Non-Signature Events Struggle

What’s wrong with the PGA Tour was on full display over the weekend at the first full field event of the 2025 season.

When the tour created the 8 signature events it quietly created the season schedules for the game’s top players.  Here’s an example, should Rory McIlroy decide to play in all 8 of those events (which he doesn’t), you add on the four majors, the playoffs and any DP World Tour events he wants so play in, that’s a full season.  There is no incentive for the best players in the world to play in any of the other tournaments on the tour.  The good news, that offers opportunities to a lot of players that would not have otherwise had an opening to play, and that was the Sony Open over the weekend in Hawaii.

Here's why this move is unfortunate for the PGA Tour.  This full field event had 144 players.  Only 59 of them were the top players and winners from last season.  The finish over the last few holes was incredibly captivating.  Just bear with me…

We had JJ Spaun battling Stephen Jager for the title…a couple of groups in front of them, Nick Taylor and Nico Echavarria made it interesting with their play on the seventy second hole.  Echaverria made a conventional birdie, while Taylor chipped in for eagle from off the green.  Both players finished at sixteen under and had a chance.

The chance became reality when Jager bogeyed the sixteenth hole and Spaun bogeyed seventeen.  They both came to the eighteenth hole needing a birdie to make it a four-way playoff.  Both Spaun and Jager made a mess of the last hole, making pars and not making into the playoff.

So off went Taylor and Echaverria to the playoff.  It only took one hole, Taylor making a birdie and picking up his fifth win on the tour and the $1.6 million-dollar first prize.

It was compelling golf.  I love golf and I found it hard to sit there and get excited about JJ Spaun, Stephen Jager, Nico Echaverria and Nick Taylor, especially with NFL playoff games just a click away.

The tour turns these stories into warm and fuzzy heartfelt stories about young players getting wins on tour and changing their lives in the process.  All of that is true, and for the die-hard golf fan, it’s a worthwhile story, for a while.  The tour has to figure out how to address the tournaments that aren’t signature events.  It’s my feeling that they’re banking on, I guess an eventual agreement with LIV golf and all of the players will be back where they belong.  But, until that happens, and the longer it takes to happen, the tour is going to have some real issues with fans, and importantly, sponsors.  We’ll see how it all plays out.  Until then, on to Palm Springs and the American Express.  I’m looking forward to cheering on Nate Lashley…