Five Takeaways from the Billy Horschel Discussion

1. On fewer Tour cards and smaller fields:

“There’s so many entities involved," Horschel says. "So many people involved that you have to try and look after and take care of, and I think we can all agree you’re not going to please everyone. There’s not a perfect system out there.”

Horschel says that while he doesn’t get as involved in policy discussions as he once did, the system can be adjusted, and if taking away cards and reducing fields in the coming season is unsuccessful in creating a more compelling product, more changes will follow. If the Tour gets smaller, Horschel says, he believes there’s more opportunity for players to play their way into Signature Events because they are competing against fewer players. Will regular season events change or improve? Horschel says, no. But, he believes, players who didn’t perform well in the Signature Events will have to play more regular season events. 

2. New members not getting enough starts

“They’ve looked at this and said how can we take care of the bottom half? The Korn Ferry guys were going to play less this year than they did in a long, long time. My prediction at the beginning of the year held very true. The Korn Ferry category – they take an average of everyone who plays – the average used to be 23 or 24 (events played). I’m going to say the average was probably 20 or 21 (this season). They lost two events I would say, on average.” 

French points out that it was the changes to boost the bottom line for top players that led to this reduction. Horschel agrees but said changes had to be made for a sustainable Tour, and the Tour is doing their job to make players more money year-over-year. The changes have had what Horschel calls a “ripple effect,” allowing everyone to play for more money, but also affecting players down the priority list negatively. Horschel contends that by taking cards away, the opportunities for the bottom half of the membership actually improve. 

“We need to pump up the Korn Ferry Tour as well.” Horschel points to the need to increase purses for KFT with a smaller PGA Tour so players can “reinvest in themselves,” and their golf games. 

3. On fewer roads to the PGA Tour

“I want to make one thing very clear: these changes that are being made have all been talked about amongst the PAC this current year…the PAC agreed, and based on some of the directives and information from the PGA Tour, they all agreed that this is what was going to be created. If it wasn’t agreed upon by the PAC, they wouldn’t have done that.”

Horschel makes the point that there have always been changes to PGA Tour pathways since he became a member. Q-school used to award PGA Tour cards to the top-25 finishers, and taking that away, Horschel says, was a mistake. But the road to the PGA Tour since Horschel left college has grown increasingly smaller and competitive. French contends while PGA Tour U was necessary, it’s no longer realistic for new pros starting at the bottom to think they can make it on Tour. Horschel disagrees. “If you play well, end of the day, and you play great golf when it needs to be done, you will wind up on the PGA Tour,” Horschel says.

4. On a more competitive Tour being a more fair tour.

French asks, “what does a more competitive Tour mean to me as a fan?” 

“Any sport that you reduce the amount of teams and players, you get better players,” says Horschel. “The product itself is better. Hopefully by doing that, you’re seeing more exciting golf.”

French contends this is not discernible to most fans and does not improve the tournament experience. Horschel believes you need David vs Goliath storylines, but improving the level of play improves the Tour overall. He points to players not having to warm up or finish in the dark because of a more condensed grouping of tee times, which would make the playing conditions more consistent and fair. Players will also have more ability to recover and seek therapy after rounds. French pushed back on this idea. “To hear the physio trailer is why your job is being eliminated is a tough sell,” said French. 

5.  What is a positive change on the PGA Tour that isn’t getting broadcast enough?

“I can say our recovery center that we put in place this year,” Horschel says. “The cold tanks, the saunas - having that amenity for recoveries for the players. It’s very miniscule when you look at it on the page and it may not make a difference to the golf fan, but it makes a difference to the players. I’m going to say things that may not make a difference to the golf fan and improving their fan experience, but the food; the quality of food and the options of food has improved.”

While he agrees these changes are nice for players, French suggests this doesn’t matter to the fan and doesn’t have anything to do with the fan experience. Horschel says that going forward, the fans and sponsors need to be put first by the Tour, but it takes time to improve the fan experience. Horschel says it costs a lot of money to improve the TV experience. 

“The struggle is (the PGA Tour) has increased purses by hundreds of millions total,” says French. “You’ve got the PIP program. You’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars. You’ve changed the PGA Tour; how it looks in two years, and then when I ask the question, you say changes take time. They didn’t take time to get all the players hundreds of millions of dollars, but for the fan it takes time. That’s the frustration.”

Horschel agrees. “Going forward we need to – it’s tough to say this – but that the players aren’t first. That the sponsors and fans are first and that the changes are for the sponsors and fans. If we do that, hopefully that leads to increases in viewership and increases in TV dollars.”

Horschel says he understands the changes aren’t happening as quickly as everyone hopes but they take time, and the Tour needs to make sure they get it right. 

Listen to the entire episode here

Apple: https://apple.co/4hjMcwd 

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4hppin2

‍