PGA TOUR TO END Q SCHOOL

Boy, they just keep cracking the door more and more open for a new tour. Between technology ruining the game, an elitist mentality along with USGA’s blind arrogance… not sure opportunity has ever been so bright. Does anyone see what I see?

It’s a definite fk up

Man, the PGA Tour really hates Marco Dawson :slight_smile:

I think the good thing for the PGA Tour is that they have the ability to scrap a bad idea rather quickly. I don’t think other sports have that luxury. But, the Tour is filled with a lot of people running things who have a big ego and don’t ever want to admit they are wrong (like the grooves rule), so scrapping a bad idea may never happen or take a very long time to correct.

My problem with the lack of Q-School is that I think it still misses out on getting the best players on Tour. I do think the Nationwide is a good breeding ground for good, young players. But, you do have to have some things fall in place for you financially just to make the Nationwide. Either that or get in a tournament and play exceptionally well.

Lastly, I think there is a better solution, but the Tour really seemed to rush into this for no reason other than they didn’t like the fact that Dawson regained his Tour card. Well, John Huh got his card and has been great so far.

Anyway, I’m sorry to say this Lag…but I don’t see another Tour like the persimmon Tour working. Perception often becomes reality and the fans perception is that the guys on the Tour are the best in the world and they wouldn’t understand why they should go out and watch ‘minor league’ talent play with persimmon.

I understand your point, golf on TV is not nearly as appealing as it once was. Every feels like they swing the same unless you have a trained eye to spot the differences. Everybody seems to hit if the same way unless you have a trained eye to see the differences. And the bombers don’t even get a slap on the wrist when they miss a drive by a mile. But, I don’t see a persimmon type Tour ever working unless you could get top PGA Tour players involved.

3JACK

The new system will make it very hard for overseas players to get a tour card. Seeing as these days all the best players are from overseas it could create a problem in the longer term…

The way to get the top players using persimmon is to make the purses bigger than the regular tour - like that will ever happen…

The main issue here is that the PGA needs a new sponsor to replace Nationwide. I can understand how this prospect is not particularly alluring to cooporate ad departments…I haven’t watch a Nationwide Tour Event since the days when Bo Van Pelt was fighting for his card. Modern golf (distance and putting) doesn’t translate particularly well to TV and if you remove all the known personalities of the big tour you’ve got to wonder why anybody would want to put their name on the minor league tour.

That is, unless it is the direct and only route to the PGA Tour…

Stupid idea though. This will only make it a longer road for the next crop of young college stars who have energized the tour this year.

Sounds like March Madness.

It’s all commercialism and the stupid Fed Ex Cup. We start hearing about the Fed Ex Cup in the first week of the season. Could you imagine hearing the same type over-hype for the Super Bowl via advertisements in week one of the upcoming season. Yikes!

Road to The Final Four…Road to the Super Bowl…Road to the Fed Ex Cup…

Too confusing for me, but I will say I will never use Fed Ex for anything. They can kiss my skinny rat ass. :laughing:

With as big as golf is… no reason why there can’t be two successful venues for the game. The press would support it I have no doubt, and they would also put pressure on players to have a go at the other more traditional version of golf. It’s a great story every time a marquee player jumps over for a game on the other side. When they start missing cuts because they can’t find a fairway, word spreads quickly and eyebrows get raised. New stars will emerge and a lot of players will just stay on one side of the fence or the other. There would be a ton of new material for the press to write about especially when you consider the rich deep history of the game. A second traditional tour solves many of the games problems. If the purses are decent, guys will show up to play no doubt with whatever the conforming gear needs to be. It becomes even more tempting and attractive when they see checks being handed out to winners shooting scores that might see them on the cut line at a modern event. A lot of young players will want to have a go at it. Not every young player hits it 350 like Dustin Johnson.

The other thing is that no matter how big it grows, it would always be set up for a healthy Monday culture so with 20 or 30 spots on Monday, you have the best players getting in every week. It really keeps the dream alive for people… and if a player finds something in their swing or putting stroke, they can quickly go out and follow a few events around and play their way into the tour right away if they can shoot the scores. Golf should always be about who is playing good now… not Mike Weir or Angel Cabrera.

Persimmon golf also fits with all the great classic tracks that are just sitting there waiting to be competed on again properly.
You don’t have to keep building new ballparks. There is no shortage of gear either. Even if you had 500 guys following the tour around… you could find persimmons for everyone in 24 hours just on ebay and local Craigslist postings. If the public gets interested… and I think they would, then there is opportunity to start making persimmon again for a retail offering.

The answer is not growing the game… it’s trimming the fat.

I am sure there are members at the high end classic private tracks that would love to see pros compete on their course. I definitely think a tour played with classic gear would work. I just need some extra cash to fund the purses… :unamused:

I disagree. There are so many mini tour guys out there that are making just barely enough to get by. You could get a nice assortment of good players with a decent purse.

I don’t think the appeal of this sort of tournament is getting big names, it’s about the tournament setup. Quality tournament play with the old equipment would appeal to a lot of people, in my opinion.

The beauty of it is that the entire history of the game going back to the 1930’s is suddenly completely relevant again. Nascar and Indy, I use this analogy a lot, but you have different stars in each arena… and a few drive both.

