Pebble Beach Pro-Am: ‘Diminished’ PGA Tour could scale back number of events says Rory McIlroy

McIlroy will make his first PGA Tour start of 2025 at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am this week and warned against making too many changes to emulate what is on offer elsewhere.

“I don’t think we should try to dumb down golf to appeal to more people,” he said.

“Golf is golf at the end of the day. It’s been this way for hundreds of years. You know, I really like the way golf is and I think a lot of other people do, too, but I still understand the critiques of how the entertainment product could get better.

“Hopefully people find that entertaining, and if not, then I don’t know what to tell them.”

One persistent criticism at PGA Tour events in recent weeks has been pace of play but the four-time major winner admitted there are no easy solutions.

As a signature event, the field will be limited to 80 at Pebble Beach this week but such numbers across the season would deny others playing opportunities.

“There’s a lot of different answers, but not every answer is going to make everyone happy,” he said.

“I could say smaller fields. Smaller fields, smaller fields would help pace of play, but that takes away playing opportunities from people. I think as well, the other thing is when we play in this time of the year, the tee times have to be a little bit tighter together so that they can get everyone through with daylight and everything.

“If you could be able to space the tee times out a little bit more, that would hopefully make things flow a little bit better.”