Lucas Glover rips Tour playoff system, field sizes at signature events

May 24, 2023

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Lucas Glover says the toothpaste is out of the tube, and the PGA Tour is trying to shove it back in with its latest moves.

When asked to describe the difference between this year’s top 70 advancing to the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the former model of 125, Glover didn’t hold back.

“It’s very contrived to me, the whole thing. I don’t even really understand it. I think if you finish in the top 125, I don’t know why you don’t get to play next week. That’s my opinion,” he said. “I think it’s silly that it’s only 70. I think it’s silly that we’re playing 70 in these elevated events (next year). I think it’s silly. I think it’s taken a lot of these last few tournaments of the regular season, a lot of that drama, and I just think it’s silly.”

That was the end of Glover’s press conference, who shot 66 at Sedgefield Country Club on Friday to jump into contention at the Wyndham Championship.

But Glover, the 43-year-old former U.S. Open winner, was just warming up on the topic when he continued talking exclusively to Golfweek.

“It feels like the toothpaste is out of the tube,” Glover said. “Some of the guys who were pushing for 70 are now backtracking a little bit. I don’t know if it is because they are outside the top 70 or they actually understand it’s kind of silly. We’re touting ourselves as the best Tour in the world, so why wouldn’t you reward the best 125 guys and let them play in your biggest events. Same with the elevated events. You finish 125th on the best Tour in the world, and you’re in one elevated event, the Players. That’s silly to me and always has been. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Glover has expressed his concerns in the past to the powers-that-be at the PGA Tour, but he doesn’t bother to do so anymore.

“It’s a waste of breath, a waste of time,” he said. “I’ve been out here long enough to know that it doesn’t matter. The PAC’s useless. They’re going to do what they’re going to do.”

He continued to express his displeasure with the majority of the designated events being limited to field sizes ranging from 70-80 players starting next season.

“Maybe now we can get some smarter people in the room and talk some sense into them,” he said of the players gaining majority control of the board for the first time with the announcement this week that Tiger Woods would get a new seat on the board. “I don’t understand why it’s going to be 70-80. We’ve seen the World Golf Championship model doesn’t work. We don’t play those anymore. So, why that number? They have models and all this and that, but no one has convinced me that this is better other than the guys who stood to be rewarded the most pushed for it and our brass thought they had to appease them. If that’s the case, that’s the case, but as we’ve seen that’s not working because we have another deal in place. Obviously, what they did last year at this time (following the players-only meeting at the BMW Championship) didn’t work or else we wouldn’t have to do all this other stuff. We’ll never get somebody to admit that, but now it’s pretty obvious. They’re trying to push it back into the tube a little bit, which is pretty impossible.”

Glover also shared some strong opinions on the Tour’s framework agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which was announced on June 6.

“Something was inevitable whether it was that or private equity or something. We couldn’t continue to go down the road we were going. Anyone with a brain knows (the Tour) didn’t have the money. (LIV) was going to drag this lawsuit out as long as they could. The Tour can’t prop up $20 million purses forever, pretty sure the sponsors don’t want to do it either. They’re not getting the return. That’s evident. We know that too. We’ve got some valuations of under $5 million, and you’re asking the sponsor for $20 million. That doesn’t work. So, of course, we were going to have to do something. It was just a matter of where the money was coming from.”

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