Rickie Fowler is asked about evolution in golf. He had 1 key wish

Rickie Fowler is asked about the evolution of golf. he had one big wish

For men’s professional golf, for better or for worse (I’ll leave it up to you to decide), now may be the best time to hope for. If you need money, it’s there. Billions, in fact. LIV Golf, a new venture backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), has this opportunity. Established brand PGA Tour already has one, and more may be on the way thanks to a deal with PIF announced last June. And the players were winners. Over his three seasons at LIV, he tried to recruit players while the PGA Tour tried to convince them to stay, but the prize money kept getting bigger and bigger, just like the tee shots. . As. There are limits. Players cannot receive $1 trillion. (We are thinking.)

But there are other ways to gain favor. This is one of the reasons LIV professionals wear shorts to LIV events and throw welcome parties. This is one reason the Tour is experimenting with tournament structure. The parties are recruited, that is, listened to. Everything is on the table. The comment box is open.

So it will be Wednesday. It’s the day before the tour and two days before the LIV event in Saudi Arabia, one of golf’s brightest stars. what does he want?

If you remember, this question was asked by FedEx-St. Jude Championship-and. Jon Rahm, I ended up wanting more Port-A-Potties. (His exact quote: “This is going to sound really stupid, but it’s as easy as putting a fucking pot in every hole. I know it sounds crazy, but when do you go to the bathroom?” I can’t choose whether I have to do it or not. We talked about this a few times on tour, and it’s very simple. ) Brian Harman wanted to dive at lower temperatures. Aaron Rye wanted the tour to focus on the players’ stories. Creating a Tour Brand – Creating a Player Brand. It’s a win-win. Fowler’s reaction was similar. For clarity, below is the full text of the conversation initiated by the journalist.

“There is a lot of talk about the SSG (Sports Ownership Group) funding that will allow the PGA Tour to do innovative and interesting new things. Have a big idea you’d like to share?

“Luckily, I can say I didn’t have to think too much about it,” Fowler said. “I wasn’t as involved as guys like Tiger (Woods) and (Patrick) Cantlay. I’m excited about this partnership because I feel there are some very smart and influential people in this SSG group. Because I think they will ultimately help the tour evolve and potentially move in a better direction. future.

“When it comes to big ideas, we don’t need that. That’s a rabbit hole we can go down…

Here Fowler glanced at his watch. Then he answered. “No, at the end of the day, we’re in the entertainment industry, so I think we need to find a better way to entertain our fans, and that will look better on TV. I don’t know exactly if we’ll do it, but like I said, I feel like I really trust the people involved, the players involved, and I’m going to do it with them as well. I feel the same way, especially because they think I’m not just a golf fan, I’m a lot of golf fans.” They’re coming. I think they’re going to tell us which way we should go. Can we go there or should we go there?”

“But how much will things actually change? Everything LIV tried was ridiculed, whether it was shotgun, music, or pushing the tournament into three days. Is there room for development in this sport?

“I think that’s reasonable,” Fowler said. “But at the same time, like you said, it’s a very traditional sport with a traditional 72-hole tournament condensed into a weekend. “I feel like, for example, if it’s a season from January to August, is there a way to do something different in the fall, but at the same time I feel like it’s necessary, in some way. We need to create a need.” for Golf. You can now watch golf almost every week of the year. There’s really no off-season.

“I feel like in other sports, people can’t wait for football preseason to start and it’s just preseason. The game doesn’t really matter.

“We do things like that to try to increase the demand for golf a little bit, because depending on how you want to talk about golf, that product can be diluted by the amount of golf that’s available. It’s from.”

That’s an interesting answer. While this is an offseason request, it is with fans in mind that interest may ultimately increase and the players could potentially benefit from. Considering it’s Fowler, it’s safe to assume that at lea