and it continues...

[Affo]

I suspect that all the tennis players wished Nadal would not enter the French Open anymore too...but think he may be around for a few more years!!

Seriously, always looking to find ways to keep players interested, I get that the same player winning each event is not fun for some.

[Greensboronclion]

Maybe we can call that Elite tour the Champions tour and base it on low handicap of let's say -5 at TP level. Just a suggestion but the fact is to keep interest in this game something has to be done and the PGA 18 is our flagship event imho. We need to cater to the majority on this as the field in a golf event must be protected. A strong PGA 18 is a must for this game to survive. No offence to anyone just stating my opinion as I love the game.

[Ragnar]

Andy, but you know that Nadal is only good on Sand Tournaments?

[Affo]

Harald, I was hoping there wasn't any tennis fans who would know reading, lol!!

[Crusher]

I suspect that all the tennis players wished Nadal would not enter the French Open anymore too...but think he may be around for a few more years!!

Seriously, always looking to find ways to keep players interested, I get that the same player winning each event is not fun for some.

Exactly. You being admin would make it easy for creating a super-duper tourney for yourself and a few others. That's the kind of idea that would satisfy the members.

As Nike says: "Just do it!"

[cubbies645]

Totally disagree with leagolfer u want to be elite go practice just like i did as i started out on the lowest level and worked my way up, all this crying about the same golfers at the top is absurd, dont believe i did that when i was at the bottom trying to learn the game, it just made me try harder to become a top player thus bam i am swimming at the top again= reward of actually practicing wow what a concept....

[Greensboronclion]

Cubbies645 I respect you for your stand and you are a very good player but you also have helped prove the point for an Elite league also. As good as you and some others are you still finished 42 strokes behind the leader and that is not going to draw new people into the game. In Links all played Pro mostly but there was an Elite league so there is precedent for it. Just saying.

[bobfletch]

Well, I've taken in all the comments about this subject and have my own ideas about how to change things to give others more of a chance of winning a tournament. They might be viewed as a little 'revolutionary', but the more I think about it the more I like it - although it would probably mean a lot of work for Mark!!

Instead of having one 'main' tourney every week, PGA18, we could have two different tours, each having 72-hole events each week - and mirroring as closely as possible the US PGA Tour and the European Tour. I've looked at the courses available and I think we have enough quality courses for each tour to make it happen.

For the sake of argument, let's say each tour has 40 events per season - this would include the Majors.
Players would have to decide which 'Tour Card' they would prefer to have. If they opted for a European card, for example, this would enable them to play in a maximum of, let's say, 30 European Tour events - but also be able to play in 10 US PGA events, and vice versa. So you could look at each tour schedule and decide where you would like to play, perhaps ensuring you played on your favourite courses - providing you adhered to the above criteria. We'd have money lists for each tour, and not all tourneys would attract the same prize money, as in real life.

It would certainly be one way of ensuring we have more tournament winners!

This is just an idea, and I'm just throwing it out there for discussion and maybe something will come of it - and maybe not. It might be that the amount of work involved would be too much for Mark to even contemplate, in which case it's a non-starter. I just felt that making my thoughts public might stimulate some more ideas and opinions...

[Greensboronclion]

Bob that is the best idea I have heard yet and to be honest sounds like it would be a hell of a lot of fun. You would have to manage your schedule and pick and choose when you fly over the other side of the pond. Brilliant and why forums for these games are needed and all opinions can be heard.

[Affo]

Like Bob said, whether it can be done or not is one thing, but the idea itself is a good one. Only change I would make would be to make it a Season length (13 weeks), doing something over a long period of time leaves newcomers at a disadvantage. 13 week Tours, keep if fresh and you could change your mind about your "home" Tour each period. Perhaps a split of 8 and 4 with a Major each Season so 4 in a year...just adding to the fuel...

Lee...no, I can't do that, Mark is the coder, i'm just an ideas and numbers guys.