Columnist Peter Benton: Senior Tour welcomes changes

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2002 | 11:40 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

Although the Senior PGA Tour season began with the recent MasterCard Championship (for 2001 tournament winners only), the "regular season" begins this week with the Royal Caribbean Classic.

As the Tour has lost at least three tournaments from its roster this year, the Tour is obviously forced to do something to ensure more events are not lost.

Perhaps because there has been no real crowd favorite playing regularly (Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino), the Tour has been forced to alter its playbook. Crowd counts are definitely down.

With this in mind, the powers that be have made changes that will be phased in this year and be fully implemented by 2003.

"For more than two decades, the PGA Senior Tour has been one of the best success stories in all of sports, providing great golf and great entertainment value," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said. "Now we are completing a thorough review of the Senior Tour in order to ensure that we continue to offer the best experience possible for spectators, the audience at home and our sponsors."

Among the changes: CNBC telecasts will air earlier, with a majority of the tournaments being telecast live as opposed to tape delayed; fields in 2003 will expand from 78 to 84 players; players will be miked; there will be on-course interviews during tournament play; the gallery will be permitted to walk behind final groups over the last few holes; and there will be post-round question-and-answer sessions with fans.