Monahan On Oversaturation Of PGA Tour Golf: "This is not the first time we've heard this"

There was much to chew on from Commissioner Jay Monahan’s press conference kicking off the 2020 Players, including not one, but three Wyndham Rewards mentions along with other topics of note. And the oversaturation topic did come up.

Several top players of late have said Monahan and the Policy Board are aware of “issues” with the PGA Tour product after the Premier Golf League’s vision became public. It’s not an easy one to answer publicly without upsetting tournaments. All 49 of them.

Q. I just wonder what you made of Rory's thoughtful argument last week that there were too many tournaments in professional golf. That, in his words, we'd reached saturation points and were in danger of exhausting the fans.

JAY MONAHAN: Well, we have a wonderful PGA TOUR FedExCup schedule with 49 events this year, and there really are very few weaknesses on our schedule. And when you look at our model and the fact that players are independent contractors, for us putting the best tournaments forward week-in and week-out, recognizing that in our sport players like to play in certain conditions, certain markets, like to sequence their schedule differently, a lot of factors that go into the schedule that we have, and we've got great commitments from the markets where we play, and that's what's gotten us to here.

But I think when you look at -- when players -- this is not the first time we've heard this. When you're in Player Advisory Council meetings, when we're in board meetings, we're constantly looking at how our schedule is performing. I talked a lot about where we are and where we're headed, and it's been reinforced by the marketplace, but I would say that because the schedule is so dynamic for our players, it's also as dynamic for us as leaders, and that's something that we'll continue to look at and say, what are the things that we can do to improve our schedule. But I would tell you, we feel really good about where we are today and the flexibility we have going forward.

Flexibility. Does that mean with 52 weeks in a year there is room for growth? Presumably not.