Brandel Chamblee is a well-known supporter of the PGA Tour but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have criticisms of the setup.
Chamblee has been an extremely outspoken critic of LIV Golf over the past few years, while he has almost always backed the PGA Tour to the hilt.
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He often points to the history of the PGA Tour and its meritocratic nature as reasons why it has stood the test of time and is so appealing to fans in the modern era.
Brandel Chamblee has never been one to mince his words, and that is what makes him so intriguing to listen to.
Chamblee recently declared LIV Golf losing their funding from Saudi Arabia’s PIF as a ‘good day for golf’.
Photo by Phil Inglis/Getty Images
However, LIV’s struggles do not mean the PGA Tour should stand still according to the high-profile golf analyst.
With the PGA Tour having been revamped by Brian Rolapp over the past six months or so, and with further changes to come, Chamblee has now offered his thoughts on three mistakes he thinks the CEO has already made.
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Brandel Chamblee urges the PGA Tour to make three big changes
Chamblee was a guest on the Talking Golf Podcast with Ann Liguori this week and he responded when asked what changes he would like to see the PGA Tour make.
“It has tilted the PGA Tour towards greed,” Chamblee said.
“Now the best tour players have ridiculous amounts of power, power that they should not have.
“And the first three things they did is they made the fields smaller, reduced the number of cards, and took away the cut.
“Well, those are three things where you’ve guaranteed to deliver a product to the audience that is less competitive.
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“The difference between the best player, Scottie Scheffler, and an average tour player is only about 3.5%.
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“It is not like other sports, where the difference is 20% or 30% between Tom Brady and the average quarterback in the NFL.
“Underdog stories matter in this game. They resonate. You have to keep those pipelines open.
“Fields should be at a minimum 120. At a minimum, they should be 120. They should be as large as you could possibly make them.
“There should be cuts. There shouldn’t be a 100 tour cards. There should be 125. Why did they just randomly reduce it from 125 to 100? Because they think they’re making the tour harder?
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“What they’ve done is they’ve guaranteed that it is less competitive.
“The landscape of golf should have plenty of room for people to move in and out. And, of course, yeah, there will be relegation and promotion within smaller tours.
“But you’ve reduced the opportunity of underdog players to come in and disrupt the tour.”
Chamblee is absolutely right with his comments there.
The PGA Tour must bring jeopardy back to increase excitement
Jeopardy is what makes every single elite level sport exciting.
Ask any professional golfer and they will tell you that the most pressure they feel is when they are grinding to make a cut.
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Some of the most captivating television viewing for fans is watching players work their tails off to make the weekend.
However, that has been taken away from us in many of the biggest events on the PGA Tour.
As Brandel Chamblee said, by instilling many Signature Events with no cuts, the PGA Tour has actually created a less competitive product.
And that quite simply has to change moving forward.
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