Sky Sports pundit blasts major champion's proposal for dramatic PGA Tour changes
Sky Sports pundit Andrew Coltart has hit back at Wyndham Clark's suggestion that the PGA Tour should reduce the size of its fields and put the bottom 20 players each season at risk of relegation.
The US Open champion, one of the tour's new-found stars, told reporters at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at the weekend that he agreed with Rory McIlroy's wish for the tour to be more "cutthroat", making it harder for players to retain their membership.
Clark, who finished second at Bay Hill behind world number one Scottie Scheffler, suggested the tour should reduce its membership to 100 players to increase the jeopardy and make the season more exciting.
But Coltart, a European Tour veteran who represented Europe in the Ryder Cup in 1999, dismissed the idea out of hand, highlighting the impact of previously unknown players like Jake Knapp and Nick Dunlap – both winners on tour this year.
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“Where’s the jeopardy, where’s the cutthroat, where’s the Cinderella story when you give money to a small group of players even when they play poorly? There should always be a cut if you want to get paid. I want to see the guys like Jake Knapp, Nick Dunlap storm to victory," Coltart posted on X.
Clark, 30, only broke into the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) 10 months ago before victories at the Wells Fargo Championship and the US Open sent him soaring up the rankings. He also won the rain-affected AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February and is ranked fifth in the OWGR.
Wyndham Clark has been criticised for his view of how the PGA Tour should look in the future (Getty Images)When asked if he agreed with McIlroy's ideas for the future of the tour, Clark said: “I think it would be amazing if our tour was a hundred guys, and I kind of said this a few times, 100 guys and we have 20 guys that get relegated every time, every year, doesn’t matter who you are. It would be exciting.
"Because you come down to the end of the year, people are looking who is going to win the FedEx Cup, and then you’re looking at who is not going to be here next year. So, yeah, I’m probably with Rory on that.
“I don’t know what that number is, but I think it’s just nice to elevate the product and make it to where the best players are playing on TV more often and against each other.”
However, DP World Tour member Richard Mansell was among the players to take umbrage to Clark's ideas. The Englishman wrote on social media: “Good job they didn’t do this when you were finishing outside 100 on the PGA Tour not very long ago.
"[The] closed shop idea is a terrible one. Remember where you came from. There’s a lot of good players waiting to break through.”
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