“It’s led to a lot more conversations”- PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan on LIV’s impact on the tour’s recent changes

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Manohan addressed the media at the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Sunday, welcoming questions from the media.

When asked if the changes to the PGA Tour had come into effect due to the huge influx of money in LIV Golf, Manohan made it clear that not every PGA decision needed to be influenced by LIV's actions.

Manohan denied the claim, stating that it would be an oversimplification to say this.

"I think there’s always competition and I think there’s always going to be some dynamic that’s going to lead you to try and improve to the best of your abilities," said Manohan.

He added that the changes that the PGA Tour was seeing now were due to the efforts they put in in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

However, Manohan agreed that a few actions were initiated urgently due to LIV's increased presence.

"I think it’s led to a lot more conversations," he said

He said there were more straightforward talks between officials and professionals than usual due to the Saudi-backed league.

“A lot more input. The buy-in and the level of interest and all that, it’s awesome."

Monahan said that it's not realistic to assume if they would have been in the same state with or without LIV's presence, but he believed they would have definitely been close irrespective of its existence.

"Absolutely. I do believe that,” Monahan said.

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Several changes brought in the new PGA Tour season

"The TOUR is going to continue to grow by having the best players in the world committed to it," Jay Manohan said in August.

The first and most significant change is the elevated purse size of several tournaments. In all, there will be 13 elevated events this year with purse sizes ranging from $15-$25 million. Then there will be four Majors with approximately similar purse size. The Tour Championship will see the prize money of $75 million including bonus.

Top players will be required to play in all of these events, thus fans will see more faceoffs among top players.

Rory McIlroy is also the Player Director on the PGA Tour’s Policy Board. He said they [top ranked players] have committed to competing together more often to make the events more compelling for the viewers.

“We’ve all made a commitment to get together more often to make the product more compelling. When I tune into a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, I expect to see Tom Brady throw a football,” McIlroy said.

Another important change is that only top 70 will be qualified for the FedEx Cup Playoffs this year. The BMW Championship will have only 50 players featuring in comparison to 70 in past years. This is being done to make qualification more difficult. The Tour Championship will see 30 players competing this season.

The Tour is returning to the calendar year format. The Q-School will have the Tour Cards once again. The five cards will be given to the top 5 (and ties) at Q-school.

The Korn Ferry Tour will give 30 PGA Tour cards to the top 30. The top 10 on the DP World Tour will also earn the Tour card. Apart from this, the No. 1 in player in the PGA Tour University will also get entry into the PGA Tour.