Last week at the PGA Tour headquarters, new Tour CEO Brian Rolapp unveiled six themes for where the league is headed. One of them was a splashy start date on the West Coast, a way for the Tour to get fans excited and kick-start the year in a big way.
“We want to open big with a marquee event at an iconic venue in the west, among other things,” Rolapp said, “allowing us to finish on network television in primetime on the East Coast.”
How might that look? It’ll likely be in late January or early February, and we already know the Tour’s time in Hawaii is probably limited. That leaves a couple of current tournaments as the likely options: the Farmers at Torrey Pines in San Diego, the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale, or the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the Monterey Peninsula. The Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles could also be an option.
We might not get an answer soon — and the Tour might still be figuring it out as well — but you could make a case for most of these spots, just as GOLF’s Subpar duo thinks their local event, the WM Phoenix Open, would be the ideal kickoff.
“In my opinion this would go the week before the Super Bowl, in between the conference championships and Super Bowl, there’s that dead week,” said Subpar co-host Colt Knost, on the latest Subpar episode. “This is the week, let’s get the PGA Tour started, get everybody excited and then we take a week off for the Super Bowl — because there is no reason to go against that — and then we get going.
“Their goal long-term is to own the summer,” he continued. “They want golf to be must-see TV throughout the summer, going up against baseball, obviously some basketball. That is their big goal. But I love that we are going to open big.”
Co-host Drew Stoltz, who is also a member of the Thunderbirds, the organization that runs the WM Phoenix Open, agreed.
“I mean, what’s bigger?” he said. “There are some great venues, some great golf courses out west, but if you are going to make a big splash to open the season what would make more sense than that? I don’t have any insider information, not saying it’s a done deal, but if this is the way you are going, we will start basically when football ends, we will call it, even if it’s the week before the Super Bowl, this is the biggest you got.”
For more on the latest Subpar episode, where they break down Cam Young’s Players win and talk more about Rolapp’s six themes, you can listen here or watch on YouTube below.
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