Closing up the tours just makes something like this more feasible and practical… and it really makes perfect sense since their are so many great golf courses to play and compete on again.

The titanium tour can keep pushing up construction costs, buying cheap flat properties to build 8000 yard courses that bore the public and can play their bomb and gouge events on them with huge purses. Good for them.

But a persimmon tour would motivate the classic tracks to not keep trying to keep up with modern yardages, but if anything, go back to yardages as they were originally intended.

No need for a Q school, just send in your entry, show up on Monday and have a go at it. If 500 people start showing up then you can talk about a Q school… but a healthy Monday culture is the way to go in my opinion.
It worked great in the past, and would work great again. Why protect guys that aren’t playing well? Send them home to work on their games… and when they are ready to come back out… with 20 to 30 spots on Monday it’s not that hard to get in if you are playing good again. Then you just play your way back out onto the tour.

300 guys paying $200 to Monday is $60,000. Most courses would be happy to give up their course for $7k a day in this economy. Now the tour has $50K in their pocked and another 100 + entries to collect from the other guys who were exempt or made the cut the week before. They pay $400 and the qualifiers pay another $200 so you now have another $50K. Pay the tournament golf course 20K for four days, and you have 80K to use to pay a good decent purse, and and a three person staff. Make guys walk, caddie or carry their own clubs like in college golf… and you have a nice little profitable tour that has nothing but upside potential even without a sponsor.

Wait until the sponsors come to you… then you name your price for the title banner. The press would eat this up like candy… much more interesting than another guy wearing a Nike cap swinging a frying pan on a mini tour. The local press loves it because their great historic track is getting played on again. Some guy sleeping in his car is in the leader group on Sunday… and the money actually means something to these guys.

From there, outsiders see opportunity to fire up the wood lathes, set up an on site club repair van… some guy calls about making a new tournament ball that plays like balata… and so on.

Who’s in?

You know what I would love to see? A Masters classic version. Have another Masters tournament a week or two after the “official” masters but using permission and blades. Kinda of like new Coke and Coke classic. Not everyone likes the “new Coke” so they brought back the old Coke.

Why can’t the Masters do that. They could put the tees back to where they should be and have a tournament based on the classic Masters tournament. Hell, they could even have a Masters official golf ball that everyone had to play. I know a lot of the members of the Augusta National aren’t all that jazzed about the changes they have had to do to the course to make it “Tiger proof”. They have to play it that way all the time and it’s not the same as when the great players of their era played it.

The prize money wouldn’t have to be that big since most Pros who didn’t make the official Masters would play just to have the privilege to get a few rounds in on Augusta National.

I’m sure alot of viewers would watch just to see some great golf on a great course being played like it used to be. Par 5’s actually having to be hit on in two with woods and long irons or God forbid lay it up to a proper place. A persimmon and blades version of the Masters would be great to watch. Hell, I would probably watch that version of the tournament more closely than I would watch the regular Masters.

Let the people decide, not the PGA and sponsors!!!

That would be great… I wouldn’t even waste my time watching the newer version. I know a member out there… so if I run into him again, I will suggest it. Who knows… but it sure was a better event from a golf standpoint the old way.

If that worked, then maybe classic US Open where they grow some real rough and Rory proof it.

Wow I just saw this thread, this is the first I heard of this. What a change, holy cow. Ok questions that I haven’t seen anything about… How do you get a Nationwide card now? That was part of Q skool too. Personally I’ve never been a fan of Q skool, particularly the check for five or ten thousand dollars you had to send with the entry form. Exactly what does that have to do with whether or not you can play? I never liked the three tiered system all that much either but maybe that had something to do with only qualifying to Tier 2 once. The other question is how do the sponsors exemptions work under the new system? They change all the time as it is and there’s very little transparency, what’s the road gonna look like for an All American from OK State to get a Tour Card now versus what a nobody from I dunno say Santa Clara would have to do versus a European who goes through an apprenticeship program instead of coming to the States and going to college? I could see this as a good change in the long run especially if you’re not a big fan of Florida or Indio. I don’t imagine if you’re putting up numbers somewhere the PGA Tour doesn’t want to include you,that is unless you hit it low or something stupid like that.

There really is a big problem with the college golf programs too. Just finished watching the Costas special on the NCAA and it was spectacularly good, the AD at USF even said in passing he prefers persimmon but the goof (freudian slip) programs are falling apart at the seams. I try to keep up with the Pac (it hurts to type this) 12 & the WCC and whatever else on YouTube and I’m staggered at the lack of talent. I can’t tell what the numbers mean by watching online video but I don’t see very many players that even peak my interest a little as an instructor. Every one of them has so much tension in the arms & the rotation is so bad, and the short games are so unimaginative. Not a chance of seeing a young Lanny Wadkins or Ben Crenshaw. No wonder we’re getting our asses handed to us by the rest of the world, every team looks like they should be wearing Duke uni’s.

300 Guys??? What planet is that on? And incidentally no tour can survive without a constant inflow of cash from an outside source. People need to eat, sleep, travel etc and eventually everyone goes broke not that struggling golf pros tend to be rich to begin with. Hello math… Besides that’s not a job anyway, it’s glorified gambling. Nobody needs a tournament to keep passing $200 back and forth.