[Pat Burke]

I remember my own small situation
I was low on the exemption totem pole and was not going to get in many events.  I wrote letters for sponsor exemptions to virtually every event. With a few exceptions, I received courteous a prompt (mostly no exemption) replies.  One of the non responders was my hometown event in LA.  Two straight years with no response (previous year as a q school grad) to letters as well as no response to phone calls.


The next year, I received a sponsor exemption to the Australia TPC which I happened to win.  As defending champion I planned on returning to play the event which just happened to be opposite the LA Open. I was told I needed a release to play in Australia. I applied, and was told no unless I asked the LA Open for permission to miss the tournament.
There was no way I was doing that, and I went to Australia to play as the defending champ.


The whole thing was absurd. And it’s not like anyone missed me anyway haha


But the tour has always played the rules whichever way suited them.


I don’t know enough about the new league to comment. But have no problem with any player looking at any opportunities they feel they should, from either direction

[Brock Lynch]

Should we care?  Week in and week out the PGA Tour is boring....Not that a Super Tour would be any less boring.  If the golf powers really cared about viewership there would be far fewer events with more importance added to the handful that would remain.

Craig,


One could make this argument about every major sport league/tour. Too many games/events played, lowering the importance and entertainment value of each one. I'll pay attention when the playoffs start!


I don't think golf fans are desiring to watch more events that are similar to the PGA Tour.

[Brock Lynch]

It's an interesting dynamic, in my opinion. The Exempt 125 structure was created to favor those not at the top of the food chain and the model has served the PGA Tour business very well. The pension for a guy that stays between 50 and 100 on Tour for 20 years is absolutely off the charts...and you wouldn't know them if you ran into them at the grocery store.

There has to be a counter effort from the Top 20 to get more reward.

Jim,


The Exempt 125 structure has served the PGA Tour and all of its players very well. Top 20 doesn't have any meaning without those outside the Top 20. For those that think the top isn't getting enough, no amount will be enough. 

[Gib_Papazian]

As a card-carrying Libertarian since 1979 (before we had cards, actually), each professional ought to have the right to play wherever and whenever they like. However, it is also the right of the PGA Tour to "reserve the right to serve refuse to anyone" - to paraphrase an old saw.


That stated, any professional who takes the bait (read money, while already incredibly wealthy) and supports that evil, vicious "kingdom" of oppressive, misogynist, theocratic hypocrites has lost my respect. Plenty of them - since the Euro Tour already has knuckled under. But hey, let's ban Trump properties from tournament play. The fucking hypocrisy . . . .


Look, if Al-Qaeda[/size]  or the Taliban scraped together the money and held a lucrative tournament in Kabul, would that be okay with everybody? At what point are these indie contractors simply empowering totalitarian filth? It is their right to pursue whatever appearance fees and prize money that is being offered, but it is also the right of their sponsors to boot them out the door.[/color]
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[/size]How about China? They ruthlessly steal club and ball technology, violating legal patents - and slide their phony knockoffs into America with impunity. You think Callaway (for instance) would be happy about their stable of professionals playing in an event sponsored by the very government that wrongfully steals part of their market share?[/color]
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[/size]Everybody got all excited about players heading to South Africa in the apartheid era, but the filthy, murderous Saudi family is somehow okay? Hey, how about if the LPGA agrees to a tournament in Riyadh? Well, there is already one there - in a country where their women cannot drive a car and must wear head scarves.[/color]
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[/size]Everybody is free to make their own choices, but until a line gets drawn, oppressive governments like the Saudis will never change.  [/color]
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