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January 30, 2025
by Golf Channel

The fans have spoken! Here’s what they want from the PGA Tour | Golf Channel Podcast

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By: Golf Channel | Duration: 00:33:42


Video Description

In this week’s edition, the guys discuss some of the findings from the PGA Tour’s first fan survey, debate the implications of pace-of-play changes, and break down the returns of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. #GolfChannel #Golf #pgatour

Chapters:
(0:00): Lav gets a little too risky by the Pacific
(02:30): The PGA Tour is about to release its fan-survey findings. Here’s what we know.
(17:00): The fine line of adding entertainment elements and not undermining competition
(22:00): Scottie Scheffler is back from injury. What can we expect?
(26:00): With career goals outlined, can Rory McIlroy still get up for regular events?
(32:00): If you can’t get up for this event, at this course, you don’t love golf

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The fans have spoken! Here’s what they want from the PGA Tour | Golf Channel Podcast
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47 Comments

  1. @wbwright79

    all this about what (some) fans want; from a fractured dying sport. .0001% troll bots populate 90% of perceived public opinion. you know, prior to covid i golfed and hiked a lot. guess what, suddenly golfing and hiking was almost all you could do outdoors, and i saw 10x as many people doing both nearly. fast forward to today, and everyone has gone back to their sport, bar, or social hobby again and suddenly golf is a fractured sport that has a huge downturn in viewership. did golf expect to corner the market forever?? it's all a bs propaganda story. wait, lets allow random fans to tell us what to do with out 350 year old sport…

    Reply
  2. @davidchipman7612

    IMO the PGA is finished it’s only going to get worse there’s to many issues on the table and there mounting the management as well as the players group management needs to go

    Reply
  3. @chevy4x466

    I have an idea to make the top level of golf more interesting….. invite LIV golfers for crossover events

    Reply
  4. @mi2cents405

    Lol….the LIV-bots have arrived, bought with Saudi money, and full of excuses why LIV players (except for Bryson) continue to collapse in the majors. Pathetic!

    Reply
  5. @Scott-j9o

    Lowering the number of players does not solve the problem. It simply hides the problem. Have neither of you not played with one slow player in your foursome? Enforce the rules they have on the books. The individualized players need to be penalized STROKES, not fines. The competition for faster players is compromised by the PGA allowing slow players to dictate the pace. Aargh!

    Reply
  6. @lehonor

    I thought golf was boring till i hit a ball.Is boring to see,but so fun to play.Why?Action takes place on hitting the ball,2 sec.Next you see 3 players walking about 300 yards.😮1.Let them play with buggy.Fast.Then they stood at the ball and calculate.Who wants to see that? 2.Rangefinder.And time.Well,i think it is possible to install a clocksystem vía GPS and play like chess.Watching chesstournament in the early days was exhausting.Today you have worlchampionship 5 min.games.So,IMO: buggy,rangefinder,clocksystem like chess.Is a completely different product to see against play.

    Reply
  7. @redsharpiemarker

    people are finding that stuff like youtube golf is superior content to live television. i think there’s a lot to learn from that. it’s almost more entertaining to watch say grant horvat or the bryan bros bringing in jon rahm and phil as special guests for an 18 hole match where every shot is condensed into an hour long span with great dialogue in between. i can binge that stuff all day whereas i just get sleepy trying to follow 5 hours of tournament coverage. it just has a more authentic, personable, behind the scenes feel. there are ways to make tv viewers feel closer to the event in a similar way. u can have on screen personalities showing the grounds from their perspective and following players almost like a live vlogger or a news anchor reporting from the scene. it shouldn’t be so focused on in booth broadcasters with occasional interviews here and there.

    Reply
  8. @ScaryGoodStories

    A clock on baseball makes sense, but not golf.

    Tour needs to establish an acceptable average time over the course of a season or quarter and fine players a % of dollars earned during that time since player income isn’t equivalent. If they’re fined two quarters in a row, increase the fine.

