Recently, the PGA Tour announced changes to their scheduling for 2024, with the introduction of limited field no-cut events that are designed to offer stellar tournaments and improve the quality of the full-field events that will run in between them in the schedule. The idea is to make the PGA Tour calendar more cohesive and offer fan clarity.
The changes have caused a fair amount of reaction, to put it lightly, with many professionals unhappy with the announcement. DP World Tour player, Eddie Pepperell, claimed that events being played without a cut are one of the “worst things to happen to the game in the last 12 months”.
Now, in an exclusive with Golfweek, PGA Tour player, James Hahn, has given his thoughts, with the American not holding back on the decision to introduce the limited field events that will feature no cuts.
Memo to players re: changes to next year’s PGA Tour schedule. pic.twitter.com/gl2LdUyApCMarch 1, 2023
“I mean, I hate them,” Hahn said during the phone interview with Golfweek. “I’m gonna say exactly what 99.99 percent of fans said about players leaving for the LIV Tour. If our players just said, ‘We’re doing this for the money,’ I would have a lot more respect for them. But how they’re covering up what they’re doing and trying to make it a thing about sponsors and fans and saving opposite-field events. I think that’s all BS.
“All the big names that are talking about this ‘new product,’ if you just came out and said, ‘Hey, we’re doing this for the money,’ they want more guaranteed money and this is another way to funnel more money to the top players in the world, I’d have a lot more respect for them.
“Right now, they’re just covering their a** and saying everything that the PGA Tour basically has trained them to say, has taught them to say and try to make it not about money when everyone knows 100 percent it’s about more guaranteed money being funneled to the top players in the world. We’ve been talking about money for the last two years and for them not to say that that’s not the No. 1 reason why they’re making these changes —it’s very, very hypocritical.”
It's not the first time that Hahn has been vocal of changes made by the PGA Tour. Back in August, just days after the Tour announced drastic measures to combat the threat of the LIV Golf Series, the American revealed he was the only player to cast a dissenting vote on the changes.
Earlier that month, Hahn had criticised the PGA Tour's new schedule and hinted that it is one of the reasons why players were unhappy and moving to LIV Golf. The two-time PGA Tour winner was particularly critical about a stretch of the schedule, specifically the travel between tournaments.
In the exclusive with Golfweek, Hahn's anger is to do with the PGA Tour essentially creating what he called “a two-tiered system with a feeder tour onto the elevated Tour series."
He added: “They have created these elevated events where it significantly impacts other full-field events sandwiched in between full-field events. The solution to their problem is to limit the number of players that get into elevated events to force the other players to play in the other full-field non-elevated events.
"To me, it’s a road that we have to be very careful on because going to back our mission and our purpose is to be able to create the best playing opportunities for our membership and be able to contribute and donate back to the communities and the charities that we play in."
