If there’s anyone who knows a thing or two about the inner-workings of the PGA Tour, it’s Gary McCord. The 77-year-old played in more than 400 tournaments before spending three decades as a golf commentator for CBS Sports. During his years as a player, McCord became the mastermind behind the “all-exempt” tour model, which he pitched in the early 1980s. McCord’s idea was ultimately adopted by the Tour, which expanded the exempt list of players from 60 to 125 in 1983.
Given the ever-changing PGA Tour landscape in recent years, such as the increase in limited-field Signature Events, a reduction of PGA Tour cards and an ever-present competitor in LIV Golf, McCord has been ruminating on another idea for the Tour’s future evolution, which he shared on this week’s episode of Subpar.
Gary McCord explains his player ‘uprising’ that transformed the PGA Tour in the ’80s
By:
Kevin Cunningham
The crux of McCord’s vision: a PGA Tour that is divided into two divisions, similar to the way the MLB has the National and American Leagues, and the NFL has the AFC and NFC. In McCord’s telling, each tour division plays 18 events with 110-player fields and 70-player cuts. Add in the four major championships and the Players Championship (tournaments which McCord envisions players qualifying for via ranking on a money list), and you have a 41-tournament season, which could begin right after the Super Bowl in February.
“We’ve taken the Tour from 100 guys — 110 on this side, 110 on this side — to 220. With less tournaments,” McCord told Subpar hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “That works. That works pretty good.”
Within each division, McCord envisions the creation of multiple franchises, which could be owned by tournaments like the WM Phoenix Open. Those tournaments could then have the option to draft or trade players to play in a given year, with players having the option to cross over into the other league to play select events.
So what’s the “Super Bowl” of this league in McCord’s mind? A Ryder Cup-style competition between players from each league, winner take all.
Intrigued? For an extensive explanation from McCord on how he sees this playing out, check out the entire episode of Subpar below.
As a four-year member of Columbiaâ€s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where sheâ€s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLFâ€s inaugural Style IsÂsue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origiÂnal interview series, “A Round With,†debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.
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