ATLANTA — The winner of this week’s season-ending Tour Championship, which starts Thursday at East Lake Golf Club, will take home an $18 million bonus.
The top 29 players in the FedEx Cup Playoffs points standings will compete for the top prize, after Will Zalatoris, who was third in the standings, had to withdraw on Tuesday because of a back injury.
But the week’s biggest news could come Wednesday when PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan addresses the media. Details have started to leak from a players-only meeting that was organized by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy at last week’s BMW Championship in Wilmington, Delaware.
The 22 players at the meeting were presented with a proposal that would include converting as many as 15 events to tournaments with smaller fields and bigger purses to entice top players to remain with the PGA Tour. More than two dozen PGA Tour members have left to join the rival LIV Golf series that is being financed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, including past major champions Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed.
The players have presented their proposal to Monahan. A player familiar with the discussions told ESPN that the plan is still in its infancy, and he wasn’t sure how quickly the tour could implement the changes if it moves forward.
A source told ESPN on Tuesday that Monahan is expected to reveal significant changes during his news conference at East Lake.
“Change for an organization that has such a long history as the PGA Tour does, I think it’s slow to change in general, and so if you’re making potentially big changes, they can’t happen necessarily overnight,” defending FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay said on Tuesday.
Cantlay declined to talk about what was discussed in Delaware last week. He did say he would support changes that strengthened the PGA Tour’s position in its ongoing battle with LIV Golf.
“I think anything that’s better for viewers and trying to attract the most amount of…
Source : espn
