Paul Azinger: PGA Tour Player Advisory Council is ‘a colossal waste of time’

Paul Azinger, Dan Hicks

Paul Azinger, left, and Dan Hicks last year during NBC's broadcast of the Presidents Cup.

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The PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council, various Tour releases say, is defined in this way:

“The PAC advises and consults with the PGA Tour policy board (board of directors) and commissioner Jay Monahan on issues affecting the Tour.”

And there’s this description of the PAC, from NBC announcer Dan Hicks

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“The PAC is that first step toward consulting the PGA Tour board and the commissioner on issues dealing with the Tour.”

And then there are Paul Azinger’s thoughts on the PAC. 

You may have heard about the council, especially in these days of LIV Golf, the upstart, Saudi-backed series that has signed several Tour stars and will start its second season next month. In response, the Tour has engineered several player friendly changes, and you can expect more back and forth between the sides in the weeks ahead. 

There’s been news on the PAC makeup, too. The latest 16-member panel has yet to be announced officially, but various outlets have reported that Adam Scott will be a part of it for the first time in the 42-year-old’s career. There’s some significance there. The 2013 Masters champion had been rumored to also join LIV at various points, and one would think that PAC membership would mean Scott has committed to the Tour. 

Notably, Scott told the Associated Press that the move to join the PAC was more Tour-focused than LIV-driven. 

“I’m more interested in what the Tour is planning on doing with the Tour, not how we’re fighting a lawsuit, because I couldn’t care less about that,” Scott said Friday at the Sony Open. “I’m more interested in what the future of the Tour looks like.

“And I think I convinced myself that it was worth diving into that.”

And then there are Paul Azinger’s thoughts on the PAC. 

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The former longtime player and current NBC analyst was watching Scott finish his final round at the Sony when Hicks asked his booth mate about the PAC. Below is the full conversation.

“By the way, Scott among 16 players, Zing, appointed to the Players Advisory Council for this year,” Hicks started. “The PAC is that first step toward consulting the PGA Tour board and the commissioner on issues dealing with the Tour.” 

“I was on that PAC for 13 years,” Azinger said. “I thought it was a colossal waste of time. But you think you’re achieving things, but … 

“Really?” Hicks said, laughing, 

“Ah, you know,” Azinger said.  

“Well, you’re sitting in that chair to be honest,” Hicks said.  

“It might be different nowadays,” Azinger said, laughing too. 

“Jeeeeez,” Hicks said. 

And the broadcast flipped to Taylor Montgomery hitting out of a greenside bunker on the 14th hole. 

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Nick Piastowski

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.