PHOENIX — The PGA Tour Champions has reached its season finale at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. After two playoff events, there's a week off before the postseason finale.
There are 36 golfers who qualify for the tournament each year and while Champions stalwart Bernhard Langer is not here for the first time
in his senior tour career (since 2008), the field has most of the rest of the big names on the circuit.But could the Champions tour look dramatically different in 2027 and beyond after a number of LIV defections? What about the prospect of Tiger Woods finally taking up senior golf?
Steven Alker, a two-time winner of the season-long points race, was
asked at a media day on Monday, Nov. 2, at Phoenix Country Club about those prospects.
"It's a Catch-22," Alker said of players 50 and older leaving LIV and being granted access to the PGA Tour Champions. "We want players to keep the profile of the tour up. And then you got guys on the tour who don't want those guys at all.
"I'm not gonna name names, but that has been talked about on the PAC board and that's an ongoing thing. Where do you draw the line? Who you should be penalized more than some other guy, you know? I think that's going on right now. Some guys have gotten six months, some guys got a year [suspension]. Do we change the rules for those guys coming out? There's a lot of talk going on right now. ... but that's up to the player directors and our president, you know, for where that goes. But I can tell you there are talks going on. And I know it's very split."
"You know, yes, we should try and keep the profile to keep the tour going. I'm all for that, but then on the flip side, who do we let in? What's the time frame here? What are we working on, you know? So it's tough."
What about Tiger Woods playing PGA Tour Champions?
Woods and Bobby Jones each have nine U.S. Golf Association titles and the general assumption has been that Woods is eyeing a U.S. Senior Open trophy to break the tie. But what about a somewhat regular senior schedule for Tiger?
"This talk, yeah, he seriously wants to come out, there's inside talking," Alker said. "He wants to come out and play, and in particular, I think the big events, like the invitationals or Stricker's event and the Furyk event. He's got his buddies who really him to do their events. You got the USGA, you got the U.S Senior Open. He wants to add to his tally, you know?
"I seriously think he'll come out if he gets fit and in the right mind."
Go to Golfweek.com for more coverage of the PGA Tour Champions.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Steven Alker says some PGA Tour Champions golfers don't want LIV golfers
