Welcome to Issue #46
“But today I knew she had no chance. I was like, I want to kill you.”
Carlota Ciganda
What’s on my mind this week
Luke Donald would love to see a mixed Ryder Cup/Solheim Cup event, don't we all?, Ryan Fox still entertaining us with his Claret Jug stories, Michael Block selling his Oak Hill hole-in-one seven-iron to buy a '65 Mustang, Aaron Rai nervous about playing with Rory - then beating him by three, Matt Fitzpatrick not particularly keen on Dubai right now, $70k to play America's Top 100 public courses - Daniel Belk living the dream, Pebble Beach having to explain why it cut down a tree, the next Pro V1 appearing on the USGA conforming list before Titleist has announced it, Alex Noren briefly sending his ball into British airspace.
In the news
Why it matters: The PGA Tour has finalised the eligibility rules for its new Championship and Challenger Series launching in 2028. The top 90 Championship Series players will retain their status each season, with the top 20 from the Challenger Series promoted. The Tour has also created a new end-of-season "last chance" series offering three additional promotion spots.
Our Take: The PGA Tour is starting to look less like one tour with different levels of status and more like a genuine two-tier sports product. The commercial opportunity sits in making promotion and relegation matter to fans, not simply players. Golf has always had jeopardy around playing status, but it has been buried beneath exemptions, categories, Q-School and pathways that few outside the sport understand. A top 90 staying up and top 20 going up is considerably easier to follow. That’s important because jeopardy creates storylines, and storylines create value for broadcasters, sponsors and tournaments. The Challenger Series also needs to become something people actively want to watch rather than somewhere recognisable players disappear when they lose status. Promotion and relegation gives it a reason to exist as a product in its own right. There are still important pieces unresolved, including how the DP World Tour fits into the new structure. But the bigger shift is increasingly clear. The PGA Tour isn't just changing who gets to play. It is redesigning how consequence works across an entire season.