New fron-tiers: Expand the links swing
PGA Tour should think about growing its two-tier brand more globally with future model
How great if the PGA Tour opted to visit Irish icons like Royal County Down? (David Cannon/Getty Images)
NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — Here’s a wish for when the PGA Tour leans into its new two-tier schedule in 2028: have a mini links golf run leading up to the Open Championship.
Take the Irish Open and Scottish Open — or some similar combination — and make them Championship Series events leading into the final major of the season at the Open.
This idea is hardly new and there are myriad issues in trying to make it work.
But if the PGA Tour wants to lean into its strategic relationship with the DP World Tour, that would be a good first step. So is the idea to partner in the fall for several co-sanctioned events, which has already been floated by CEO Brian Rolapp.
Also in today’s DD …
Is Chris Gotterup POY front-runner?
LIV Golf future prospects depend on who you ask
Colin Montgomerie opens new Wee Course with pair of aces
Stray Shots; Deere wrap-up and looking ahead to Open
For years, but more amplified with the emergence of LIV Golf, the PGA Tour has endured criticism for not taking its product around the world. The best, biggest and deepest tour is — for the most part — a domestic circuit that barely reaches outside the continental United States.
Yes, it goes to North American neighbors Canada and Mexico. And it does co-sanction this week’s Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club. But the PGA Tour abandoned a three-tournament Asian swing (now there is just one fall event in Japan) and earlier attempts to play World Golf Championship events overseas were typically met with sponsor apathy.
There is a reason the PGA Tour retreated to America and it is understandable. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t try again.
The fear in going to a more streamlined schedule — starting in February and ending in late August — is that international tournaments will be more unlikely to get on the schedule.
Already, the PGA Tour has left Hawaii. Outside of the continental U.S. — aside from the Canadian and Scottish Opens — it will have no international stops in the core schedule in 2027.
That can change in 2028 or certainly soon after. Getting it to work is tricky because the national opens are … well, open. The Championship Series events are not. They will be for players who qualify strictly via a points system and through major
