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Does the PGA Tour have a juice problem and will it be resolved on Sunday?

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LOS ANGELES — It was all going to be so perfect. It had stars. It had records. It had one of the greatest stages in all of sports in prime time. It was supposed to be the big day of the PGA Tour.

Two weeks ago in Pebble Beach, Wyndham Clark shot a third-round 60 to break the historic course record and take the lead at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The tour – in theory – could not have delivered a better Sunday. It was the off week before the Super Bowl, which meant it pretty much had the sports calendar to itself. It made the tournament a signature event, meaning one of golf's most iconic venues featured the best players on tour. And suddenly, the reigning US Open champion – the star of Netflix's new golf season, 'Full Swing' – Clark found himself in a Sunday duel with the most exciting young player in the sport, Ludvig Åberg.

And it simply never happened.

Instead, the extreme weather ended Sunday with flooding and downed trees across California. The course took so much water in five days that the tournament could not even be completed on Monday. Instead of an exciting, star-studded prime-time finish with everyone talking about PGA Tour golf, the tournament ended with Clark's Saturday 60 and a whimper.

It's been a strange six weeks for the tour. It's right in the middle of the best part of the calendar before the majors, and there's an ongoing debate about whether the PGA Tour season is running out of juice.

But it could be the Sunday it's been waiting for. At the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club – considered by many to be the best non-major on tour – the final round is starting to get interesting. It has the No. 7 player in the world, Patrick Cantlay, with a two-shot lead. His good friend and No. 5 golfer Xander Schauffele is in second place, along with rising star Will Zalatoris, back in the mix after missing 2023 due to back surgery. Throw back major winner Jason Day and Ryder Cupper Harris English four on an elite course, and this could be the Sunday that brings that juice.

But about that juice.

It's not really anyone's fault. It's not even clear if it's true. But something strange is going on. All six tournaments so far have been won by far. Literal. They were won by the so-called randoms, the 'mules', as some in the golf world like to call them. Chris Kirk. Grayson Murray. Nick Dunlap. Matthieu Pavon. Wyndham Clark. Nick Taylor. All six entered the tournament at odds of 100-1 or higher. Five of the six entered the week outside the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. The only winner within that top 50, Clark, won without a final round.

It hasn't even been bad. Much of the golf was exciting. One tournament was won by a 20-year-old amateur who staked his claim as the potential future of the sport. Two of them contain heart-warming stories about overcoming adversity. Two went to a play-off! And last week, Phoenix became national news for the drunken crowd that breached security.

But no matter how good or bad this sport is, it has become a business that runs on profit. As wars rage on between leagues and private equity firms buying in and all we hear is about ratings, Player Impact programs and stars, there is the debate over whether these results have been a problem.

To recap: Chris Kirk (100-1) won the signature event The Sentry in a low-scoring battle with stars like Sahith Theegala and Jordan Spieth. It wasn't the best tournament, but Kirk's win after taking time off to deal with alcoholism and depression was a great storyline. A week later was more of the same. Grayson Murray (300-1) also had problems with alcohol and mental health, was even punished by the PGA Tour years earlier, and won in a close playoff thanks to two incredible shots in the clutch. These weren't stars, but most agreed these were really cool finishes.

Then at the American Express, which is by no means a major tournament expected to make waves, 20-year-old defending U.S. Amateur champion Nick Dunlap (400-1) took over the golf world by becoming the first amateur to win a PGA. Tour event since Phil Mickelson 33 years earlier. This was gold.

Next up was 31-year-old Frenchman Matthieu Pavon (150-1) who won at Torrey Pines. Then came the weather at Pebble Beach, robbing the tour of its exciting final round, which also led to more of the golf world watching LIV's final round in Mexico. And last week at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix – known for its loud, booze-filled atmosphere – there was a thrilling playoff finish between Nick Taylor and 47-year-old Charley Hoffman. And even that was drowned out by the news that fans had broken control and that weather delays pushed that thrilling finish into the first half of the Super Bowl.

The tour couldn't quite get a win.

Some people turned this into a conversation about LIV's departure and a sign that the tour was no longer a great product. This offseason, the PGA Tour lost a major star, Jon Rahm, and another top-20 player, Tyrell Hatton. It hurt to lose them. No doubt about that. But it's probably misleading to pretend that the results of these tournaments were there because those two weren't there. Kirk and Clark defeated loaded fields with most of the best players in the world. Even Sony, AmEx and Phoenix all had their fair share of top 10 and top 20 players. They just beat those players.

It's probably more about the personality component. Whatever your opinion of LIV, it's at least fair to say that it took many of the PGA Tour's greatest characters to make it. Few are bigger than Mickelson. Brooks Koepka is a star. Bryson DeChambeau is a pariah. Dustin Johnson may not be a big 'personality', but he has been one of the most talked about golfers for over a decade. Rahm and Hatton are two hot-blooded, emotional players with flair. Cameron Smith is an Australian who loves fishing and has a mullet, who was on his way to becoming a bigger star. And everyone has an opinion about Patrick Reed.

Even if you want to criticize the quality of some of these players, the truth is that LIV has plenty of golfers that attract the most attention.

And while it's no one's fault, the PGA Tour players who play the best aren't exactly the apple of their eye. As The Fried Egg's Garrett Morrison noted, only one of the six winners ranked in the top 20 of the PGA Tour's Player Impact Program, which rewards players for bringing business to the tour (tickets, sponsorships, media consumption and engagement of fans). And that was Clark in a rain-shortened event.

The biggest names for the tour right now are Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods. Well, Riviera is only McIlroy's second event in the United States this year. Spieth plays solid golf, but doesn't quite win. And Woods is a 48-year-old legend who averages more surgeries per year than the top 10 players. To add fuel to the market share fire, Woods withdrew from the Genesis, the event he hosts, on Friday due to the flu, and Spieth was disqualified on Friday for submitting an incorrect scorecard. Those are two huge advantages.

The next wave of young stars like Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa aren't quite at the publicity level of those names yet, and even they haven't quite played at their exceptional level this season (yet).

None of this is actually a problem. The tournaments are still good. Many have included cool storylines. Anyone who behaves like this is a big deal and is probably trying to make a big deal out of it. But it's a thing. Something worth keeping an eye on.

“Obviously it's important,” Schauffele said Saturday, “but I was talking to the CEO of AmEx and he was talking about the ratings when Nick (Dunlap) won. People love the Cinderella story. I'm not sure what the ratings were for Waste Management, but Charley was – obviously I'm biased because I'm from San Diego – but he was one of the older guys trying to win here because he was a younger crowd. That's the beauty of the PGA Tour. Anyone can win every week, and there are a lot of stories going around.”

It's just enough that it makes this Sunday somewhat important. Riviera is perhaps the best course the tour plays all year. Cantlay and Schauffele are top-10 players year in and year out, and Zalatoris is someone the golf world is looking for. But even this victory over the rankings comes with a caveat.

Cantlay is not exactly a popular player. He's only No. 19 in last year's PIP rankings and has at times lost points among the crowd due to accusations of slow play and a heavily reputed report that he didn't wear a hat at the 2023 Ryder Cup to protest players not getting paid for the event. Schauffele is ranked No. 5 in the world and one of the most consistent players of his era, but his career is best known for his consistency without winning many major events. In short, even the PGA Tour's big Sunday comes via some of its more ho-hum stars.

But here we have to move away from PIP and popularity. Let's just talk about golf. This last round is going to be great. It will be the best course with the best players and something golf fans should watch.

We are six weeks into an eight-month season. Shut up and enjoy.

(Photo by Patrick Cantlay: Harry How/Getty Images)

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