A breakthrough 2022 season saw Scottie Scheffler become one of the biggest names in golf, so the PGA Tour may be wise to listen when he offers advice.
The reigning Masters champion has taken umbrage with the format of the PGA's 'Elevated' (or 'Designated') Events, which have been likened to those in the much-derided LIV Golf League. The 17 tournaments offer inflated prize purses with reduced fields, but it's the no-cut element of those competitions that's ruffled Scheffler's feathers.
Speaking ahead of Thursday's opening round at the Players Championship, the 26-year-old underlined his issues with that aspect of the new-look contests. In fact, Scheffler went so far as to suggest he'd rather be booted from such events than be forced to play another round while off his game.
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"The cuts is a hard one because I don't have a strong opinion either way, I'm 50/50 on that because as a player I think a cut is good," he told reporters in Florida. "I think when you go the other side and you go to a sponsor, a cut is bad, but from a players' point of view there is value making cuts.
"If we are going to have an elevated event the week before a major and there is no cut and I show up and play two awful rounds, sometimes you would rather be like, 'Alright, just kick me out of the tournament, let me go regroup and get ready for next week.'"
Fortunately for the New Jersey-born talent, rare is it over the last year or so that he hasn't found himself at least in the conversation for the top places at any given tournament. Scheffler added the Phoenix Waste Management title to his credit in Arizona earlier this year, and he'll return to Augusta, Georgia, hoping to become the first player to win consecutive Green Jackets since Tiger Woods 21 years ago.
It's not the first time a prominent player has picked a hole in the PGA Tour's 'elevated' plans. Upon learning of the organisation's goal of committing its top players to 20 events per year, Jon Rahm —the only player above Scheffler in the world rankings—said it 'put him in a difficult position.'
In attempting to combat the LIV exodus and rival the Saudi-funded league's lucrative offerings, the PGA Tour has earned comparisons to its competitor in the process. However, staunch ally Rory McIlroy has defended the revamped competitions, insisting "no-one's trying to screw the bottom half of the tour" despite such concerns.
While the prospect of bigger paydays without the threat of missing the weekend's action will appeal to some players at these elevated occasions, Scheffler isn't one of them. That's perhaps easier to say on the back of a year as successful as the one he's just enjoyed, but he's unlikely to be alone in his misgivings amid the shuffle.
