Colin Byrne Caddie's Role: There is a theory in business that if you are standing still, you are actually falling behind. The US PGA Tour could hardly be accused of treading water.

The milestone figure of a billion dollars in charitable donations was reached coincidentally the same week as the year-end Tour Championship showpiece. The winner took home $1.17 million, last place was a good yearly salary. Life is good on Tour.

The Tour Championship constructed its playing schedule around optimal TV time, and with five hours a day, they were not short of coverage. On Saturday, however, the event played second fiddle to American Football. Popular and marketable as Tiger, Phil, Vijay et al are it's hard to compete with traditional games close to Americans hearts. American Football and Nascar racing attract huge TV audiences, consuming big quantities of the products advertised ad nauseam.

If those advertising dollars aren't rolling in between shots then the Tour is losing ground. ABC, one of the big networks that cover the US Tour, is anticipating losing $15 million on its PGA Tour events this year.

Golf is a conservative game played by conservative people so change is not welcomed, unless it is a new club or ball that putatively goes further. So when word spread around the Tour in the past month that the year 2007 was going to see some serious schedule changes, there were the usual misgivings. "I used to love that Florida Swing", or "Hawaii in January was a great place to bring the kids". We are all creatures of habit, none more so than professional golfers and their porters. We also like to be well rewarded for our travails.

It is anticipated the first major change will be the Players Championship moving from March to early May. The biggest surprise is the grand finale of the Tour is scheduled for the end of September, back from early November. This is how it used to be in the good old days.

The winter was a time to do other things, like live a little outside of the sometimes stifling professional game, to recreate, rejuvenate, recharge and not burn out like so many top pros are in danger of doing.

Phil Mickelson opted out of the Tour Championships a few weeks back. He obviously felt he could not compete at his best in Atlanta and was better off at home and not embarrassing himself in front of large audiences. Despite some raised eyebrows and the odd sniff of contempt from some critics, wouldn't many of us like to be in a position to knock back such guaranteed loot and the chance to snag the top cheque?

The Tour is a victim of its own success at times. If too many of the top cats sit out the showpiece tournaments there will be a problem. The stars are talking and Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is keen to listen.

As a golf fan, cast your mind back over the year - despite some memorable events, frequently the majors, and some intriguing finishes with guys holing 30-yard bunker shots to win and others missing tiddlers to lose, chances are it has all become a blur.

Golf is in danger of overkill and Finchem knows it. Apart from the viewership for some of the lesser events being visibly depleted, despite their vast purses, the TV viewer does not seem as captivated as in the days when the majors were the only events certain of good coverage.

The Tour Championship was most definitely lacking in atmosphere. That's coming from someone who enjoys a more demure class of spectator - I am just observing that the volume was down in Atlanta despite the purse being very much up. Something has got to give.

So it looks like the strategists are creating a Fall Chase as the centrepiece of the redesigned schedule. Finchem is keen on a play-off-like system as with most other majors sports in the US. The scenario would include three lucrative events in major cities starting two weeks after the the PGA and leading up to the Tour Championship, the idea being to limit the overlap with the football season and create added value for the networks and advertisers.

This is not to say the other events won't continue; rather it will be a two-tiered system. There will be other events after the Tour finale in September paying official money and giving players a chance to keep their Tour status by finishing inside the top 125, dubbed the "Quest for a Card".

The Tour needs to secure commitments from its sponsors before final negotiations for a TV contract for 2007-'10. It probably won't have its 2007 schedule ready to present to TV partners until this week. Then the negotiating starts with the networks and cable outlets. So despite its huge success the US Tour is being creative and reshaping its future to keep ahead in an already saturated marketplace for sport.

At the World Trade talks in Doha recently one American delegate used some golf imagery to describe the state of negotiations. He said, "We are in deep rough with a partially obstructed shot to the green."

Golf is obviously globally very popular. The US Tour has got a clear sight of the greenbacks with Tiger Woods brandishing a wedge to an easy pin from the middle of the fairway. However, the fairway is getting narrower and the pins are being tucked even tighter, so commissioner Finchem is just trying to make sure we can all keep a good view of that tight pin.