    This way you can change the behavior of our slow playing friends and leave the fast / Avg players alone.

    Reply
  9. @kevinmcarthur1690

    if you haven't finished your round within 4 hrs you're DQ'd

    Reply
  10. @izgubicu

    Thank you!!! What the fuck do i need to see some guy finishing the hole from one foot away!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  11. @edwardcreighton2638

    I will be at home in Northern Ireland for The Open at Portrush, fingers xx for Rory. Time slipping by, hope Rory can win one more major, any major.

    Fantastic pod per usual.

    Reply
  12. @jamesgerboc

    Its not just pace of play! Look at the number of commercial breaks…no continuity. Look at the LPGA-like lack of player personality…they are all the same. Look at coverage…only the leaders get air time. Its a mess. Getting poor content faster is not the answer. Scotty says he is not an entertsiner. He wants to play golf. People can watch if they want. Well Scotty, how would you like to live out of your car again? Players are good. Golfers who view watch them. Non-golfer need a Tiger, Arnie, Chi Chi, even Bryson or Rickie. Its not THAT Tiger won alot, its HOW Tiger won alot. Drama draws, it creates stories, it matters.

    Reply
  13. @Sean_Farmer

    I'm happy the pace of play issue, especially on the greens, is something they seem to be looking at. Any serious golfer, especially the lower handicap ones, know that there are some really tough green reads out there. The difference between us and the tour pros is we don't have a caddie who's studied the greens to help us determine the line and pace. For example, I understand when you're having a great round and in contention taking an extra 20-30 seconds on a 15 footer. But when I see someone on day 3 who's on hole 15, who's 13 shots behind, taking extra time on an uphill 4 footer…only to miss it anyway, that's frustrating.

    Reply
  14. @chriskelly6559

    When Jim Furyk comes on lining up a putt, I get up for more chips and a beer. By the time I get back to my recliner, Jim is making a final read. TGL is a video/real golf hybrid, no thanx.

    Reply
  15. @ScottGrass

    Signature events, playoffs, majors and waste management are the ones to watch. It’s pretty simple, the viewers can’t get excited about 48 tournaments a year. Same reason I don’t watch much baseball until August, it’s why no one watches NFL preseason. They gotta speed up regular season events or switch it up somehow.

    Reply
  16. @mitchs1724

    Isn’t there rules officials with each group? Why not have them run a shot clock on a stop watch for each group they walk with. Give 3 warnings then start stroking players.

    Reply
  17. @ANTPS32CREWCHIEF

    When I'm relaxing Sun afternoon on the couch I don't need to hear a blimp engine rumbling the pictures off the wall. Get rid of it or find noise-cancelling software!!!!

    Reply
  18. @ANTPS32CREWCHIEF

    Caddies carry the bag. They should not be able to step foot onto a golf green nor read putts for pros. That is what M-Wed is for.

    Reply
  19. @stevenstewart3171

    90 seconds into the video and they still haven’t talked about the thing that the video supposed to be about… I am moving on

    Reply
  20. @bt2476

    ALSO would VERY much like to see different venues and more challenging setups. The same courses over and over and over again for decades gets a bit monotonous. Especially when the winning scores are 20 under. And for the major championships, even though out of the jurisdiction of the PGA Tour, also it is boring, when the same 6-8 courses are used over and over. And these courses are usually exclusive country clubs that no members of the public will ever play. Talk about that UTTERLY stupid saying "We're growing the game", that is thrown around like some cheap parlor trick, I don't think they know what that actually means.

