Dan Rapaport has lauded Brian Rolapp for a brilliant move as the PGA Tour prepares to move away from no-cut events in the coming years.
There is reason for optimism after Rolapp addressed the media on Wednesday ahead of The Players Championship.
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The PGA Tour CEO outlined an exciting plan for the future that involved a number of notable changes, including an intention to bring an end to limited field signature events.
The PGA Tour have been praised for planning to reintroduce elevated events with cuts
The signature events have divided opinion for several years now. While they do bring the best players together a lot more often, they clearly help separate the top stars from the rest of the tour, particularly as there is rarely a cut at the halfway stage.
In this era of fewer players keeping their full card, that model just did not seem sustainable. So it is no surprise that many were encouraged by Brian Rolapp announcing plans to have elevated events with around 120 players and a cut.
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And speaking on Dan on Golf, Dan Rapaport heaped praise on Rolapp for getting rid of events without a cut.
Photo by Tracy Wilcox/PGA TOUR via Getty Images
“I’d kiss the man if I could. I’ve been calling for this since the beginning of these no-cut, limited field events. They suck, they stink. And the only reason they made those is an overreaction to LIV,” he said.
“But what I will tell you is there is a tried and true method for a golf tournament, a size and a format, 120 players with a cut. That is a differentiator for pro golf, the meritocracy aspect of it. Whether you’re Scottie Scheffler or the last guy in the field, if you don’t shoot a certain score over your first two rounds you’re out, you’re going home with nothing in your pocket. I think it’s a huge differentiator for the PGA Tour, and I don’t know where anyone got the idea that less players in a tournament is a better idea.
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“They basically recreated the WGC model, and the WGCs stunk. They were terrible. The first two rounds were f—— soulless, there’s no drama. And the best recent encapsulation of the magic of the cut is Scottie Scheffler at Riviera. He had a streak of 65 straight cuts or whatever it was. He didn’t want to miss the cut at Riviera, he had a six-footer for par on 18. He made it and fist-pumped that s—. You’re never going to see that if there’s no cut.
“So the cut coming back is fantastic, fantastic news. We don’t need to recreate the wheel when it comes to the actual competition.”
When Scottie Scheffler last missed a cut on the PGA Tour
It will be fascinating to see how every player is impacted by the reintroduction of events with a much more severe cut.
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Cut streaks in the current game do not carry the same weight as when Tiger Woods went 142 events without missing a weekend between 1998 and 2005.
It is still impressive that Scottie Scheffler has gone more than 60 starts without missing the cut. You would have to go back to the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship for the last time he went home early.
In truth, Scheffler has rarely flirted with what would probably be the cutline in that time anyway. But he has potentially not got the credit he deserves because there has often been that safety net if he got off to a nightmare start.
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