The PGA Tour has been warned of an issue it may face when it comes to some of the full-field events that are likely to find themselves on track two of the new-look schedule.
The CJ CUP Byron Nelson starts this week at TPC Craig Ranch. Of course, many of the biggest names are taking the week off following the PGA Championship at Aronimink.
There are still a handful of notable names in the field this week.
Scottie Scheffler playing at the CJ CUP Byron Nelson highlights a problem the PGA Tour may have
Scottie Scheffler will be looking to defend his title, while the likes of Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka will hope to end lengthy waits for victories on the PGA Tour.
Scheffler and Spieth playing this week was no surprise given their affection for the event. The pair both live in Texas, so they have often been keen to support it.
But obviously, there are question marks over a lot of tournaments right now. The PGA Tour has plans to overhaul the schedule, introducing two tracks that help ensure the big names play together as often as possible.
However, speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard suggested that Scheffler playing this week just shows how difficult it will be for Brian Rolapp to get total buy-in from all of the players.
“It does set up an interesting scenario going forward, because there’s a chance that the Nelson or Colonial or a combination of the two are track two events,” he said.
“I’m not saying they are or they aren’t, we have no idea what the 14 to 18 track one events are going to be on the PGA Tour schedule going forward. I would imagine one of them is a track one event. But if not, there’s a chance where you have a Scottie Scheffler, the world number one, Jordan Spieth is probably in that category, all of those guys that call Dallas home are going to want to play in these events.
“This is a topic of conversation internally on the PGA Tour, if you’re Scottie Scheffler, you’re probably going to want to play the Nelson and maybe even Colonial, which is fine, you can go down and play track two events if that’s where they’re going to land.
“But there’s also a scenario where there would be a track one event head to head with this, because there’s only so many weeks over the course of this condensed season. So it’s going to be interesting to see how the schedule plays out because this is a really good example of how each player has their own fifth major.
“We can have the conversation about The Players Championship, but every player depending on where you’re from, where you grew up, what golf courses you like, has an event that’s sort of outside the box, that they love to play in. In this particular case, it’s the Nelson. And he’s going to want to play there regardless, and it’s going to be interesting to see how the tour handles those situations.”
What Scottie Scheffler said after winning at TPC Craig Ranch last year
Scheffler has won four majors, while he is also a two-time winner of The Players Championship.
It would be easy for the world number one to look past the importance of winning a full-field event on the PGA Tour at this stage of his career.
However, his comments after his victory at TPC Craig Ranch last year highlight just how significant it was to him to get across the line at that particular venue.
“When I think about this tournament, I think about a lot of different stuff. I grew up coming to watch it. This was my first start on the PGA Tour when I was in high school. The girl I was dating at the time is now my wife. We have one son. My sister was caddying for me at the time. She was here today. She has two kids,” he said.
“My family was all able to be here, and it was just really, really special memories, and I think at times it all comes crashing down to me at once. We have a lot of great memories as kids coming to watch this tournament. I just dreamed to be able to play in it, and it’s more of a dream to be able to win it.
“I never really got this far to be honest with you. I always just dreamed of playing golf on the PGA Tour. I would come out on the driving range and watch these guys practice, hitting their brand new range balls. That’s all I wanted to do was come out here and play a golf course that was in great shape and compete on the best golf courses in the world against the best players.
“It really is a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice from a lot of the people that I have around me, and my family is obviously the starter for that. Yeah, I guess when my family is here, I always tend to get a bit emotional.”
Track two events will suffer when it comes to interest if they end up clashing with the top tier tournaments.
They do not even need to clash. Few big names played at the Zurich Classic this year because it was surrounded by signature events and majors. So players will be looking to make the most of weeks off.
Scheffler may well feel a duty to continue playing at the CJ CUP Byron Nelson whatever happens in the future. So the PGA Tour certainly has plenty to ponder.
