Golf icon Jack Nicklaus has voiced his concerns over the PGA TOUR schedule, saying he is “not exactly in favour of what they’re doing right now”.
The 18-time major winner spoke in front of reporters ahead of the The Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, an event he hosts, expressing his thoughts over the PGA TOUR’s scheduling of big tournaments and believes the events are clustered too close together on the calendar.
“I don’t want to comment on the tour’s schedule because I’m not exactly in favor of what they’re doing right now,” the 86-year-old said at Muirfield Village Golf Club. “I hate to see tournaments bunched too much together with too many big tournaments too close together. That’s a problem, I think. And I think that’s going to be a problem for the tour in the future.
“I probably shouldn’t have brought it up here. I’ll get chastised for that later. Anyway, I think it’s harder for your tournaments to stand out. I mean, if you looked at the schedule, we’re involved in the Cognizant down in Florida, and, you know, we have Pebble Beach and Los Angeles, Tiger’s event, and then Cognizant, and then we had Bay Hill and The Players. I mean, what chance does that tournament have? I mean, it sits right in the middle of those. They don’t have a chance.”
“The other tournaments also say, you know, I got four out of five. It’s hard for guys to play that. See, the problem is not so much from the standpoint of players, it’s hard for the players to really be focused to play that much and be on top of their game.
“I look at it from the way I was as a player. I could play a couple weeks in a row, maybe three weeks in a row, but I needed some time off to be able to recharge the batteries. And I think everybody needs to recharge their batteries.
“So to jam it all in one period of time, and then leave the rest of the year open, I think it’s tough. I don’t think it’s a problem yet, but I think it will be if we don’t address it.”
Earlier this year, PGA TOUR CEO Brian Rolapp mapped out a number of potential changes to overhaul the circuit from 2027 onwards and is leading the restructuring process. Plans are to “at least double that number [of signature events]. Add the four majors, the Players Championship, our postseason, and the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup, and you get to the 21 to 26 event range.”
Then to “have a second track of PGA TOUR tournaments, which will ladder up to those elevated events.”
Nicklaus stated he would like to have a “sit down” conversation with Rolapp and departing commissioner Jay Monahan regarding the PGA TOUR schedule.