“I don’t think it serves everybody” - Stewart Cink expresses discontent with recent PGA Tour policy changes
The PGA Tour has undergone a ton of changes recently, and Stewart Cink has taken notice of them. The American golfer can't help but see how much things are evolving as a result of LIV Golf's ascension and other factors. The Tour has changed its policy fairly significantly in recent years, and golfers have noticed. Not all of them like the changes.
Cink is among them, as he believes the tour's biggest changes are made to benefit the best of the best. That leaves other golfers without any help in the current landscape. He said (via Golf.com):
“If I was in the top 50 I would really like it, but I’m not, so I don’t like it,” Cink said. “Unfortunately I do think it’s probably the right thing to do for golf fans. If all the players play in those and we get great fields playing for a lot of money then it’s great. It’s just I don’t think it serves everybody, and PGA Tour kind of has been about doing the best for everybody, for all the pros and members.”
The golfer understands what brought about these changes, and he refused to blame those in charge for adapting to the times. Nevertheless, he does feel that it's a more closed system now. He continued:
“To me, it’s a little bit out of balance. I understand where it all came from. We had to do something because we had a competing venture out there trying to swallow our players up. We had to give our players a reason to stay, so I get it. It’s not easy, but where I’m sitting I don’t really love it.”
Cink, the 2009 Open Championship winner, understands where the changes are coming from and what necessitates them, he's just not thrilled with them as a whole.
Stewart Cink not thrilled with all the PGA Tour changes
Stewart Cink knows there are opportunities for smaller players, just not very many of them. He added that he believes it's good that top finishers get a shot at moving up to the Signature Events, but said (via Golf.com):
"One thing that personally I am not for is I played in the first year of the elevated tournaments — they were mostly full-field tournaments with cuts and all the top players played — I thought they were just absolutely brilliant. It’s hard to convince me and a lot of the players that aren’t in those fields why being a small field matters. That’s where I stand on it.”
Despite all the changes, he can't get into a shortened field. Cink said he's not convinced that an 80-man field is better in any way, be it competition level or entertainment value, than nearly double that.
Obviously, he's only one player with an opinion, although he is an influential person. Nevertheless, Stewart Cink's complaints aren't likely to convince anyone in power that they shouldn't make the changes they've worked so hard to enable.