A new professional golf tour could become a “catalyst” for change on the PGA Tour, Rory McIlroy says. As McIlroy and others teed off at the Farmers Insurance Open Saturday, the Premier Golf League announced its structure for a new professional tour, comprised of 18 annual events and featuring the world’s top 48 players. The news was first reported by Geoff Shackelford.

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“We would like to say that it is our intention to work with, rather than challenge, existing tours for the betterment of golf as a sport, pastime and media property,” the PGL said in a release shortly after Shackelford’s report was published. While that may be true, McIlroy contends a new professional tour could jolt the PGA Tour into spurring much-needed changes. “I love the PGA TOUR, but they definitely, these guys have exploited a couple of holes in the system the way golf at the highest level is nowadays and how it’s sort of transitioned from a competition tour to entertainment,” McIlroy said after his third-round 67 at the Farmers. “It’s on TV, it’s people coming out to watch. It’s definitely a different time than what it was before.” To its end, the PGA Tour wasn’t quite as chummy to the prospect of a new professional tour. “We don’t comment on the business of other tours, real or hypothetical. We’re focused on our business,” the PGA Tour said in a statement to Reuters.

A new tour could provide players with a financial alternative to the PGA Tour. Especially if, as Shackelford reported, tournament purses on the PGL reach $10 million. “It might be the catalyst for something a little bit different out here as well, who knows,” McIlroy said. As for the degree of change needed, the four-time major champion admitted he’s an incrementalist. “I certainly wouldn’t want to lose what’s been built in the last 40 or 50 years, tournaments like Riviera in a couple weeks’ time,” he said. “I’m still quite a traditionalist, so to have that much of an upheaval in the game I don’t think is the right step forward.”

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