PGA Tour golf is here
Fasten your seat belts, the new PGA Tour Golf season is already at the start!
The off-season period has come to an end, which means it’s time to plunge into the world of golf with renewed vigor.
Just recently, we watched Rory McIlroy get his $15 million for the FedEx Cup, and on Thursday the Greenbrier West Virginia Tournament will open a whole new season for golfers.
Pausing between seasons is just a momentary (fleeting) idea in professional golf, but this break is quite long compared to the rest.
This year, the Professional Golf Association has made adjustments to the calendar of golf tournaments. For the first time in many years, the “Majors” familiar to everyone have been rescheduled. The reason for this decision made by the PGA is related to the Olympic Games, which will be held in 2020. The association was forced to take into account this large-scale event.
From the fans’ point of view, the new schedule is very good. After all, there was a lot of time between the key tournaments and the fans were tired of waiting for the next one. This year, every month from April to July there was one match. The choice of such an interval appealed to many golf lovers.
Changes in the schedule don’t reduce the number of tournaments at all. There will be 49 tournaments during this season, not counting the Presidential Cup in December and the Olympics in August.
Here’s a detailed calendar of golf tournaments for the fall and upcoming 2020 season.
Opening
The first of 11 tournaments to open the season will be Greenbrier in West Virginia. It will take place a week before Thanksgiving Day and end with RSM Classic on Sea Island. The last time Greenbrier was held in July 2018. But now, the organizers moved the dates, promising many interesting innovations. So, this time the highlight of Greenbrier will be the player with the highest rating on the field Bryson Dechambeau. Bryson is assigned a symbolic 11th number in the team.
This tournament is a great opportunity for famous veterans such as Johnson and Bill Haas, who failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. This is their chance to get their fast start. Beginners who have just received their cards will be able to try their strengths, among them are Howland, Maverick McNealy, Scottie Scheffler and Doug Ghim.
Not following the GPS
This time, the route of the Tour doesn’t at all correspond to the sequence of points in terms of geography. After West Virginia, September 19-22, players and fans will travel to Jackson, Mississippi, for the Sanderson Farms Championship.
And on September 26-29, the Tour will turn towards the west, to California at the Safeway Open. Further, the world of golf will be pleased with the “Shriners Hospitals for Children”, which will be held on October 3-6 in Las Vegas. Then everybody will go to Houston, where the Houston Open is expected in October, and then the players will go to the Houston Golf Club not according to the old schedule.
From October 17 to October 20, the Tour awaits the foreign weekend of the Asian swing tournaments in South Korea. After that, the team will go to Japan for the Zozo Championship, (October 24-27). The tour will continue with the WGC-HSBC Championship, October 31 – November 3 in China.
A week-long trip will come to an end with the official events of the fall on November 14-17 in Mexico and November 21-24 in Sea Island.
Promotion
Now the Sanderson Farms Championship has been announced as a separate tournament. Its winner will be given 500 points and an invitation from the Master. In previous seasons, it was held in China.
One-week break
The idea of making a vacation in other seasons was not popular. This will be an exception. In fact, the first event of the NBA star Steph Curry was planned in San Francisco, but it failed due to sponsorship issues.
What does the FedEx Cup give?
Of the eight winners of the fall competition last year, six out of thirty people participated in the tournament. This shows the importance of such tournaments. Also, last season 376 points were needed to get into the top 125 and the first round of the FedEx playoffs. More than 30 players scored the right amount of points using RSM Classic.
Presidents Cup
The Presidents Cup is scheduled to be played in Australia in Royal Melbourne. The event on this location will happen for the third time. By the way, in 1998, it was in this place that the United States failed only once. The event is scheduled for December 12-15, three weeks after the last official PGA tour.
Innovations
So, in tournaments on opposite fields, their sizes will be reduced from 132 players to 120. For the first time this rule was introduced at the championship in Bermuda. Also, they plan to reduce the size of the field in the Genesis Invitational, a tournament from the Woods Foundation, to 120 players out of 144. This will help level it with Arnold Palmer Invitational and Memorial.
With new forces
The other part of the schedule after the break and until the end of the year will repeat the schedule of the previous season. The tour will resume working with the Sentry Tournament of Champions. It will include two world golf championships and eventually will bring players to the first major championship.
The PGA Main Championship will be held on May 14-17 in San Francisco five weeks after the Masters.
The FedEx Cup is scheduled to be held on August 13-16, two weeks after the Boston Olympics.
