete across the entire FedExCup schedule on the PGA TOUR.
Q. You mentioned in your opening statement maybe this isn't perfect and you'll go back and re-examine that. I wonder if you can kind of expand on that and how realistically malleable some of these things are, and then what's that balance of change versus creating some continuity so fans know what's happening every year over year, especially a casual fan.
JAY MONAHAN: Yeah, you know, I don't want to overstate. We'll listen, we'll learn and adapt, but we're firm on what we're doing in 2024.
So you listen to your fans, we do that through our fan council; we'll continue to listen to our players, that manifests itself through our Player Advisory Council, more conversations we're having with our players in the coming weeks at tournaments, more discussions that we're going to have with our sponsors, our title sponsors, marketing partners and ultimately media partners. But we'll learn, just like we've learned this year. We'll learn along the way, and we'll apply that learning where we think it's going to be to the betterment of this organization and all of our members.
But I just think that's a huge part of probably what a lot of people don't see, but what I'm really proud of with our team, which is there are no sacred cows, we're just trying to get to the best possible outcome, and that is to continue to grow this TOUR and its preeminence.
Q. If you go back to 2007 to the FedExCup, the points to the winner have always been equitable across the board regardless of the prize money, a little bump for WGC's, 600, I think, for the majors. Does this new system require you to provide greater points to the designated events in order to achieve whatever you're after for the turnover rate? I'm not sure if you guys have announced what that's going to be. If you wanted to do it now, that would be great. It's up to you.
JAY MONAHAN: We haven't. But I think that, again, going back to the question on learnings, one of the things that we learned coming out of the TOUR Championship was that players want to compete against each other more often. But players don't necessarily want to be told where they need to compete. So as we looked at our 2024 schedule, we said, okay, given the investments that we're going to seek to make in purses, given the investments that we're going to make in the FedExCup, the regular season bonus program, that we need to make certain that the points recognize that when you've got the top 70 to 78 players, either from the composition of the prior year and the current year, that you want to do everything you can to incentivize those players in that model to play those events.
So we're trying to strike the balance, that balance in the way that we're thinking about FedExCup points in the designated events. We feel like we've done that statistically through our model.
Q. It's been awhile since we heard from you. I think it was the TOUR Championship since we last got to ask you questions. Curious how you weigh your decision versus like the players driving the message on some of these changes versus yourself kind of coming out front. Obviously they're the ones driving a lot of the discussion, they're having meetings in Delaware. How do you sort of decide whether you should step up and say stuff versus do stuff behind the scenes to move things forward?
JAY MONAHAN: That's a phenomenal question. You know, to me, the key -- you hear me use this expression: We adapt and we evolve. So I go back to -- I've always prided myself on being open to any, to our membership and all the conversations we need that lead to us improve.
When you get to last summer, I was grateful that Tiger and Rory and that group of players got together because I was a part of the process. I understood what they were seeking to accomplish; the lines of communication were very open and transparent. In my role it's my job to synthesize that and ultimately come back to our board of five player directors and five independent directors and alongside my team make a recommendation that's in the best interests of the TOUR.
So having conversations with those players, having conversations with our Player Advisory Council, with our board, with the membership week-in and week-out, which is what our player relations team does, that's how we communicate. Admittedly it was a challenging environment, but I was all in and leaning all in to that process and making certain that one, we had the ability to impact it in the way that we did, which is to the betterment of all the members of the PGA TOUR. But, so, yeah, that's -- that gives me energy being a part of that. Like I love every second of it and I'm thankful for it.
The alternative is no communication and you don't understand where your top players are and you don't understand where your membership is. And we do.
Q. I had the same question as him, so just to continue that line of thinking, how different is that for Tiger and Rory and these top players to really be getting on the same page and getting in a room and thinking more as a team? How different is that than the few years before that?
JAY MONAHAN: Well, it's different. But those players have always had a strong voice and strong opinions. I think that they have always felt that that voice and that opinion could be heard.
But I think if you look at that two, three, four years ago, it was probably as individuals, not as a larger collective. That's what was different.
To me, if you go back to the origins of this organization in 1968, and when Jack, Gary and Arnold broke away from the PGA of America, in many respects when I look back at this point in time, that's what I look at, which is they came together for the betterment of men's professional golf, touring professional golf, and this point in time those players, and it's broader than the group that was in Delaware, they came together to help participate in shaping the PGA TOUR in a positive way for everybody else. So it was definitely different.
LAURA NEAL: Jay, thank you so much for your time. Thank you, guys.
JAY MONAHAN: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports