PGA Tour stars told by multiple winner: "Be careful what you wish for"
Multiple PGA Tour winner Jerry Kelly has offered his unfiltered take on the circuit's signature events and the knee-jerk reaction to LIV Golf.
Jerry Kelly has warned high-profile golfers to be 'careful what they wish for' as the consequences for a 'closed shop' PGA Tour will be severe.
Kelly opened up on the thorny topic of signature events ahead of this week's Genesis Invitational.
There are only 72 players in the field competing for the top prize of $4m.
Three-time winner Kelly, 58, believes that by reducing playing opportunities from 2026 we will see fewer 'Cinderella stories'.
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And he reckons that some players that voted to shrink the Tour could be gone quicker than they imagined.
"This is just really the top of the top of the Tour getting what they want," Kelly told GolfMagic on the most recent edition of Beyond the Clubhouse.
"Those opportunities between David and Goliath are going to be fewer and farther between."
Kelly reckons it's cool to see a mid 50s veteran chasing one last win.
Or a rookie trying to take down a superstar.
"I want to see a final group with a Monday qualifier in there," Kelly said.
Last week Will Chandler, one of three players to earn his spot in the WM Phoenix Open via a Monday qualifier, upstaged Scottie Scheffler by six strokes.
"I was against the World Golf Championships when they were made, and this is just another iteration of those within the PGA Tour itself," Kelly said.
Kelly can't believe how quickly these events have changed the Tour's competitive landscape.
It's something that he, if given the choice, would have voted against.
He said: "If I was on the board, I would have fought tooth and nail not to go down to 100 cards [for 2026 because] it's just more playing opportunities that are lost.
"These changes are all under the guise of slow play, and that's the comedic part."
Kelly came to the PGA Tour as a full-time rookie aged 29 in 1996.
He spent three years on mini tours and three more on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour.
Kelly sees today's PGA Tour board as a popularity contest.
"I always told the guys when you vote for your PAC members, vote for people who came up the same way you did," Kelly said.
"It's a constituency programme. Instead, it turned into all the best players got nominated because it was a popularity contest.
"Next thing you know, they're not looking out for the little guy as much, and they get told that you're the only one [fans] want to see, yet everybody wanted to see somebody try and take down Tiger."
He continued: "Access is big and the more you close the shop, the more I think you're threatened.
"Taking this down to 100, you may have an injury, you can have a bad year...there are going to be some guys who voted for this who are going to be gone a lot quicker than they ever thought they would be. Careful what you wish for."
Kelly chalks up the Tour's desire for smaller fields and consolidated money as an overreaction to LIV's disruption to the pro game.
"If we didn't react so hard to the PIF and LIV, then I think the status quo would have been maintained a little bit, but raised purses beyond what we could handle is what we've done," Kelly said.
"It was a knee-jerk reaction, and they waded through it ok, but it definitely changed the product for now.
"I don't know what the future looks like, I have no idea, but this has fractured the PGA Tour a bit, I think it is by far the best product in the world."
Kelly is hopeful for the Tour's prospects going forward.
"The tournaments are the product, a little bit more than the players are the product.
"Tiger's still the best needle-mover on the planet, Rory is fantastic for the game, and I love his candour.
"But every single one of these guys is replaceable in two or three years.
"Look what Scheffler's done, nobody saw him coming. There's some incredible people behind the stars all of the time.
"The fact that they're winning on Pebble, on Colonial, Harbor Town, Riviera. I could go down the list. Those products create stars, it's pretty awesome."
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