Rory McIlroy believes golf has become oversaturated and he wants the PGA Tour to cut back its schedule. McIlroy is set to make his first PGA Tour appearance of the season this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and at his pre-tournament press conference he said he "can see when the golf consumer might get a little fatigued of everything that's available to them.".
McIlroy, 35, was not only referencing the split between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf – which has seen the world's best players rarely on the course at the same time – but also the boom in YouTube golf content. Creators like Good Good, Rick Shiels, Grant Horvat and Bob Does Sports have enjoyed huge success by producing golf content, which has been particularly well received by younger audiences.
The PGA Tour, meanwhile, has suffered a decline in TV viewership over the past 12 months, and LIV Golf has struggled to translate its eye-watering investment in its star-studded roster into consistently strong viewing figures. From the PGA Tour's perspective, McIlroy believes it should be a case of less is more, calling on bosses to "scale back" the tournament schedule. There are almost 50 PGA Tour-sanctioned events to be played in 2025, and the world No. 3 feels that is just too many to keep viewers enthused by the product.
However, he insisted TGL – the tech-powered golf league he launched with Tiger Woods earlier this month – is not part of the problem due to its short two-month schedule. "I think it already has been diminished," McIlroy said of the PGA Tour's struggles. "I would say the one thing about TGL is only going to last two months. You get this sort of big burst of it in January, February and a little bit of March, then it's done. It's gone for 10 months basically. I would say that is hopefully somewhat additive to the ecosystem.
