What was the most exciting tournament you watched in 2024?
Each week, we ask our panel of writers, PGA members and golf industry experts to weigh in with their views on the hot topics of the day.
The CME Group Tour Championship featured an exciting two-player race between Jeeno Thitikul and Angel Yin that came right down to the final hole and a $4 million prize. Nelly Korda (T5) was also in the hunt, vying for her 8th victory of the season and Lydia Ko, newly minted as a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, posted a final round 63 to nab third place. Total prize money for the LPGA in 2025 will be $131 million which is more than double what it was four years ago. The Tour seems to be in a great place with plenty of star power and lots of financial support, yet it still doesn’t get the attention it perhaps deserves. What’s missing?
Jim Deeks, Fairways Magazine (@jimdeeks): Such a good question. The quality of play is outstanding, the personalities of the players are exceptional, it’s all so much better than it was a decade ago… but you’re right. TV audiences aren’t big, and from what I can tell on TV, on-site galleries are often very sparse (notwithstanding the majors, and the CPKC (Canadian) Women’s Open). Non-golf sports media coverage of women’s golf is almost non-existent, even though many of the players are telegenic, quotable, and cooperative. Please don’t take this as a racist or xenophobic comment, but I think the problem is that SO many of the top players on the LPGA today are not American, and American galleries and audiences just can’t get excited about watching names they can’t pronounce, and players who all look the same — i.e., different. Sad, but true.
Craig Loughry, Golf Ontario (@craigloughry): The LPGA Tour has done an amazing job the last few years, a combination of elite athletes, smart business decisions (great hires and supporting staff and partners) and a social shift to support women’s sports have all played a role. If only Men’s Professional Golf could learn from the LPGA Tour.
Michael Schurman, Master Professional / Hall of Fame Member, PGA of Canada: If I knew the answer, I’d be very rich. I enjoy watching women play, but normally, I gravitate towards the majors. This is always the “chicken and the egg” argument. The Ladies want ‘equal pay for equal work,’ which requires increased TV coverage. The networks say they want an ROI, and they don’t get it from the current number of viewers. The product is excellent quality, and the players are obliging and appealing, but of the people who play golf, 75% are men. Men tend to be attracted to being spectators more than women, which reduces their % even more. The simple answer is that the number of available golf fans isn’t big enough, and the number of ladies’ golf fans is less. How often do you see a group of women going to a hockey game, football game, basketball game or baseball? Lots of women go with a male friend or another couple, but rarely do you see a group of women. However, you do see women attending an opera, theatre, or fashion show with other women.
TJ Rule, Golf Away Tours (@GolfAwayTJ): I do believe it’s getting more attention than it has in recent years, likely because there is finally a dominant player on tour, with the incredible year that Nelly Korda has had. She’s what the sport needs, an American at the top of the sport, a personable young lady with incredible skill. Hopefully she can keep it going and dominate the way Tiger did in his prime, and the others will have to work hard to de-throne her. That’s what the LPGA needs, a face of the game that they can market.
Hal Quinn, Freelance Writer, Vancouver: Aside from the recent Paul-Tyson fiasco, in the hyper-competitive streaming universe, diversions like sport get the attention they earn. For the past generation, the LPGA Tour has been dominated by metronome-like swingers (slow metronomes at that) who pop it down the middle and show no emotion after eagles or bogeys, or during the ritualistic half-hug and back-pat on the 18th. That doesn’t exactly drive ratings, nor do tape-delayed Saturday broadcasts as the big-spending CME execs colourfully protested about their grande finale. For now, the purses have been supersized. At the same time, a lot of big names have retired, so the jury is still out. But that also applies to the PGA Tour. Sponsors — now asked for so much — only care about eyeballs on their ads. Both Tours have to deliver to get what they deserve.
Peter Mumford, Fairways Magazine (@FairwaysMag): I watched the reports from the ANNIKA Pro Am that featured WNBA star Caitlin Clark. The crowds were huge, and the excitement level was higher than the tournament itself. The LPGA is doing a lot of things right; Nelly and the top LPGA players are fun to watch, and the competition is usually compelling, but there doesn’t appear to be a superstar personality that can reach beyond the usual golf media and the hardcore fan base to engage casual fans and even non-golf fans. Maybe Nelly can grow into that role. She’s in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue and she has single-name recognition that’s easily marketed. Maybe she just needs another season like 2024.
In the final event of the PGA Tour Fall Series, almost as much attention was focused on players on the bubble to keep their Tour card for 2025 as on the players vying for the win. Like Qualifying school and Friday cuts, players fighting for a chance to move ahead in their careers are often more compelling stories than winners and elite players who are financially secure for generations. Much of that will be missed with so many no-cut events and limited fields next year. It seems with so much focus on money and elite players, some of the romanticism of professional golf is lost. How do you see it?
Deeks: Precisely as you describe it. I’m very disappointed with this new direction of the Tour and will probably watch even less golf than I’ve doing the last few years. A guy “winning” a Tour card, and a guy just missing a Tour card, and a guy blowing a two-footer to miss the cut… all have been compelling stories that will be substantially reduced, and that’s too bad.
