Rickie Fowler has become the latest to have his say on the current state of the PGA Tour, and feels a number of changes could be made to improve the product of golf’s leading circuit

Rickie Fowler had his say on the PGA Tour(Image: Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)

Rickie Fowler believes the PGA Tour would benefit from offering fewer playing cards and fewer tournaments in order to help the sport’s leading circuit improve its product.

Fowler is in action at the Rocket Classic this week alongside the likes of Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley, and Patrick Cantlay. Despite this, not all of the Tour’s big names are in action in Detroit, amid the tournament’s position in the schedule coming between a Signature Event and a major championship.

Fowler’s commitment to the Rocket Classic comes as no surprise, having won the event in 2023. Two years on, the former world No. 6 was quizzed on what improvements could be made to the PGA Tour calendar to help the tournament.

In response, the 36-year-old spoke on a number of topics that could well help the event and the PGA Tour, which include reducing the membership and the schedule, as well as getting rid of the Signature Event title. “It’s tough,” he told reporters.

“It will be interesting to see how things shake out and, you know, do Signature Events — you know, if you’re looking long term, do just all events become big events and guys just play a pretty similar schedule and not take many weeks off?

“I feel like there needs to be less events, less cards, the Tour gets elevated, the product is a little bit more. There’s more continuity from what you would say a top event to a lower-level or an opposite field event. You know, sometimes it’s tough, you have to remove yourself from your current situation.

Rickie Fowler is in action this week(Image: Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“But I don’t think the PGA Tour should necessarily have secondary or opposite field events. I think the PGA Tour product is the PGA Tour product. So there’s a lot you could go into, but to me a PGA Tour event should be a PGA Tour event and it shouldn’t be necessarily, well, this one’s elevated or this is an opposite field.”

There is no doubt that not everyone will be in agreement with Fowler’s stance on reducing the number of cards on offer, especially those who find themselves lower down the PGA Tour pecking order. The six-time winner is not the first big name to share this opinion, though.

Rory McIlroy expressed a similar stance earlier this year when calling on the Tour to reduce fields in order to help the pace of play. “There are a lot of different answers, but not every answer is going to make everyone happy,” he said in January. “Smaller fields would help pace of play, but that takes away playing opportunities from people, and that’s going to p*** some people off.”