Major champ sounds off on PGA Tour changes: ‘Players running asylum’

Change is coming to the PGA Tour. In the latest move to raise the Tour’s profile and counter LIV Golf’s influence, new Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and the Future Competitions Committee are looking to shrink the number of tournaments on the schedule, the length of the season and the number of PGA Tour cards doled out each year.

The expected moves have been publicly supported by the likes of Tiger Woods (though not so much Rory McIlroy).

But two well-known figures in the game have now provided an alternative view.

In a new report by Golfweek’s Adam Schupak, two-time major champion Curtis Strange and seven-time PGA Tour winner-turned TV analyst Peter Jacobsen sharply criticized the new PGA Tour changes.

Here’s what you need to know.

Curtis Strange criticizes new PGA Tour direction, cut changes

Strange is a household name to golf fans. The World Golf Hall of Famer captured 17 Tour wins in his career and won back-to-back U.S. Opens in 1988 and 1989. He also served as U.S. Ryder Cup captain in 2002.

After that, Strange embarked on a lengthy career as a color commentator and TV analyst, first for ESPN and ABC and later for Fox.

But in his comments to Schupak, Strange made it clear he does not support the major PGA Tour changes that have been made recently, or the direction the Tour seems to be heading.

Strange’s primary points of contention are the loss of cuts at many Signature Events, the negative impact on long-running regular Tour events and the six-month season the Tour is reportedly eyeing.

“You can have an elevated event,” Strange told Schupak, “But a cut, it’s part of the fabric of the Tour. It’s making longstanding events into a feeder tour to the other Signature Events,” Strange argued.

In a thinly-veiled hit at Rolapp, the Tour’s CEO who used to work for the NFL, Strange added, “Golf is a different animal than football. It’s not a six-month audience.”

Strange then identified the “problem” that led to so many changes on the PGA Tour is having the “players running the asylum.”

“The problem is you have the players running the asylum. Why do you think (former PGA Tour board member) Jimmy Dunne left?” Strange asked. “He said, ‘shoot, why am I wasting my time anymore?’”

Since LIV Golf arrived in 2022, one of the other big Tour changes that occurred was giving players more influence in the Tour’s decision-making via the Future Competitions Committee, which is led by Woods.

Peter Jacobsen: Pros who support Tour changes should ‘go join LIV’

Like Strange, Jacobsen was an accomplished PGA Tour player before becoming a golf TV analyst.

Unlike Strange, Jacobsen did not hold back at all in his criticism of recent Tour changes in his own comments in Schupak’s story.

Jacobsen described the plan to “remake the PGA Tour” as a “huge gamble,” and questioned why major changes are necessary.

“It’s a huge gamble trying to remake the PGA Tour. I’ve read a lot of the players saying, ‘Well, we all know the PGA Tour has to change,’ and I ask the question, Why? It was working really well before.”

He also hit directly at the big-name players pushing for changes, saying that if they wanted to play fewer events with more stars in the field they should “go join LIV.”

“If the players wanted to have tournaments where the good players play more often together, they have that at LIV. Go join LIV.”

But Jacobsen saved most of his ire for the Tour’s plan to add scarcity to the Tour schedule. That would involve getting rid of some long-running Tour events in favor of a shorter season.

“I get scared when I hear people saying cutting events. When you look at the individual communities, those events are so important to that community and the charity money raised is important to those golf fans,” Jacobsen argued. “I always thought the PGA Tour should expand their reach rather than contract their reach. Count me as someone who thinks we should be growing the Tour and having more events rather than contracting.”

Rolapp has a pre-Players Championship press conference planned for Wednesday morning at PGA Tour headquarters, where he is expected to make an announcement regarding the future of the Tour.

You can read both Jacobsen and Strange’s full comments in Schupak’s Golfweek story here.