EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsSOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. -- Five-time major winner Rory McIlroy expressed concern Tuesday that the "Track Two" events that the PGA Tour is attempting to create in its updated format and schedule under new CEO Brian Rolapp will become "glorified Korn Ferry events.""I just think there's going to be certain events that might lose their stature if a sponsor doesn't pony up $30 million, so that's the tough thing," McIlroy said Tuesday, ahead of this week's U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. "An event like last week, the Canadian Open, potentially going to one of these Track Twos ... I don't think the Canadian Open should be one of those."At the Memorial Tournament earlier this month, Rolapp said that details of the two-track model -- which would resemble a promotion-relegation system -- are still being discussed with the Future Competition Committee and Player Advisory Council, but that there is momentum to announce changes later this summer."There's all sorts of questions. It looks like it's more '28 just because of the complexity of not only the competitive model, but also the commercial things you need to do to actually put a new competitive model in place," Rolapp said. "So I feel good where we are, but I also had expectations that it wasn't going to be easy."Proposed Track One might include 15 to 18 tour events, plus the four majors and Players Championship. Golfers competing in Track Two would compete to be elevated to Track One the next season. There would be about 20 to 30 spots available per season, not including 10 golfers who would join the PGA Tour from the DP World Tour.On Tuesday, McIlroy not only appeared to be skeptical of the looming changes, but he also argued that the current golf ecosystem -- with LIV having its funding by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund pulled and the PGA Tour being in a stronger position as a result -- has changed once again."LIV created this false economy where we had to up prize funds and had to cut fields and try to support the top players and all that stuff," McIlroy said. "Which I think needed to happen because that was the only way to retain talent at the time, but now that LIV looks like it's less of a threat, I think, as I said, the old ways of the PGA Tour weren't actually that bad."McIlroy is not alone in his concern. At the Memorial, 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus said he disagreed with some of the proposed changes to the schedule and its effect on individual tournaments."I don't want to comment on the Tour's schedule because I'm not exactly in favor of what they're doing right now," Nicklaus said. "I want to sit down with Brian and [former PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan] and have that conversation. I hate to see tournaments bunched too much together with too many big tournaments too close together. That's a problem, I think, and I think that's going to be a problem for the Tour in the future."McIlroy, who was a member of the policy board for a short time in 2023, said he does not have any influence on the decisions that Rolapp and the players on the Future Competition Committee are working through."I'm not in those rooms. I don't know. I play my schedule, and I'll continue to play my schedule, which is getting less and less as the years go on," McIlroy said. "It's funny. Like I think, as they've done all this work, you start to realize that the way the Tour was before LIV came along was actually pretty good. It was a pretty good structure, and everything sort of worked pretty well."The policy board, which would have to approve the changes, is expected to vote June 22 before the Travelers Championship. Rolapp is also set to give an update on the changes that week.