    There are many many spectacular golf courses all around the planet!! And I believe that if they truly wanted to grow the game, the organizers wouldn't live in a bubble. There are more courses out there than just St Andrews, Augusta National, and Oakmont. Seek out some different venues around the country and around the globe, and make it happen. If not, I do not see how that isn't a BIG opportunity missed. That's one thing I can say kudos to LIV Golf for, they play around the globe at different courses. Now, the setups in my mind should be quite a bit more difficult for LIV as on the PGA Tour, but just changing the venues would be a good first step. Now I'm all for keeping some of the classic beautiful courses like Pebble Beach, and Harbour Town – but more seaside exotic courses should be explored. They're out there, go find them – enough of this living in a small bubble on the PGA Tour.

    Reply
  21. @monk3608

    I would also like a focus on the Friday cut line. It's a spot in the tournament that could hold more viewers that get invested with maybe a rising amateur, new, or aging star straddling the line. I don't want to just read it on a leaderboard after the fact. It's a do or die situation every week that's lost in the media ether.

    Reply
  22. @BMF395

    CBS needs to improve their telecast immensely. Joel Dahmen, one of the most popular players on tour, made back to back birdies last week to get his first top 10 in forever. CBS didn't show any of it. The camera doesn't leave the leaders down the stretch. I don't need to see Harris English walking down the fairway.

    Reply
  23. @AussieBob999

    The PGA is being forced to address a problem that they have ignored for a long time. The Players and Media have not given a rat's rear end about the TV audience for decades. It is LIV Golf that has shown how they should manage the game and the media – PGA is only doing what they are now because of LIV. The players taking a long time to play is one thing, but how about the media giving a 10 minute monologue about how their commentators think the day's play is going to go. Having been there myself, there is no doubt that Tiger is unbelievable to watch play live. But the TV audience is sick of seeing every one of his shots when he is 10 over and not in with a remote chance to win. The PGA needs to manage and direct them to do what the TV Audience likes and wants. Stop over-focusing on those at the course – they are 10s of thousands – it is 100s of thousands and even millions (Masters etc.) that watch it on TV. That is who the real fan is and the Media and Players are not catering to them properly (unlike LIV).

    Reply
  24. @rnm2357

    I don't care what anyone says, Aim Point slows down the game…particularly Caddies using it.

    Reply
  25. @tfbruiser1389

    I hate this content of media dingleberries crying about pace of play for an hour.. don’t watch the media cry about pace of play and spend that 2 hours extra watching golf and there you have your time back..

    Reply
  26. @J_B72

    Pace of play is the easiest thing to fix.

    Track each players total time spent on course for each round. Rank them. Top half gets bonus Fed Ex cup points. Bottom half gets Fed Ex cup points deducted.

    Over the 70 or so rounds a year that the Tour Player plays, it should be pretty indicative (even though sometimes quick players are paired with slow players). You could even do higher alien mathematics to normalize the data.

    Reply
  27. @DaringDan

    Are the Golf Channel execs looking in the mirror at how bad the coverage is on their end from a user/customer standpoint? Cord cutting started happening over 15 years ago and the subscription model from NBC and having to watch 3 different things in haphazard formats is what you all present us.

    Pace of play is mostly what I care about. Rules need to change for how long players can take per shot. They need to limit how often guys ask for rulings. Use up all your ruling requests? Too bad. Just like coach's challenges in the NFL.

    Reply
  28. @josephboza7448

    #asklav Recently the LPGA Interim Commissioner Liz Moore announced that the Fir Se Ri Pak that Nelly Korda is the defending champion is postponed due to failure of underwriter failure to pay LPGA. Before this cancellation, What was the strangest reason if any Rex and Lav have heard of a tournament being postponed. If they havent heard of any, what are their thoughts on Se Ri Pak being postponed due to the underwriter failing to pay the LPGA?

    Reply
  29. @josephboza7448

    It feels like this discussion of pace of play is mainly due to the fact that Dottie Pepper may have been upset with the final group that she had. Harris English had to play 18 holes of boring golf to get his 5th win on the PGA tour. 5 hours and 29 min at Torrey Pines wasnt that bad. Could have been worse. CBS still had 20 min at the end to stall.

