There was a time, not too long ago, when this was a sleepy part of the golf year.
When the PGA Tour's fall slate petered out. When the European tour and LPGA wrapped up their seasons. When Tiger Woods played his own holiday exhibition and then hibernated until late January.
But 2023 produced a nonstop content calendar, even deep into the year, chock full of (mostly bad) news that only created more controversy, more anger, more division, more anxiousness.
Which is why it's hard to say definitively where we sit now, at the end of a long year and with the future still murky.
There seems to be more interest than ever in the business of the Tour, but less about the actual weekly product on-screen.
Is it because fans have been turned off by the incessant talk of money?
Is it because the Tour has become a stale and diluted product with too many members and too many tournaments?
Is it because elite men's golf has been significantly weakened by the emergence of LIV, splintering a niche sport that isn't popular enough to sustain two competing tours?
Yes, yes and yes.
The Tour is hoping, of course, that the events of June 6 – and the clandestine deal between the Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund – will create a better and more profitable future. And that certainly seems plausible, with the Strategic Sports Group committing billions and, potentially, the PIF joining in, too. No doubt, there's the potential here to create a worldwide tour featuring all of the best players at all of the best stops. There's the potential to reinvent a weekly product that is more competitive, more cutthroat, more compelling. There's the potential to incorporate some of the attractive elements of team golf without some of LIV's cheesy gimmicks.
The PGA Tour in 2024 could be its best version yet.
That's the hope, at least.
But there's still two years of hostilities to repair and relationships to mend. The Tour-PIF arrangement that rocked the sport wasn't so much an error in execution as it was in messaging, and the fallout will linger long after the ink dries on the new deal. The events of the past year were a stark reminder that even though the stars might power the Tour, they didn't actually hold any real power when it came to decision-making or future-shaping. And so there's continued mistrust among the top players and management. There's simmering frustration among the marginalized rank-and-file. There's a frustrated fan base that has largely been neglected by the tone-deaf talk of more money without addressing the flawed model.
With the reworking of the Tour currently underway, there's enough reasons for optimism. The Tour might soon be great again. But to get there, a few more months of division and rancor are all but guaranteed.