2024 PGA Tour Season Was Valuable Season for Fans

Welcome to SI Golf’s Fact or Fiction section, now here What are we watching on a night in December?.

Once again, we are here to discuss a series of statements and a brief explanation that writers and editors will declare as either “Fact” or “Fiction.” Because there is so much gray area in golf, the answers can (sometimes) also be “Neutral.”

Do you agree or disagree? Let us know SI Golf X bill.

Scottie Scheffler FedEx Cup championship Xander Schauffele is widely expected to win the PGA Tour Player of the Year award despite winning two majors.

Bob Harig: TRUTH. It’s rare for two big years to go by without a trophy, but you can’t ignore Scheffler’s year-long dominance. He won a major. He won the players. He won the Olympics. He won tournaments in March, April, June, July and August. He’s won more tournaments than any player in 17 years. That’s a year-long trophy.

Jeff Ritter: TRUTH. Xander’s big wins were a sweet breakthrough and part of an epic year, but Scheffler just capped a year in Tiger’s prime. Scottie POY, case closed.

John Schwarb: TRUTH. Players respect consistency, so in a peer vote, Scottie would be ahead of someone who wins half the year’s majors. Or, if, well, you think the Tour has its finger on the scales in that vote (the full extent of which is never made public), Scottie also has the Tour’s biggest hardware in the Players and FedEx Cups. Case in point.

Sahith Theegala He took an honourable path by giving himself a penalty on Saturday because he suspected there had been slight sand movement in the bunker during his return, but he was right to wonder whether the two-stroke penalty under the Rules of Golf was too harsh.

Bob Harig: TRUTHThe rule is there to prevent a player from creating a better position to hit the ball. It didn’t do much of that. Rules are rules, of course, but the rule has an overly harsh evaluation.

Jeff Ritter: TRUTHWhat I don’t understand is: How could it be Theegala? Negative did he move the sand during his return? Of course we need a rule that penalizes players for improving their lies, but in my opinion a one-shot violation would have been enough for Theegala’s situation.

John Schwarb: FICTION. Improving your lie is one of the biggest sins in the rules and therefore comes with one of the biggest penalties, aside from disqualification. Of course, what Theegala did or thought he could have done did not improve his shot, but there is no grey area in this rule. But the takeaway from this incident is that the player chose honor and that is great to see when so much money is at stake.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan mentioned “fans” more than 50 times during his Tour Championship press conference. He also said there was no deadline for the Tour’s negotiations with promoter LIV GolfThe 2024 PGA Tour season has been good for fans.

Bob Harig: NEUTRAL. This can be debated in many ways. Did fans like the TV product? There seems to be anecdotal evidence that fans are annoyed by something every week when it comes to the various broadcasts and streaming options. As for the events themselves, there were certainly some very good ones. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Hideki, Clark, Scottie, and Rory won them.

Jeff Ritter: FICTIONThere were some epic moments in the season, but the FedEx playoffs were kind of a bust, and let’s be honest: The Tour is starting to miss Bryson, Rahm, Brooks, and others in the LIV round. Anonymous winners and Cinderella stories are nice, but the Tour will see its ratings improve if it can find a way to get the game back together.

John Schwarb: TRUTH. The Tour shouldn’t be so quick to brag. As Bob said, Scheffler’s historic season led the way with many weeks of top-tier success, a great amateur win by Nick Dunlap (who later backed it up with a win as a pro), and the majors largely provided that (it had nothing to do with the Tour, but the tournaments were included in the schedule and many fans wouldn’t know the difference). But there’s still no unity at the top of the game, and many fans have stopped watching, as evidenced by the falling ratings.

The day before the Tour Championship, the Tour hosted its new “Creator Classic” competition featuring YouTube golf personalities — an idea worth keeping and repeating over and over again throughout the 2025 season.

Bob Harig: TRUTH. More are planned for 2025, and the Tour should definitely target that segment of the golf audience. The trick is to translate that into their own product. Can the Tour somehow integrate some of that? Offer a YouTube product that summarizes their tournaments with player interaction and highlights? There’s a lot of room for growth here.

Jeff Ritter: TRUTHThere are some innovative, creative and wildly entertaining content emerging on social media these days (some right here at SI Golf!), from an impressive and expanding group of influencers. It’s smart for the Tour to embrace this.

John Schwarb: NEUTRAL. It’s nice to see the Tour acknowledge YouTubers and their popularity, but more “Creator Classics” in the same format will quickly become stale. How about alternate-stroke matches that pair YouTubers with pros? Or maybe include the Korn Ferry Tour and/or PGA Tour Champions? Creativity hasn’t always been the Tour’s strong suit, so I’m skeptical.

US Presidents Cup captain Jim Furyk went straight down the points list for the general electionsIt’s the right move for the games at Royal Melbourne later this month.

Bob Harig: NEUTRAL. As someone who believes there is a lot of concern about these issues, it’s more about how guys like Scheffler, Schauffele, Morikawa and Cantlay are playing. You need the best players to be strong and that wasn’t the case last year at the Ryder Cup. If I were to argue, you could argue that Harman is easily overlooked. Henley didn’t play in any of them. Homa’s form was poor. All fair points. But is anyone outside the group like Justin Thomas a major omission? It doesn’t seem to be.

Jeff Ritter: FICTION. Is it justifiable to work directly from the points list? Of course. Does it potentially reduce criticism from players left out? Maybe. The only question that matters is: Does picking directly from the points list give you the best possible squad to compete with? And I am skeptical of that. A captain needs to be more creative and think about team dynamics and potential matchups when finalizing a squad.

John Schwarb: FICTION. I am in the camp of using the Presidents Cup as an incubator for the Ryder Cup, since it is nearly impossible to lose the first and the US struggles so much with the second. I would have liked Akshay Bhatia to replace Harman and give the 22-year-old big-stage experience that could pay off later. He was 14th on the points list and second-guessing would be minimal.