Why has PGA Tour's Dell Match Play been cancelled in 2024? Real reason explored

The PGA Tour is officially canceling the Dell Match Play event. There is no replacement yet on the schedule, but this change to the Tour will take place in 2024, not 2023.

According to Golf Week, Jordan Uppleger, vice president and executive director of PGA Tour championship management, announced the development.

“We’re formally announcing today that the 2023 World Golf Championship Dell Technologies Match Play will be the final playing of the event here at Austin Country Club, and not be included on the 2024 calendar or moving forward. The event has had an incredible run here at Austin Country Club.”

He continued that the event had exceeded expectations but was coming to an end regardless:

“I was told you had to have three main components to have a successful event, you had to have an active title sponsor, an engaging country club and a supporting community and client base. And there is no doubt that this event has exceeded all of those expectations as we’ve been here since 2016.”

Uppleger finished by saying that this isn't necessarily a shocking move for the Tour event.

“I think you’ve seen this throughout our history. Look at the markets we’ve been in, and we’ve had to exit markets for certain reasons. And obviously, we would look at Austin, Texas, in the future. It’s not on the ’24 calendar, but clearly look at the success that we’ve had here. There’s no doubt that our team would be looking at that.”

For now, the Match Play is coming off the schedule. It may return in the future or it may be replaced entirely, but that's a decision the Tour will have to make.

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PGA Tour called out by LIV star

Tour star James Hahn has fired an aggressive shot at the PGA Tour and its stars.

Hahn called out the Tour

He referenced the changes to the Tour's schedule and said via Golf Digest:

“I hate them. I’m gonna say exactly what 99.99 per cent of fans said about players leaving for the LIV Tour. If our players just said, ‘We’re doing this for the money,’ I would have a lot more respect for them... I think that’s all BS."

Hahn went straight after the stars and highest-paid athletes on the PGA Tour in a fiery rant:

“Right now, they’re just covering their a** and saying everything that the PGA Tour basically has trained them to say, have taught them to say and try to make it not about money when everyone knows 100 per cent it’s about more guaranteed money.

"We’ve been talking about money for the last two years and for them not to say that that’s not the No. 1 reason why they’re making these changes —it’s very, very hypocritical.”

The PGA Tour has undoubtedly made changes in response to LIV Golf- partly because it's good for the game and partly because they fear more players jumping ship for better conditions.

It's fair for LIV golfers to be upset that they were ridiculed for similar reasoning when they defected, though.