(Editor’s observe: That is the second a part of a two-part collection analyzing the PGA Tour Champions and its eligibility age from Golfweek’s PGA Tour senior author Adam Schupak. The primary a part of the collection, on Tiger Woods and his potential involvement within the PGA Tour Champions, is linked right here.)
Carl Pettersson is caught in what many PGA Tour professionals over the age of 40 confer with as no man’s land.
Pettersson, 46, aka the Swedish Pancake, has made 443 profession Tour begins, gained 5 occasions, reached as excessive as No. 23 on the planet in 2006 and earned greater than $22 million on the PGA Tour, however injured a wrist in 2016 and has cashed a test simply as soon as since October 2017. He’s made simply 10 begins within the final six years since turning 40 and underwent surgical procedure on each hips a 12 months in the past – three months aside – to restore torn labrums that had restricted his mobility.
“I’m simply getting again into the swing of issues,” he mentioned throughout a latest telephone interview with Golfweek. “I’d prefer to make a run on the Champions Tour in a couple of years.”
That could be a frequent chorus of professional golfers as they strategy the half-century mark. In no different occupation do employees welcome turning 50 greater than PGA Tour professionals, who blow out all these candles and immediately turn into eligible for golf’s nice mulligan, PGA Tour Champions, the 50-and-older circuit. However attending to an age that usually units off a mid-life disaster in others and transitioning to a lifetime of (principally) no cuts and all of the sudden being one of many longer gamers once more could be difficult enterprise. Because the Tour turns into youthful and deeper, it’s turn into tougher than ever to maintain a card and stay related after age 40, demoting some professionals to eke out a dwelling on the Korn Ferry Tour, others to turn into speaking heads on TV or, in Pettersson’s case, Uber Dad round city.
Is 50 nonetheless the precise age for eligibility to PGA Tour Champions? It’s a query that has surfaced each few years because the senior circuit got here into fruition in 1980. Opinions are sharp and divided.
2024 Mitsubishi Electrical Championship at Hualalai
Jeff Sluman tees off the second gap throughout the first spherical of the 2024 Mitsubishi Electrical Championship at Hualalai Golf Membership. (Photograph: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Photographs)
“It may presumably assist each excursions,” Jeff Sluman, 66, mentioned. “Get some extra youth in there, extra entry for the Korn Ferry Tour professionals on the PGA Tour.”
“Each document out right here began at 50,” Scott McCarron, 58, mentioned. “They need to by no means decrease it. That’s what it’s and what it ought to all the time be.”
When Golfweek requested PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan if he felt age 50 nonetheless is the precise standards to turn into eligible for the PGA Tour Champions and has there been any consideration of decreasing that quantity, he primarily brushed the query apart for one more day.
“The one approach I might reply to that’s that fifty has labored very effectively, and if you have a look at the affect you’ll be able to have by decreasing the age degree and desirous about who’s going to start out enjoying on PGA Tour Champions versus persevering with to play right here competitively and desirous about these which are on PGA Tour Champions at present and the data which are there, it’s difficult,” Monahan mentioned. “However we’re coping with quite a lot of complexity, in order that’s one thing that we’ll proceed to have a look at.”
4 years in the past, earlier than COVID-19 or LIV Golf emerged to focus their consideration, members of the PGA Tour coverage board pushed for PGA Tour Champions to guage if the time was proper to decrease the age of eligibility. One suggestion was to staircase the age down one 12 months at a time till it could be lowered to 45 to keep away from the shock and make it extra palatable for present members of the senior circuit. The fact is there’s no equitable strategy to do it – somebody goes to really feel as if he’s been screwed.
Justin Ray, head of content material at Twenty-first Group, supplied a number of stats that affirm what appears apparent by now: the PGA Tour is getting youthful. From 2000 via the 2012-13 season, 18.2 % of PGA Tour winners had been age 40 or older. Since 2013-14, that quantity is considerably decrease — 8.4 %.
From 2000 via 2011, there have been 9 completely different seasons the place 15 % or extra of the wins on Tour went to gamers age 40 or older. There has not been a single season the place 15 % or extra had been age 40 or older since.
Within the 2021-22 season, there was just one participant of their 40s all season to win — Chez Reavie on the Barracuda Championship, and he was 40 years previous. Since 1990, there have been 4 seasons the place there have been two or fewer winners on the Tour age 40-plus — anticipate it — two of them are 2020 (2 wins) and 2022 (1 win) and this season might be headed to a 3rd. Camilo Villegas, 41 on the time, Justin Rose, 42, and Lucas Glover, who gained twice at age 43, had been the one 40-somethings to raise a trophy final season. Only one participant 40 or older has tasted victory thus far this season: Brice Garnett, 40, on the Corales Punta Cana Championship, an opposite-field occasion with a diluted subject.
