'There’s A Guy In This Room That Was Leading The US Open The Other Week And There Was Maybe Five Golf Shots Shown From Him'

The PGA Tour's new $3bn SSG deal promises to maximize the tour's growth potential and create a better product for fans.

It's something Max Homa is hopeful for, but how exactly will this new cash injection improve what fans get to watch on TV?

One pro suggests a very simple method - show more golf shots.

Englishman Callum Tarren, a former PGA Tour China Order of Merit winner and runner-up at 2022's RSM Classic, was speaking to Golf Monthly about how PGA Tour broadcasts can be improved, and cited an example from where he didn't get the TV time he felt he deserved.

"I think from a player standpoint, I think how they improve fan engagement for me, the TV coverage for one doesn’t show enough golf," Tarren told Golf Monthly on how SSG will look to grow the PGA Tour.

"The majority of the time they show a handful of players, which are obviously your top guys, the Schefflers, your Homas, your Tigers. They don’t show the field, and I think that’s a huge part of fan engagement and a fan experience.

"There was actually an example, not that I’m directly saying that I should have been on the TV but the US Open at Brookline, I think I had the lead after maybe 22 holes through 35 holes and I was hardly shown on TV.

"We were actually in a player meeting and another player said to commissioner Monahan, ‘There’s a prime example, there’s a guy in this room that was leading the US Open the other week and there was maybe five golf shots shown from him’. 

"And it’s right. I watch golf all the time and there’ll be an unknown name who’s up there on the leaderboard but you hardly see them. And I think that’s wrong. I honestly really do think that’s wrong, and I think that’s one way that SSG will look to improve fan engagement.

"In regards to return on investment, I have no idea. That’s such large sums of money that I honestly don’t know how they would reap any of that back, I mean there’s obviously ways of doing it but I’ll leave that to the business experts."

Tarren is hopeful that the new investment will be of benefit to the tour and the wider game.

"It’s very interesting because obviously I think it was middle of last season we heard about the PGA Tour and the framework agreement with the PIF. I don’t really know where that currently is, I think there’s only a handful of players who know what’s going on," he said.

"The agreement with SSG I think is positive for the PGA Tour, we’ve had very little information of how it’s going to look going forward. I think it’s good for the PGA Tour, there’s all this investment coming in.

"I also think there’s a lot of things to make decisions on. I believe they’ve got to use this money to make the product better for not just the players but the fans as well, which I think they can do but it’s gonna take a lot of hard work and a lot of conversations but in the long run, who knows when that’ll be. If it’s 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 10 years down the line, I think it will be good for golf, not just golf on the PGA Tour but golf worldwide."

One big decision that will be dominating boardrooms behind the scenes is over the future of LIV Golf and what happens to its players if the PIF does invest in the PGA Tour. Some believe the players should be fined, others, like Rory McIlroy, have conceded to just let them back.

"I honestly don’t know how that would look but listen as a golfer and as a golf fan myself, I know I play on the PGA Tour but I want all the guys, the best players in the world, to be playing every single week," Tarren said.

"It’s a tough question that because if you were to say ‘Ok, a bunch of the guys are going to come back’ that’s great. It’s gonna push people out and make some people mad but it’s like anything, you can’t just walk back onto the PGA Tour. Especially if you’ve left and you haven’t been a member for two or three years, it’s just not how it works.

"I don’t know how it’s going to look, because you have Major champions, you have past winners, you have guys who were in the top 20 or 50 in the world, but they made their decisions to obviously go to LIV and a lot of people were financially rewarded for those decisions.

"I honestly don’t know how it will look. I think PIF, PGA Tour, SSG, DP World Tour, Asian Tour, I think there’s so many decisions that all these guys have to make but I honestly think they could create something just out of this world if everyone got their heads together and looked at the bigger picture for world golf. I really do."

Tarren was speaking to Golf Monthly via his sponsor Husqvarna, whose products he uses to maintain his yard when back home. 

"I’ve always been a kind of outdoorsy kind of guy. I think it comes from my dad, as a kid he was always out cutting the grass and keeping everything tidy, and I just kind of picked it up from him," he said.

"We moved house last year which allowed me to use alot of Husqvarna’s tools and I’ve been enjoying it to be honest. It keeps me busy when I’m at home and something that I have a passion for."