ATLANTA – At 42 years old, Adam Scott is the oldest player in this week’s field by five years. He played his first Tour Championship in 2004 when current postseason front-runner Scottie Scheffler was 8 years old. He won the season finale in ’06 when Joaquin Niemann, who is currently inside the top 5, was 8 years old.
The East Lake elder statesman has seen the rise of the FedExCup Playoffs and the transition to strokes-based scoring at the finale. He’s been an easy-going constant through two decades of trial and error. It’s a resume that makes Scott the obvious choice for those looking to put Wednesday’s news in context.
In short, the PGA Tour, at the behest of some of the game’s biggest names including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, announced a plan to reinvent itself in the face of LIV Golf, which commissioner Jay Monahan described as a “non-economically motivated actor .”
In the age of player empowerment, Scott is a reluctant participant. “Not if Tiger and Rory are speaking,” he laughed Thursday following his first round at East Lake. “I’ll let them do all the voicing.”
While Scott and most of the game’s top players are more than happy to let Woods and McIlroy, who led last week’s player-only meeting that set the stage for Wednesday’s announcement, carry the banner, he does have thoughts on the circuit’s plan to create a series of elevated events and an apparatus that promises to bring the game’s top players together more often.
Full-field scores from the Tour Championship
There are still plenty of details to be hammered out, but Scott likes what he sees.
“It’s good news if you’re a player. We’ve got to see it come to fruition, but I’m on board with essentially having the top players gather more often,” he said. “Without getting emotional about anything that’s going on, the market will decide how all these different types of golf are sustainable.”
Always thoughtful and engaging, Scott’s reference to “different types of golf” is code for LIV Golf. The Tour arrived at this particular crossroads only because the Saudi-backed league has slowly poached many of the game’s biggest names with oversized purses and even more oversized contracts.
Scott is quick to land on the circuit’s most recent moves as a “step in the right direction.” Just as he’s transparent enough to acknowledge that had the Tour implemented these changes two years ago the game would likely be in a very different place. “Very possibly, I think so, yes,” he said.
Anyone with even a passing interest in the pro game will notice that many of the Tour’s upcoming changes have been floated by players for years, including Phil Mickelson, who advocated for fewer overall events.
Although Mickelson has been dubbed a villain in many circles since he bolted for LIV Golf, the irony is not lost on Scott that the PGA Tour appears bound for some form of contraction.
“I don’t think [Mickelson] was the only one who thought that,” Scott said. “You can check with some people at the executive office at the Tour, I’ve also felt that it should be a direction that the Tour goes. With no ill will to anyone, but I think our product was a bit diluted. The top players were spread thin.”
Analyzing the PGA Tour’s new ‘Top Player’ category
But player empowerment only goes so far. Tipping the scales towards the stars is not only reasonable, but given the threat the Tour faces, it’s an absolute necessity. That doesn’t change the fact that trying to be all things to all people is a zero-sum game, and there will be a reckoning.
The stars are the show, but how do you also leave room for tomorrow’s stars to emerge?
“I think it’s a really tricky thing. If they’re going to listen to every PGA Tour member they aren’t going to get anything done,” Scott said. “It’s very hard as a player to remain objective and remove yourself from the situation and get the best outcome. It’s just not possible.”
It’s why Wednesday’s news is a step in the right direction, according to Scott. Stopping short of calling the current model broken, Scott echoed the sentiments of many: “There’s got to be a new model going forward,” he said.
Scott also understands after more than two decades on Tour there has to be a give-and-take to these things. If you want more money, you’ve got to give more time and play more events, which is a fundamental element to the changes with a 20-event minimum for “top players.”
But mostly Scott was optimistic, which in itself is notable given that from the earliest vestiges of what would become LIV Golf he appeared to be the perfect candidate to jump to the breakaway league – a 40-something who still enjoys a high level of name recognition wooed by the guaranteed money and reduced workload the circuit promised.
The Australian has, at least publicly, stood squarely on the Tour’s side of the growing divide. Maybe, like Woods and McIlroy, he decided to embrace legacy, or maybe after more than two decades plying his trade, he understood that change may arrive slowly — but it does arrive.
“With all the things that have been going on it’s fair to say the balance of the pro game was a little bit out of shape,” Scott said. “Hopefully these are steps to bring back the balance for the PGA Tour.”
.