2024 Puerto Rico Open
Brice Garnett celebrates making his putt for birdie on the fourth playoff gap to beat Erik Barnes on the 2024 Puerto Rico Open at Grand Reserve Golf Membership in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. (Photograph: Andy Lyons/Getty Photographs)
In truth, since Phil Mickelson’s win on the 2021 PGA Championship at age 50, solely seven occasions have been gained by gamers 40 or older – a ratio of simply 4.8 %. No person older than 43 has gained throughout that span. Stewart Cink gained at 47 (Sept. 2020 and April 2021) and Brian Homosexual at 48 (Nov. 2020) however they’ve been the exception to the rule. This season, there have been eight gamers age 45 or older that had been absolutely exempt on the Tour, together with Matt Kuchar (46), Zach Johnson (48) and Scott Gutschewski (47) — solely considered one of them, Charley Hoffman at No. 82 is at present within the high 125. The pattern of youthful winners and 40-somethings making an attempt to carry on to standing for expensive life as they rely the times to 50 has been arduous to disregard and was the impetus for the PGA Tour coverage board approaching the Champions Tour coverage board to analyze the problem. A examine was performed that discovered that neither sponsors nor gamers had been in favor of it.
So, the thought of decreasing the eligibility age died on the vine.
James Hahn, 42, one of many coverage board members on the time, recalled this being the ultimate verdict: “They mentioned, ‘We don’t need PGA Tour rejects. Should you’re nonetheless aggressive on the PGA Tour (in your late 40s) and have standing, why would you wish to play on the Champions Tour?’ ”
Certainly, the gamers who do transfer the needle have a tendency to remain aggressive longer and attempt to delay their transition to the senior circuit so long as doable for a easy purpose: Practically all the Champions Tour’s regular-season purses are roughly $3 million, or lower than first prize at a PGA Tour Signature occasion. It’s a case of easy economics why a participant similar to Cink continues to spend nearly all of his time on the PGA Tour regardless of having turned 51. However Hahn, for one, questioned how a lot the members of the Champions Tour coverage board – on the time David Toms, Paul Goydos and Joe Durant, who had every earned greater than $7 million since turning 50 – had been capable of separate their very own self-interest with what’s finest for the way forward for the senior circuit.
“We’re in a room stuffed with hypocrites,” Hahn mentioned. “Joe Durant misplaced his card after which went on the Champions Tour. Now he’s on the board. You don’t desire a PGA Tour reject however you had been a Tour reject.”
2024 Cologuard Basic
Joe Durant reacts after profitable the 2024 Cologuard Basic at La Paloma Nation Membership in Tucson, Arizona. (Photograph: Christian Petersen/Getty Photographs)
Hahn mentioned he helps seeing the eligibility age lowered to 47 or 48 – calling 45 “too younger” – however claimed that Durant, Goydos and Toms didn’t need youthful competitors fearing they’d have prompt success “and take cash out of their pockets.”
“They don’t need that to occur,” Hahn mentioned. “They’re searching for themselves and their mates greater than for his or her enterprise. There wasn’t an opportunity to cross the regulation of decreasing the age as a result of the individuals on their board are irrational and don’t see the profit, or in the event that they do see the profit, it’s on the expense of them and their mates and affecting their private earnings. After this dialog, it was put shortly on the sideburner as a result of we didn’t wish to have battle between our boards.”
Kevin Kisner, 40, who served on the board on the time and supported decreasing the eligibility age, agreed with Hahn’s evaluation saying, “It’s lifeless within the water for now.”
To these on the Champions Tour, the perspective can finest be summed up by the expression if it ain’t broke, don’t repair it.
“We checked out it extensively as a corporation and we checked out it in live performance with the participant administrators on the common tour. We had been open to it as a result of to be trustworthy with you there’s been some push to decrease it,” PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady mentioned. “My response to that after taking a look at it, the fellows which are going to maneuver the needle out right here, after they’re 48 the massive names are nonetheless aggressive on the common tour, and so they’re not going to return out right here. At 48 I believe Jim Furyk was nonetheless ranked within the high 10 on the planet. I don’t have to decrease the age for different journeymen, that doesn’t assist us promote our product and it might have pushed out a Tom Kite or Ben Crenshaw. Whereas Kite might not have been aggressive anymore, he was improbable within the pro-am and he’s a Corridor of Famer. So I don’t want to herald a 48-year-old who’s going to push out a giant title. Now I could also be instructed I’ve to do this sooner or later. However a minimum of proper now, everybody appreciates that it’s not one thing we must always do.”
However the issue stays that being sentenced to “no man’s land” is occurring lots earlier for professionals than ever earlier than. Increasingly gamers are biding time of their 40s.
Woody Austin SAS Championship
Woody Austin watches his tee shot on the sixteenth gap throughout the first spherical of the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Nation Membership on October 9, 2020, in Cary, North Carolina. (Photograph by Chris Keane/Getty Photographs)
For Woody Austin, 60, who has banked greater than $9 million on the senior circuit, the query is somewhat easy: “Do you get to gather anything at some other endeavor at 45? I believe not. It doesn’t have to get youthful,” he mentioned.