    Reply
  30. @tomk.3428

    Slow play has been around since the 80’s when I began watching. If the PGA wanted to stop it, they have had 45 years to do so and chose not to.

    Reply
  31. @scruffy8861

    The week in and week out fields don't get the big name players to make me want to tune in – that's a bigger problem than slow play.

    Reply
  32. @adambarnes4191

    This, "the basic dna of the PGA Tour is intense competition and a shot clock removes that" is nonsense.
    The NFL and NBA are fiercly competitive and have shot clocks. It ADDS competition. The best players can manage the clock and pressure the best. Why protect golf pros.

    Lets see the slow players deal with the clock ticking.

    Reply
  33. @Zen_1g

    Carts + rangefinders would fix the pace of play issue easily. I know the carts are a tough thing to approve but id still love to see it.

    Reply
  34. @clstrat837

    I think the goal should absolutely be making all rounds take 4 1/2hrs. It’s absurd it’s even a question as to whether that’s possible.

    Reply
  35. @clstrat837

    Also caddies should not be allowed to use their bodies (aim point) to aid the player in choosing their line

    Reply
  36. @manx1569

    Too many commercial breaks

    Reply
  37. @manx1569

    I agree with shot clock on the green

    Reply
  38. @giii7599

    The tour also has to do something about rulings. It should not take 5 to 10 minutes to give a guy a ruling. Also a range finder will do nothing but add something else. They will still use a yardage book.

    Reply
  39. @giii7599

    BULLSHIT. Daylight is not the problem. Nor is field size. It's just as slow in limited field events. It's also just as slow in June. What clown show commentator.

    Reply
  40. @jaydee5447

    Lav so close to peril and one false step from a catastrophic, life altering outcome just to bring us this podcast reveals his dedication to his craft. People who think golf journalism is not dangerous have no idea. I mean that’s a twenty foot drop into sand three feet to his left. One swat at a passing bee, one gust of wind from the wrong direction and this potentially becomes a one man podcast. This just oozes dedication to one’s craft. Be safe out there this season fellas. 🙏🏻

    Reply
  41. @Adrian-zw6sc

    Props to Scottie👨‍🍳Chef for still relating to the common man, as he works his own pasta dough.

    Reply
  42. @kowanmcgarry

    No shot clock on the green. Just a 15 minute clock for the hole, whichever player goes over that time, a stroke is added to their score. If a player finishes every hole in 15 minutes and 1 second, they are 18 over par. They should stop the 15 minute time clock during the players shot with the penalty or hazard, if not those three others in the foursome would have to wait if the time is still counting down and their time is basically wasted by the penalty and hazard player. They would have to stop the clock, no matter what, otherwise, every player would be given an extra stroke and not just that one player who hit a bad shot. I like this idea better than a shot clock on the green. 😊🎉❤

    Reply
  43. @chrislewis7

    PGAT once again scrambling to catch up with things LIV are doing.

    Reply
  44. @stevecrossey4334

    If you can't hit your ball within 40 seconds, you have no business being on a golf course. Work on your game on the range & putting green

    Reply
  45. @ponyexpress2724

    # – Ask Lav:
    In honor of the LPGA and PGA pro-am week, which pro sport generally speaking produces the best golfers?
    🏒 ⚾️ 🏈 ⚽️ 🏀 🎾

    Reply
  46. @Oahugolfguy

    Thanks Lav for giving us a view. There is a lot to talk about regarding pace. Shaming public ally is fine but I don’t think that’s a solution. If everyone is kept under a minute for every shot (mostly) and rules officials don’t think every ruling is their 15 minutes of fame, rounds can absolutely be cut by 30 minutes. Even 1 whole hour.
    But imo as far as tv what kills that is “featured groups” which were created for Tiger. But there are NO tigers now.

    Reply
  47. @dek2000utube

    The elephant in the room is that the entire pro golf system is fragmented right now and the best players don't play together that often

    Reply
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