Stay in one job long enough and you acquire tenure. People know what you can do, or what you have done, and give you the benefit of the doubt. You can have an unproductive week, miss a deadline, or turn in something less than your best work without being called to account. Your employer has seen you perform under pressure. You've accumulated a little grace.

No one should have to prove his worth anew every morning. Experience, judgment and institutional memory count for something. But there's a point at which the presumption of competence becomes an exemption from having to demonstrate it. Yesterday's accomplishments are accepted as sufficient evidence of today's abilities, and a job that was once earned begins to look like a possession.

A lawyer who stops winning cases, a salesman who stops selling, a surgeon whose hands are no longer steady--all eventually discover that previous accomplishment provides only so much cover against present shortcomings. Some get more rope than others; some have friends in the right places. Others get discarded despite doing good work. The system is hardly fair, but its underlying proposition is difficult to dispute: Whatever we've done, we have to go on doing something worth paying us to do.

Which brings me to golf.

The PGA Tour is preparing to reorganize professional golf along lines familiar to anyone who watched "Ted Lasso." Beginning in 2028, it will operate two divisions, a Championship Series and a Challenger Series, with players moving between them according to performance. The 2027 season will determine who qualifies. Under the new arrangement, the top 90 in the Championship Series will keep their places for the following season, while at least 20 from the Challenger Series will earn promotion. Others can reclaim their status through a fall competition.

Play well and stay among the elite. Play poorly and risk being sent down, with the chance to earn your way back. The Tour has always had qualifying standards, but this will draw a sharper line between its richest events and the rest. Championship purses will be at least........

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