It’s been another fascinating year following the PGA Tour, one complete with surprise moves, defections, internal strife, and of course, memorable victories.
And as part of taking our year-end inventory, we’ve been looking through the numbers and tallying up which stories drew your attention — and sharing the findings with you.
For the final days of 2023, we’re offering up a snapshot of the top 10 stories from each of Golfweek’s most popular sections, including travel, the PGA and LPGA tours, instruction and amateur golf.
Here’s a look at the top 10 PGA Tour stories, as clicked on by you (we should note, this list doesn’t include photo galleries or money lists):
10
James Hahn is mad as hell about the changes coming to the PGA Tour and he isn't afraid to tell you why
James Hahn is mad. Like the TV newscaster in the classic movie “Network,” Hahn is mad as hell except he’s mad as hell about the changes coming to the PGA Tour in 2024.
“I mean, I hate them,” Hahn said during a phone interview with Golfweek that interrupted his gym workout. “I’m gonna say exactly what 99.99 percent of fans said about players leaving for the LIV Tour. If our players just said, ‘We’re doing this for the money,’ I would have a lot more respect for them. But how they’re covering up what they’re doing and trying to make it a thing about sponsors and fans and saving opposite-field events. I think that’s all BS.”
9
Maverick McNealy withdraws from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am nine holes into third round
He opened the event with back-to-back 71s at Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula and entered day three 1 under. McNealy called it a tournament after making a double-bogey seven at the par-5 18th, his ninth of the day. He was 2 over through nine holes.
8
Q&A: Lucas Glover unplugged on Ryder Cup snub, why signature events are 'terrible' and whether LIV players should be allowed back
The PGA Tour retired its Comeback Player of the Year award after Steve Stricker won it twice in a row, but Lucas Glover would be the hands-down winner this year after he overcame his demons with the putter and won twice in a row, including a FedEx Cup Playoff event.
Always one of the Tour’s more introspective and reflective pros, Glover is never shy with his opinions, and after the second round of the World Wide Technology Championship, where he made his first start of the FedEx Cup Fall, he touched on a wide range of topics such as the selection process for the U.S. team events — he thinks Keegan Bradley deserved to be picked —whether the Tour’s signature events are still a terrible idea now that he’s exempt for them all and if LIV players should be allowed back on the Tour.
7
Lanto Griffin pulls no punches as Rory McIlroy leaves PGA Tour Policy Board, but who should replace him?
After PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan announced Tuesday evening to the membership that Rory McIlroy was stepping down as a member of the Tour Policy Board with one year left on his term in office, the talk of the locker room at Sea Island Resort has been who will replace him.
“I was actually thinking about it this morning,” said veteran pro Ryan Armour on Wednesday.
We’ll get back to Armour in a moment but let’s begin with Lanto Griffin, the winner of the 2019 Houston Open, who had plenty to say about McIlroy, who succeeded Jordan Spieth as a player director on the board, serving a three-year term (2022-24).
“Rory was great because he was approachable by everybody, but at the same time he was bought by the Tour,” Griffin said. “The head of the board has the same sponsors as the Tour and the Players, there’s influence there – I’m talking Workday, I can’t remember all of them, Golfpass. The guy who’s running the board is being paid by all the title sponsors, it’s a little sketchy to me.”
6
Gary McCord talks PGA Tour vs. LIV, Ryder Cup road woes for the U.S. and good buddy Peter Kostis in this Golfweek Q&A
Gary McCord has opinions. Not breaking any news here, but the long-time golf commentator is one of those guys that if you can get a microphone in front of, chances are you’re going to get a few gems.
The recent Arizona Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony for the Class of 2023 at Paradise Valley Country Club was a chance for many decision-makers, influencers, players past and present and more to mingle, and McCord was among the attendees.
5
PGA Tour approves radical schedule changes, reducing fields in elevated events and ending cuts
The PGA Tour board ratified a radical new approach for the 2024 schedule that will see reduced fields in the new designated events and the removal of the 36-hole cut.
Fields in designated events will be reduced to between 70 and 78 players with no halfway cut. The changes will not apply to all of the elevated events— the majors, the Players Championship and the FedEx Cup playoff tournaments will be unaffected.
4
Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka say PGA Tour, LIV Golf players are 'sick' of Alan Shipnuck after latest book excerpt
Justin Thomas is enjoying a little extended vacation this week in Italy after he and Team USA lost the 2023 Ryder Cup to Europe near Rome.
The 30-year-old two-time major champion went 1-2-1 at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, where his lone win came during Sunday singles against Sepp Straka, 2 up. Thomas, who now holds a 7-4-2 record in the Ryder Cup, also attended Patrick Cantlay’s wedding down the road in Rome on Monday, a day after the U.S. lost the Cup.
While on his vacation, Thomas took to social media to respond to a 3,000-word excerpt of Alan Shipnuck’s new book, “LIV and Let Die: The Inside Story of the War between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf” that was shared on Wednesday. The book is available Oct. 17.
3
Lynch: Jay Monahan's retreat at least spares him the spectacle of Patrick Cantlay’s artless coup
It’s impossible to not empathize some with Jay Monahan, who stepped away as PGA Tour commissioner last week to address an undisclosed medical situation. After all, who among us didn’t feel stricken upon hearing that Chesson Hadley expects to be rewarded for his loyalty in not leaving for LIV? That declaration proves how myopic entitlement has spread from the Tour’s penthouse all the way to its basement.
Monahan’s predicament is unenviable, even without the attending health issues. He’s been cast as the face of a rapprochement with the Saudi Arabian government, an ill-defined but ignominious deal that promises a future in which the Tour will have to rationalize its proximity to regime atrocities. When he announced the agreement on June 6, Monahan knew he’d be widely pilloried, including by his own blindsided members and by the families of 9/11 victims, who were left feeling like useful props in a commercial dispute. The fallout, he would have calculated, could be career-ending.
2
What PGA Tour players are saying about Lexi Thompson playing at Shriners Children's Open
Although a number of intriguing storylines pop off the page at the 2023 Shriners Children’s Open, all eyes will be on Lexi Thompson when she tees off Thursday at TPC Summerlin as part of a group with Kevin Roy and Trevor Werbylo, making her the seventh women to play on the PGA Tour.
Thompson’s exemption caused at least one Tour player (Peter Malnati) to say the move might have been a reach by tournament organizers. Here’s what other PGA Tour players have said about the 11-time LPGA winner teeing it up this week with the men.
1
Jack Nicklaus on a Memorial without LIV Golf's Brooks Koepka, Cam Smith: 'I don’t even consider those guys part of the game anymore'
Jack Nicklaus called the field at this week’s Memorial Tournament “probably as good a field as we’ve ever had.”
“They’re all here,” he said on Tuesday in a press conference ahead of the tournament he hosts at Muirfield Village Golf Club, the club he built and that has played host to an annual PGA Tour stop since 1976.
Jack’s Place traditionally attracts a star-studded field regardless of status but being elevated to a designated event with a $20 million purse hasn’t hurt the 120-man field. Indeed, seven of the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking and 38 of the top 50 are in the field as well as 25 of the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings and 22 of the 27 players that have won on Tour this season.
