There are big changes coming to the PGA Tour schedule as Brian Rolapp and the Tiger Woods-chaired Future Competitions Committee look to streamline the circuit and make it more profitable under the investment of the Sports Strategic Group.
There are some obvious changes, like moving the West Coast tournaments to better dates, cutting some of the lesser events and starting the season after the Super Bowl - but one change I'd like to see, and not just for the PGA Tour, is the return of the World Golf Championships.
The WGCs were founded in 1999 by the International Federation of PGA Tours, made up of the world's leading circuits, to try and bring the best together more often in a series of showpiece events... which sounds like something we're currently crying out for.
They came with a strong brand and brought together the best players from the PGA, European, Asian and other elite global tours.
Then they quietly disappeared in 2023 following the Covid-19 pandemic and the inception of LIV Golf, and it seems as if they've largely been forgotten about - which is a real shame.
They had recognizable branding, real prestige, a great set of trophies named after golfing legends and their own WGC leaderboard, which Tiger Woods leads with a remarkable 18 victories. He even held all four trophies simultaneously at one point.
The WGCs came in four main guises, the 'Championship', the 'Invitational', the 'Match Play' and the 'Champions'. There was also a brief time when the World Cup carried the WGC tag, too.
They weren't always the best events, with the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational showcasing fairly standard parkland golf before evolving into the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational for its final few playings, which looked more like a regular PGA Tour event.
But there were some great events too. The WGC-HSBC Champions in China was always a good watch, as was the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral, and the WGC-Mexico Championship from 2017-2020 was a fantastic event.
It was originally known as the WGC-American Express Championship and travelled around the world, too.
The Match Play was an excellent event on the whole, too, and the lack of match play in elite tour golf is a real miss.
Match Play is one of the key formats of the game that produces some of the best entertainment and drama, so its omission from the current landscape is truly bizarre.
Sure, TV networks don't love a head-to-head match in the final round, but that is a weak excuse for cutting a key competitive format from the elite level of the sport.
A great opportunity
Perhaps we just didn't appreciate what we had at the time, but today's landscape feels like a great opportunity to bring them back.
With LIV Golf fracturing the men's game, there are constant calls for the best to be playing together more often, but that just isn't possible with where we find ourselves today.
The PGA Tour-LIV Golf framework agreement looks to be long gone and both tours are now cracking on with their own businesses.
Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and co. only play against Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood four times a year, but bringing the WGCs back would double that to eight.
It would add some much-needed unity and collaboration in the game, give LIV Golfers the chance to earn more world ranking points and ultimately be a win for fans.
I would propose bringing them back with a qualifying criteria that allows players from all tours the chance to book their place.
Perhaps larger fields could be made up of the PGA Tour's top 50 players, LIV Golf's top 25, the DP World Tour's top 20, the Asian Tour's top 10 and then the top five from circuits like the Japan Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia.
The Match Play would need to be limited to 64 and I'm sure there's a very simply way of figuring that out.
The result would be must-see events featuring the best playing against the best, some prestigious tournaments around the globe and the return of match play in men's professional golf.
The Invitational and Championship could be US-based and the Match Play and Champions could be international in some of the best and most entertaining courses in the biggest markets, like the UK, Continental Europe, Australia, South Africa, Korea and Japan. I'd love to see the WGC-Mexico Championship at Chapultepec return, too.
We've learned from LIV Golf Adelaide that Australia needs as much top-level golf as possible, and Le Golf National has proved itself as a fantastic host of elite golf. They're just two potential destinations.
What do you make of my idea to bring the WGCs back? Sadly I am well aware their return is very unlikely, which is a real shame. Do you miss the series or do the think the game is better without them? Let me know in the comments section below.
