Tiger Woods has by no means been shy about attempting to maneuver golf ahead. From reworking the game as a teenager to co-founding TGL with Rory McIlroy, Woods has at all times pushed the sport into new territory. Now, he is taking up one other challenge-and this time he has some unlikely assist.
In a transfer that feels extra like a blockbuster commerce than a boardroom resolution, Woods is teaming up with former MLB government Theo Epstein as a part of the PGA Tour’s new Future Competitors Committee. The group, confirmed by PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, is tasked with rethinking how the Tour operates: the common season, the playoffs, and even the downtime in between.
Tiger Woods’ legendary caddie used to examine the wind by smoking a cigarette
Bringing Epstein into golf would possibly sound stunning, however his rsum is sensible. He is the architect who ended the Boston Pink Sox’s 86-year championship drought in 2004 and later did the identical for the Chicago Cubs in 2016 after 108 years of heartbreak. Should you’re attempting to interrupt outdated habits and rebuild for the longer term, he is the man.
Rolapp defined the rent plainly: “He is handled aggressive points in different sports activities, and we will be taught from that.”Epstein, now a part of Fenway Sports activities Group possession, will sit alongside Woods, John Henry, and Joe Gorder, plus 5 lively Tour gamers: Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott, Camilo Villegas, Maverick McNealy, and Keith Mitchell.
A Committee Constructed for Change
The PGA Tour hasn’t precisely been standing nonetheless. Stress from LIV Golf, altering participant expectations, and the necessity to join with youthful followers have pushed the Tour to rethink its construction. The new committee’s job is to determine how golf can hold its traditions intact whereas nonetheless providing one thing contemporary and aggressive.
And that is the place Woods is available in. He is greater than a participant now-he’s turn out to be one among golf’s main voices. From his nine-hole venture at Augusta Nationwide to launching TGL’s tech-driven format earlier this yr, Woods is clearly invested within the sport’s future past his personal profession.
Epstein’s position is extra about perspective. He modified baseball not by tearing it aside, however by analyzing how the game might evolve with out dropping its identification. Bringing that very same method to golf might imply reimagining scoring programs, playoff codecs, and even how gamers work together with followers.
The committee hasn’t met but, however Rolapp made it clear he does not need this to be a sluggish-moving course of. The Tour desires adjustments in place as quickly as doable. And whereas nobody is anticipating golf’s model of Moneyball in a single day, the thought of Woods and Epstein in the identical room feels just like the sort of shakeup that might set the PGA Tour on a really totally different path.
For Woods, it is one other step in a legacy that now stretches past main wins and spotlight reels. For Epstein, it is one other probability to do what he does best-take a sport that feels caught, and discover a strategy to set it free.
