Veteran Harris English is following a “whatever it takes is what it takes” philosophy when it comes to rumored changes for the betterment of the PGA Tour.
That includes his hint Wednesday at possibly moving the annual start of the season to after the Super Bowl so customary tournaments in Hawaii and on the West Coast will not have to vie with the NFL playoffs for attention.
“Sometimes change is good,” English said on Wednesday at a news conference for this week’s RSM Classic on St. Simons Island, Ga. “I get that they want all the best players playing together more often, and the talk of the tour potentially starting after the Super Bowl I think is a pretty good thing because we can’t really compete with football. So we’ll see, we’ll see where it goes.
“I know it’s going to get tougher and tougher and the goal posts are moving a little bit,” he continued. “I know it’s going to get harder for me. I’m 36 years old, I’m not getting any younger, but we’ll see where it goes. Everybody’s in for the good of the PGA Tour and to make our product the best it can be. Whatever that takes is what it takes.”
English, a massive fan of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, joined the PGA Tour in 2012 and has five victories, including the Farmers Insurance Open in January at Torrey Pines in San Diego. He acknowledged his history of early-season success and his enjoyment for the events in Hawaii, so he “wouldn’t like that at all” if they were off the schedule.
“So it would kind of stink if those tournaments go away and it would change up that West Coast Swing,” English said. “Torrey Pines has been one of my favorites, I’ve had a lot of success there and I would hate to see some of those tournaments go away. But we’ll see.”
Ranked No. 11 in the world and coming off his second stint competing for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, English might not seem a likely supporter for disruption of the status quo. Yet he has faith in new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp — a former NFL executive vice president who spent 22 years with the league — and tour leadership.
“The tour has changed a lot since I first came on back in 2012,” English said. “It’s going to keep evolving. We’ve got some smart guys at the helm. Now with Brian Rolapp coming in, he’s seeing the PGA Tour in a different light.
“I think that’s what they’re going to change down the road, maybe in 2027, is have all the tournaments be equal and not have the eight elevated events and the regular events,” he said. “They’ll have 20, 22 events that are all the same. I think that’s a good model to have. That’s where you’ll see all the top players play every single event because you can’t really afford to take one off.”
English also supports smaller tournaments like fall events such as the RSM Classic in his native Georgia.
“I’m putting my faith in the guys at the helm and having the direction of this tour to make it the best it can be,” English said. “Tournaments like this, I don’t want to see them go away because I know how much they mean to this community. A lot of these fall events, we go to a lot of places in the country that they don’t get a whole lot of golf tournaments and you can tap into a different fan base. I don’t really want to see them go away, but I think they’ll find a time and a place for some of those.”
–Field Level Media
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