19th Hole
Does this GolfWRX member have brilliant ideas to improve the PGA Tour, or is he WAY off base?

In a thread boldly titled “The traditional PGA Tour model of professional golf is dead. Time for change,” GolfWRX member mjen43 says owing to decline in corporate investment in the PGA Tour (is this fake news?), the Tour needs to radically overhaul its business model.
If you’re of the opinion that the shark has been thoroughly jumped, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
He writes
“I think we are close to seeing a group of privately wealthy billionaires establish a golf league, similar to the likes of the NBA, NHL, NFL. This league would pit teams of golfers against each other and allow them to compete, as teams, for a world championship. Players would be drafted to each team and provided with playing contracts, just like other sports leagues. Each team would be able to construct a championship caliber venue in every major city and host weekly tournaments.”
Wait? What? Why? Forgetting about the specifics of what this imagined league would entail, what’s he seeing in the tea leaves to suggest a billionaire cabal is poised to start a golf league?
Mjen43 thinks the resultant product will be better for fans than the current PGA Tour model.
“1. Every city would be able to see the worlds best play. Since players would be under contract and the team would play a regulated schedule, fans everywhere would have an opportunity to see the best perform.
“2. No name anonymous tour drones would suddenly bring value to the competition. As it stands now, nobody has any personal investment in seeing these types play/compete. Make them apart of a team though, and add in some fan/location based tribalism, and all of a sudden you care how about how your 32 year old anonymous tour pro rookie is performing.
“3. Cool jerseys. How awesome would it be to be able to buy, say, a Rickie Fowler #69 jersey from your local pro shop if you’re a fan of the Bakers Bay Unplayable Lies and get belligerently drunk with it on at your local sports bar?”
From the players’ perspective, mjen believes players will be seduced by guaranteed team contracts and the teams bearing the cost of trainers, caddies, coaches, etc.
Is this madness or brilliance? Let’s see what his GolfWRX members have to say.
DavePelz4 says
“Lots of points for creativity and plating but the taste is a bit short.”
Keads writes
“I’d be the first sign up for season tickets. As I’m sure the rest of my PNW members would echo, it is brutal how little exposure we get to the games best. One of the most beautiful cities in America and have no regular stop.”
Hawkeye77 says
“Fantasy land – and not the first time almost those exact suggestions have been made on here, so not sure if recycled or borrowed, but the premise is incorrect and the “solutions” just plain silly – golf is still an individual sport and there is no significant movement to “team” competitions. NCAA is a minor blip on the radar screen for 99% of the viewing public, including people that watch golf and the President’s Cup is hardly driving any trend bus. New Orleans? Who cares. Ryder Cup is unique. Local golf team? LOL. And high school golf as support for your “argument” or a “model” for team golf as you describe? You can’t be serious about that. Great high school golfers and college golfers aren’t participating like they are on the basketball team. Billionaires who earned their money didn’t make it being stupid.”
15th Club says
“Thanks to Tim Finchem’s skills as a Washington lobbyist, the current PGA tour has a retirement fund with a highly complicated structure and a fabulously favorable federal tax treatment. Absolutely nobody in Tour golf wants to rock that boat. Which is good because a Pro Golf League with teams and jerseys and a draft is the most fantastically bad idea I have ever heard in connection with the game.”
These are just a few of the initial replies to the original poster’s suggestion. Not surprisingly, he responds to many of the replies, and a robust debate has ensued. Get your popcorn!
The interesting question, really, isn’t whether you accept or reject mjen’s proposal outright, but how the PGA Tour’s product can be improved. GolfWRX members are keen to weigh in on this as well.
You’ll want to check out this thread to see what the forum faithful are saying. Let us know what you think about this stroke of genius/lunacy and potential improvements to the Tour as we know it.
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.