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Rory McIlroy believes there are “definitely too many” events on the current PGA Tour schedule and is concerned that golf fans may become “fatigued” by the multitude of options now available to watch.
Speaking ahead of his first PGA Tour start of the year, the Northern Irish golfer has questioned whether the current calendar is reaching saturation point and whether the PGA Tour’s more traditional programme has been “diminished” by the likes of LIV Golf, YouTube golf content and even the new technology-led Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL), of which he is co-founder.
“I can see when the golf consumer may get a little fatigued by everything that is available to them,” McIlroy explained at the star-studded Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
“So, to scale it back to have a little more scarcity in some of the stuff we do, like the NFL [National Football League], mightn’t be a bad thing I think 47 or 50 tournaments a year is definitely too many.”
The four-time major winner also believes slow play is turning off viewers who have voiced their displeasure at the meandering pace of some players on the PGA Tour in recent times.
McIlroy added: “This isn’t a new problem, this has been around forever, but slow play was also around when people seemingly loved golf. I don’t know what the answer is.
“There’s a lot of different answers but not every answer is going to make everyone happy.
“I could say smaller fields. Smaller fields would help pace of play but that takes away playing opportunities from people and that’s going to p*** some people off.”
The 35-year-old was asked if he feels 2025 will be a pivotal season having come up empty-handed in the majors last year.
“Every year’s a pivotal year,” he said. “There’s a couple of things this year that make it maybe a little more so for me.
“The Open goes back to Portrush so playing a major championship pretty much at home is a big thing.
“Then playing an away Ryder Cup for me, I’ve alluded to this a lot, but I feel like winning an away Ryder Cup is one of the toughest things to do in golf at the minute. Obviously the Europeans have an opportunity to do that, which would be really cool.”
McIlroy also had some humorous advice for Scottie Scheffler ahead of the World No 1’s return to action this week following surgery to remove glass fragments from his right hand after a December cooking accident.
“Yeah, get a chef,” he quipped.