Loughry: The Bubble Boys for a 2025 PGA Tour Card (top 125) was the compelling story, but it was good they had more than one to follow. Who wasn’t cheering for Joel Dahmen? What a great ending to that story and year. Unfortunately, I see the Tour product becoming a bland one with their recent decisions on direction: no-cut events, fewer players in the field, etc. We’re going to miss longshots, rookies and Cinderella stories, and that is and will be a shame. This hopefully improves the pace of play and TV timing as they have more flexibility with smaller fields to deal with things like weather delays.
Schurman: I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. “We are looking at the beginning of the demise of the PGA TOUR.” As you call it, the “romance’ is going. Things changed with Tiger. He was a “Rock Star” and was treated that way. Security tightened more than a lug nut on a tractor-trailer wheel. Autographs have become impossible to get. The entry fees to pre-tournament Pro Ams are higher than we used to pay for a house. Tickets to regular events are pricing a father/son day together toward requiring a mortgage plus the exorbitant parking costs and F&B, and worse, the sponsors can no longer justify their investment as the charitable contribution is waning. Since Tiger arrived, endorsements shrivelled from companies contracting a ‘stable’ of players to one or two well-paid ‘studs’ so they could demand more from their reps on Tour in order to compete at a higher level with their marketing. Instead of using Tiger to build sustainable programs, they ‘rode’ him. The next windfall landed along with Covid, and a repeat of opportunity was lost. By sheer accident, there has been some retention of the influx of new players, but not as a result of anything the PGA TOUR did.
Rule: I love watching guys fight for their lives towards the end of the year, seeing journeymen like Joel Dahmen play well on the weekend to keep his card by a shot, and other younger players fighting to get another shot at the Tour for one more year, thus locking in tens of thousands if not more of sponsorship money and setting themselves up. I don’t like the way the Tour is headed; it’ll just be tougher for marginal players to give more than one or two years of effort and money to achieve their dream. That’s not a lot of margin for error in a game that requires much.
Quinn: The romance is well and truly gone. That’s what happens with unrequited love. Have mentioned the PGA Tour pool that started with 1,500 of my closest friends. It’s been going for decades. The drop out rate in the past two seasons (none of that Fall stuff or cross over or Fall season whatever Ponte Vedra called it is in the pool) has been astounding. “Don’t give a s#*T anymore” is a common exit comment, leading “I don’t care anymore” and “Who cares?” by a fair margin. Those former poolsters are avid golfers, and were avid golf fans.
Mumford: It seems like the PGA Tour wants an All-Star game every week and the hell with everybody else. But the way the Professional Greed Tour is going will miss so many great stories and weekly drama. Not too many golf fans get excited because the purse is larger and Scottie, Rory and company are getting richer, but they will miss up-and-comers having a real chance at a life-changing story.
Even though the DP World Tour and Asian Tour have already started their 2025 seasons, we’re recognizing this lull between now and New Years as an off season to recognize some of the great achievements from the past year. With that in mind, what event on any Tour stands out to you as the most exciting in 2024?
Deeks: I’m no fan of Bryson DeChambeau (or LIV) but the finish in the US Open, when McIlroy missed a couple of short putts coming in, was pure drama and (for us Rory fans) pure pathos. At my age, memory is short, but that tournament will be remembered for a long time.
Loughry: For me, the most entertaining event was the US Open. It had some drama over the weekend, especially the last few holes and particularly the 72nd hole.
Schurman: Exciting might not be the right word, but the Men’s US Open sure was gravitating. Rory looked every bit to be the winner until he finished with three straight bogies, missing two putts from gimme range. DeChambeau (the winner) got a lot of credit for his stellar pitch and one putt on the 72nd hole, but he basically had a ‘free’ try. If he fails, he is in a playoff; if he does it, he wins. Regardless, he did what he had to do when he had to do it. Things took place so fast that I doubt a lot of fans on the course knew what happened until they got home and saw the reporting on TV.
Rule: The event that sticks out in my mind is the US Open, with that incredible back nine of highs and lows between Rory and Bryson. In the end, Bryson was a deserved winner and his attitude and actions following the drop of the last putt certainly won him some fans that he had maybe lost when he went to the dark side and joined LIV. He definitely won some points from me in the way he handled the situation and although I don’t consider myself a Bryson fan, I don’t despise him as much as I did a year ago! It was a shame Rory couldn’t win his first major in a decade, but it was a memorable final round at Pinehurst, nonetheless.
Quinn: Well, more righteous than exciting, and it’s 1 and 1a. After watching him play, then seeing the You Tube videos of his 6,200-yard home course — Glencruitten in Oban, Scotland (birthplace of my go- to single malt) — became a big fan. So, when Robert MacIntyre won the Scottish Open that was as fun to watch as any tourney in years. And it was beauty follow-up to winning the Canadian, eh? What a great guy and a refreshing tonic in a golf world turned unpalatable in 2024.
Mumford: It’s hard to argue against the U.S. Open, although that was more nerve-wracking than exciting if you’re a Rory fan. Two more come easily to mind: BobbyMac winning his home Open was brilliant; and Lydia Ko capturing Gold and a spot in the Hall of Fame was thrilling.