Austin blames tools and the emphasis on the ability recreation for dumbing down the power to make a dwelling on the Tour.
“I get that as a result of the sport has modified and these guys are higher at 20 as a result of the sport is so frigging simple now you wish to make it simpler for the fellows who get kicked out at 40, however no. You’re not a senior at 40 or 45,” he mentioned. “Fairly quickly the highschool youngsters are going to be professionals in the event that they maintain making the sport really easy. These guys aren’t any higher at 19 than they had been again within the day; you don’t need to know golf anymore. All they know is clubhead pace and go hit it. We needed to know all the pieces, they need to know nothing. Cease making it really easy and also you wouldn’t have so many good 20-year-olds.”
Curiously sufficient, Steve Stricker, 57, who led the Champions Tour cash listing with almost $4 million in earnings final season and thus with probably the most to lose with an age change, has been one of many main proponents of decreasing the age. Stricker, who hosts the American Household Insurance coverage Championship in his native Wisconsin, recalled being within the tools trailer throughout a rain delay at his occasion in Madison in 2022 with Brady and discussing decreasing the eligibility age.
“Wouldn’t 47 be a good time with Tiger about to show 47 shortly?” he requested on the time. “It will increase this tour. We’re dropping Lee Westwood and another LIV guys. So I texted Tiger and he responds straight away. No likelihood. When he comes out right here he needs to match his day out right here to the greats – to Bernhard Langer and Hale Irwin. That’s him, proper? Taking these data and having them in a spot the place he can attempt to erase these data.”
However Stricker stays resolute that decreasing the age would solely strengthen the senior circuit.
“I nonetheless assume we will change it to 48,” Stricker continued. “That doesn’t imply Tiger has to start out at 48. However let Carl Pettersson come out and play and keep related. I help that idea, I actually do. A pair years youthful, someplace in that vary 45-50, 45 is just a little aggressive however I’m pondering the 47-48 age could be a very good increase for us. I believe it’s much more vital now with some LIV guys going away. If we decrease the age, there will likely be 10 extra Steven Alkers which are 48 and hungry to play.”
2024 American Household Insurance coverage Championship
Ernie Els embraces Steve Stricker after profitable the 2024 American Household Insurance coverage Championship. (Photograph: Stacy Revere/Getty Photographs)
That touches on one other future concern: Will gamers be motivated to play into their 50s? Whereas Alker is the mannequin for the journeyman making good from the fountain of youth — he earned $841,849 for his profession on the PGA Tour and greater than $8 million and counting since becoming a member of the Champions Tour — Hunter Mahan, 42, might be the archetype of the trendy star participant. He gained six occasions and earned greater than $30 million in prize cash earlier than strolling away from the sport in 2021 to spend extra time at dwelling along with his household and started teaching highschool golf.
When he joined the Tour, Kenny Perry, Vijay Singh and Jay Haas skilled a few of their finest years after 40. Earlier than them, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Raymond Floyd all gained majors of their 40s.
“I don’t see that taking place once more,” Mahan predicted. “The concept of a 40-year-old being the Participant of the 12 months appears inconceivable. Guys are going to be like ‘I’ve a lot cash, do I wish to grind at this at 45 and journey on a regular basis?’ Some guys will, nevertheless it’s not going to be the sport the place guys play into their 60s.”
Davis Love III
Davis Love III hits a tee shot on the third gap throughout the first spherical of the SAS Championship at Prestonwood Nation Membership on October 13, 2023, in Cary, North Carolina. (Photograph by Mike Mulholland/Getty Photographs)
Davis Love III concurred that careers are trending shorter and the eligibility age might should be lowered down the highway.
“You may get to some extent the place guys have made a lot cash that they don’t care about enjoying at 50,” he mentioned. “If somebody had my profession beginning now, they’d make $620 million. If a man does that by their 40s, why would he wish to come out right here and play? Our purses are staying the identical.”
However that hasn’t stopped Pettersson from counting the times till he’s eligible for one of many two exemptions for gamers aged 48-49 into Korn Ferry Tour fields each week primarily based on his place on the profession cash listing and certain a minimum of a 12 months of exempt standing on PGA Tour Champions when he turns 50. Does Pettersson assume 45 is the precise age?
“I see either side, the place 45 makes quite a lot of sense however everybody else has needed to wait to 50 so maintain it at 50,” he mentioned.
It appears inevitable that the information supporting decreasing the age will turn into so convincing that the powers-that-be can have a tough time sticking their head within the sand for too lengthy. Does being two months away from turning 47 and unlikely to profit from an age discount colour his opinion? Pettersson chuckled and mentioned …
“Selfishly for me, sure.”
Story initially appeared on GolfWeek
