Five Family Fun: Premier Series Details Emerge

On the eve of the PGA Championship--albeit one that lands earlier than normal and which will take a few days of golf to get excited about--details of the European Tour's long-rumored Premier Series are emerging.

Chief Exec Keith Pelley's concept of a world tour/answer to the PGA Tour will be a select group of events with a presenting sponsor, reports Golfweek's Alex Miceli.

The Premier Series, the brainchild of Tour chief executive Keith Pelley, was created to stem the flood of veteran talent to the PGA Tour and keep younger European players focused on their home tour.

The plan focuses on certain parts of the schedule with increased purses, not to just compete directly with opposite PGA Tour events but also to emphasize certain times of the year on the European Tour.

With the first phase of the series to be announced at the British Masters in mid-October, the Tour intends to implement the program over the next two or three years. The Premier Series would consist of 10 tournaments in 2018 and 12 events in 2019.

Your turn Commissioner Finchem!

Comments

[Buck-Toothed Toff]

Actually, over here we call it "The Masters." The U.S. Masters was started long after we Britons began playing golf, so to call that tournament in southern America is the height of presumption.

[jonathan van knoxville]

Glad to see progress for the ET.

Pelley is always so smartly dressed, but sorry, he does remind me of Elton or Mike Myers.

The Dunlop-Metropolitan, later Dunlop Masters ('46), was the Championship of Champions and started in October 1934.

[Don]

RT,
It's a better leaderboard at Woburn anyway.

[Real Talker]

Hardly Don. Women's golf is boring and a joke. No one would care, except GC/NBC is trying their hardest to make it relevant. The best field in the history of professional golf (according to OWGR ratings) and everyone in the media is trying to downplay it.

[Manku]

Lipstick on a pig...

There are really four tournaments (maybe 5 if you include the Players) a year that are must see TV, plus the Ryder Cup every two years.

Everything else is Sunday back nine viewing only (on DVR at that!)...bigger pursed are great for the golfers, but as a viewer they are meaningless. And "better fields" don't necessarily mean more excitement - Herman's win in Houston was most dramatic golf I've watched this year, and I'd never heard of him!

[Ryan]

The result will be a tour that is interesting 10 weeks a year and the other weeks it is basically the Challenge Tour. The only thing he creates is another cash cow for the Top 50/100 in the world and everyone else will be worse than today

[Don]

Real,
After you stand behind someone 5'3" who averages +270 off the tee get back to me if you still think they are a joke.

[Joe CaLava]

Don, who are you referring to?

[Don]

Sei Young Kim is 5'3" with a 272 avg.

Just look at who CAN'T crack the top 10 in world rank to tell you how good the golf is right now. Anna Nordqvist, So Yeon Ryu, Suzann Pettersen, Shanshan Feng, Hyo-Joo Kim. All major winners and very good players.

[Adamup]

@Don, what is your obsession with constantly promoting women's golf? We're all glad you enjoy it, but who are you trying to convince here?

[John Ball Jr.]

Kudos Don...I agree with you.

[Don]

Adamup,
Every site has a nut, I guess. But ya I'll try to keep it on the topic at hand more often.