Just What is Going on With Men's Professional Golf

Well, it has finally happened. The lunatics have taken over the asylum. In the space of just a couple of days the PGA Tour’s player board has ratified the changes that will see field sizes reduced from 2026, Sergio Garcia thinks he is going to be representing Europe at the Ryder Cup next year and Donald Trump says he can solve all of golf’s problems.

Where to start?

The changes are as good a place as any. The biggest change is the smaller field sizes. 

PGA Tour Changes Confirmed

The reason given is that all too often fields of 144 are unable to finish play within daylight hours and often have to come back the following day to complete their rounds. 

Now here is the thing - this was not an issue when the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player were in their prime because they used to get on with it. The prospect of those guys taking the thick end of five hours to complete 18 holes was an anathema.

But that is now commonplace. Slow play is bringing the game to its knees. The most frustrating thing for those of us who love watching and playing this sport is that the PGA Tour has it within its power to solve this problem at a stroke - or, more accurately, at a penalty stroke.

Many players are extremely unhappy about the changes.

This is what Lucas Glover has had to say on the subject: "You get a better pace of play policy or enforce the one you have better. If I’m in a slow twosome and an official came up and said, ‘You guys are behind, this is not a warning, you are all are on the clock and if you get a bad time, that’s a shot penalty,’ guess who’s running to their ball? That’s what we need to be doing."

Glover is a former US Open champion and a top-50 golfer so when he speaks it is worth listening to what he says.

He insists that when he started out on the PGA Tour 20 years ago there were a handful of slow players. "Now we have 50," he said. "So don’t cut fields because it’s a pace of play issue. Tell us to play faster, or just say you’re trying to appease six guys and make them happy so they don’t go somewhere else and play golf."

Glover is not the only one who feels this way. Padraig Harrington has said exactly the same thing - and has also been a vocal critic of plans to scrap Monday qualifiers. And Justin Lower, who has just enjoyed two life-changing performances at the WWT and Bermuda Butterfield Championship says he hates the changes.

But they have been rubber-stamped - and that surely means that we can wave goodbye to any hopes we might have had that slow play would be eradicated.

Donald Trump's Plan to Fix Golf

However, we should not worry because Donald Trump, clearly with nothing more important to be worrying about, is riding to the rescue.

The President-elect has played golf with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and has met Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which funds LIV Golf. And his conclusion? "I can fix this in 15 minutes."

I imagine that his conversation with Al-Rumayyan was played out with the Village People’s YMCA blasting out in the background and went something like this: "Yasir, you Saudi guys have the most fantastic oil in the world. We also have the most fantastic oil in the world in Texas. Your country’s human rights record is fabulous, just fabulous. And I love what you are doing with golf. It’s fantastic. In fact it is so fantastic that I am going to appoint you to the diplomatic corps. You are my man. You will be a fantastic diplomat. I am also going to put you in charge of our gas and coal production because you will be fabulous at that. And your first job is to give Jay $100 billion to do whatever he wants with. Did I say I could fix golf in 15 minutes? I think we just came up with the most incredible deal in two minutes. A fabulous deal."

It would be funny if it wasn’t so damn serious. Trump is no fan of the PGA Tour. Why? Back in 2016, when he was first running to be president, the tour announced that it was taking the World Golf Championship event away from Trump's Doral Resort to instead stage it in Mexico. Remember, too, that the R&A removed his Turnberry course from the Open Championship rota. 

LIV has completed its third season, during which it has played six events on Trump properties, including three at Doral. It is significant that Trump has frequently played in the LIV pro-ams at his courses. And remember that he once told PGA Tour players: "If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were."

Sergio Garcia Wants Back in The Ryder Cup

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

And then there is the news that Garcia has paid his DP World Tour fines and has taken up his membership once again. He will have to serve a suspension before he can start playing again but it is clear that he wants to be a member of Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup team.

This is the same Garcia who had some very unkind things to say about the tour before he walked away and joined LIV Golf. I can promise you that he alienated many European golfers in the process - and will expect them to welcome him back with open arms.

He is not the only LIV golfer who has signed up for the DP World Tour for 2025 - the others are Tyrrell Hatton, Jon Rahm, Adrian Meronk, Dean Burmester, Joaquin Niemann, Thomas Pieters, Patrick Reed and Lucas Herbert. 

But he is most certainly the most divisive. As recently as July he moaned to the R&A after missing out at final qualifying for The Open Championship, effectively complaining that poor crowd control had cost him his place in the field that competed at Royal Troon. Quite frankly, the Spaniard should be happy that anybody still has any interest in watching him play. Controversy has followed him throughout his career - and almost all of it has been of his own making.

Garcia, who is 44, is Europe’s record Ryder Cup points scorer and is hoping to make an 11th appearance in the event. To have any chance of doing so he had to be a member of the DP World Tour and a spokesman said: "He has paid his fines [believed to be in the region of £1m] but will have to serve his suspensions before he can play on the DP World Tour." 

The 2025 Ryder Cup takes place at Bethpage in New York from September 26-28 and there will be huge interest as Europe bid to win on American soil for the first time since Medinah in 2012. 

Donald has confirmed that he has spoken to the Spaniard about returning to the tour and becoming eligible to play on the team.

He quit the tour in May 2023 after an arbitration panel found in favour of the DP World Tour and confirmed its right to fine and ban players who competed in LIV Golf events without permission.

I believe that Trump has also announced that he wants to join the PGA Tour in order to be considered for the US Ryder Cup team and wants to tackle Garcia in the final-day singles! Trust me, nothing would surprise me any more!