Lowry joins PGA Tour's Player Advisory Council
Shane Lowry
Shane Lowry will play a significant role in the PGA Tour's battle with LIV Golf after being named as one of 14 new members of the PGA Tour's 16-member Player Advisory Council (PAC) for 2023.
The PAC advises and consults with the PGA TOUR Policy Board (Board of Directors) and Commissioner Jay Monahan on issues affecting the TOUR.
The Player Directors have selected Maverick McNealy, Adam Scott and Kevin Streelman to run for PAC Chairman via election, which ends February 13.
The leading vote-getter will replace Charley Hoffman on January 1, 2024, as a Player Director on the PGA TOUR Policy Board, serving a three-year term (2024-26).
The other Player Directors are Peter Malnati (2023-25), Rory McIlroy (2022-24), Webb Simpson (2023-25) and Patrick Cantlay, who is serving a one-year term (2023)
Graeme McDowell, who has since joined the LIV Golf League, is longer a member of the PAC.
Lowry has been vocal in his opposition to LIV Golf, calling his win in last year's BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour as "one for the good guys" after a string of LIV Golf members used a stay of their ban from the DP World Tour to play at Wentworth.
LIV Golf has been vocal in its criticism of the Official World Golf Ranking, which has denied them World Ranking points while they go through the application process.
"It's a very tricky subject," Lowry said at the end of last season. "But these guys knew what they were getting in for when they signed up for it.
"If I decided to take six months off golf, and we all live down in Jupiter and 40 of us came together and said, 'Let's play every weekend for $100 a man and see how it goes'.
"Just because 40 of the best players are playing against each other on a Sunday on a weekend down in Jupiter, should we get word ranking points? At the end of the day, it's just a new made-up tour.
"They knew when they signed up for what they were getting into. And like any new tour, they do get world ranking points eventually. But it doesn't happen straight away.
"I do think they probably will get world ranking points, and rightly so if some of the best players in the world are playing. But they knew they were going to drop down the ranking system. That's why they're all involved in suing the tour to try and play in the tournaments so they can gain a few ranking points because they knew what they were getting in for.
"So I don't get their argument that they should have them straight away. I think when they go through the criteria and do all that and get it, yes, that's fine. But I do think they should have done it eventually. But I don't think it should be a case where they give them to them straight away because they knew what they were signing up for. That's how I feel."
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman said, "every PGA Tour player should be thanking LIV, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy," for the arrival of a string of "designated" $20 million this season.
Lowry does not disagree, but he does not think LIV Golf is good for the game.
"I am making more money now because of what LIV has done, but I still don't think it's good for golf," Lowry said. "So because I'm making more money, that's fine, whatever, but the money I would have made if LIV didn't happen, I'd be surviving on that as well.
"I get what they're saying, but they're just trying to be disruptive and make headlines, so I just don't think it's good for golf.
"We're playing for $20 million a week next year some weeks, which is outrageous, and that's fine. I hope it's sustainable because I hope in 10 years time that the tour is still as strong and still growing.
"That would be my fear with what's happening now is just trying to fix it now and not really looking for the future. But I hope in 10, 20, or 30 years when I'm sitting at home as an old man in the armchair watching the golf on TV, it is the same or even better than what I was playing on. So that's how I feel about it."
2023 Player Advisory Council: Ryan Armour, Sam Burns, Corey Conners, Rickie Fowler, Brice Garnett, Brian Harman, Max Homa, Mackenzie Hughes, Shane Lowry, Maverick McNealy, Keith Mitchell, Henrik Norlander, Scottie Scheffler, Adam Scott, Kevin Streelman and Will Zalatoris.
