Day: July 10, 2018

Ten things I like about the new PGA TOUR scheduleTen things I like about the new PGA TOUR schedule

July 10, 2018July 10, 2018| 12:24

The schedule for the 2018-19 PGA TOUR season has been released. As expected, the changes are dramatic and intriguing. The shifting of tentpole events and a compact finish certainly gives the golf world a fresh look, and no doubt will generate considerable buzz. There’s a lot to like about the changes – and here are my top 10 things. I like THE PLAYERS Championship’s move to March. There are many reasons (including the one below), but a key one is that the chances of sweltering heat should be diminished. A quick check on weather.com indicates that average temperatures for Ponte Vedra Beach in March are a high of 72/low of 55. Average temps in May are a high of 83/low of 68. May not seem like a huge difference but I welcome the opportunity of wearing a thin sweater on a crisp morning at TPC Sawgrass. I like that the Florida Swing is intact. By moving THE PLAYERS Championship back to March, that means all four of the Sunshine State’s events are compacted into a nice month-long run, starting with The Honda Classic to open March. There’s just a nice symmetry and rhythm to having the TOUR move from Hawaii, to the West Coast, then to Mexico, then to Florida. Everything seems in harmony. On the flip side, I like that the two events in North Texas are now split. Having grown up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I always considered it special to have the TOUR in DFW for two consecutive weeks (it’s a bragging thing in Texas, of course), with the tournaments just 30 miles apart. But I sometimes wondered if the second-week event suffered from fan fatigue, or perhaps was merely seen as an extension of the first week … or vice-versa. By having the year’s second major (the PGA Championship) splitting up the tournaments, each of my two hometown events should have its own identity. The AT&T Byron Nelson gets the buildup going into the PGA, and the Charles Schwab Challenge gets to reset the next phase of the schedule. On the third flip side (is that even geometrically possible?), I like that the other two Texas events are on consecutive weeks. With the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play keeping its place in the second half of March, followed by the Valero Texas Open moving into the slot previously occupied by the Houston Open, there is a new Texas Two-Step on the calendar, those two tournaments just 80 miles apart (Houston is twice as far). Yet there is no danger in either one suffering an identity crisis – a limited-field match play event followed by a full-field precursor to the Masters. I like the Midwest swing. With the Rocket Mortgage Classic moving to Detroit Golf Club, followed immediately by the new 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities, then the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run, there’s now a three-week stretch for the terrific golf fans in those states (Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois) during a key portion of the FedExCup regular season. It also helps negate Ohio’s loss of the World Golf Championships event at Firestone. Of course, Ohio already has one of the TOUR’s cornerstone events, the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, in early June. Speaking of Detroit and Minneapolis, I like that the schedule is adding two great musical cities. Motown speaks for itself, and then you add in Prince’s hometown. My fondness for Minneapolis also extends to two criminally underrated bands — Husker Du, and The Replacements. Throw in TOUR stops in jazzy New Orleans, Elvis’ Memphis, and the Live Music Capital of the World in Austin, and any golf fan can get his music fix properly filled. I like that the national opens of Canada and the U.S. are now back-to-back. Just works better in my head than having the RBC Canadian Open follow the Open Championship. Plus, I like that 100 years after the first Canadian Open, next season’s event will have its earliest finish in tournament history. The RBC Canadian has been held eight times in June, with the earliest finish coming on June 21, 1959 (a Doug Ford victory by two strokes). I like the almost frightening step-on-the-gas finish in the regular season. The last three weeks of the schedule include a) the lone overseas major; b) a new-WGC venue in Memphis at the FedEx St. Jude Invitational; and c) the traditional finale to determine the FedExCup Playoffs field. Oh, and throw in two opposite-field events, and you have five tournaments that will have a huge impact on the makeup of the 125 players advancing to the Playoffs. It’s not too dissimilar to this season’s schedule, but the challenge of traveling back from the Open Championship (at Royal Portrush next year) and revving up again so quickly seems a bit more daunting. Speaking of which, I like that The Open Championship is the final major of the season. It’s certainly not the first time golf’s oldest major has held that position; the last time, in fact, was 1971 when the PGA Championship was played in February, and there were several years before in the first half of the century. It’s actually a bit of a throwback schedule, and yet it provides a fresh approach. I like the three-tournament FedExCup Playoffs ending in August. It’s nice to have things settled before football starts dominating the fall weekends, and eliminating the off-week will prevent a disruption in momentum. Indeed, the volatility with just three events should turn the Playoffs into a wild ride. While I will miss TPC Boston next season – a visit to New England that time of the year is never bad, and the seafood at the Fresh Catch in nearby Mansfield makes life worth living (ask Angel Cabrera about his four-lobster night) – something had to give. Besides, the Playoffs are expected to be back at TPC Boston the following season, so the lobster bib won’t stay in drydock too long.

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‘Crescendo’ now exists for new PGA TOUR schedule‘Crescendo’ now exists for new PGA TOUR schedule

July 10, 2018July 10, 2018| 9:15

Few have worked harder or come from more improbable golf backgrounds to make it onto the PGA TOUR than Olin Browne, as late a bloomer as you’ll find. Smitten with the game at 19, he honed his talents while at Occidental College in Los Angeles and turned pro at 25. So, making it to the big leagues demonstrated uncanny determination. Yet, it wasn’t quite what Browne envisioned that late autumn day in 1994, enveloped by the surroundings of arguably the liveliest city in America, Las Vegas. At an age when many of his PGA TOUR peers were in the middle of their careers, Browne at 35 was in his sophomore season and feeling privileged to be there. Still, the bright lights and big-league stage of the PGA TOUR in Las Vegas didn’t mesh with the melancholy in his heart. It was the last full-field tournament of the year, No. 44 on the schedule and the 31st start of the season for Browne, yet “it just felt so sad,� he said. “The season was over, but there was no crescendo.� Twenty-four years later, Browne – a regular competitor on the PGA TOUR Champions – was apprised of the way the 46-tournament 2018-19 PGA TOUR schedule will conclude and in support of his younger colleagues, he nodded his approval. “Now, there’s a crescendo.� What caught Browne’s attention was the climactic finish to next season – three consecutive weeks of the FedExCup playoffs culminating with the TOUR Championship Aug. 22-25. Reducing the playoffs by one and concluding the season before Labor Day and the onrush of football are definitive exclamation points, in Browne’s view, and two former PGA TOUR competitors who helped give shape to the FedExCup Playoffs agree. “It’s more dynamic, instead of the season petering out like it used to,� said Joe Durant, who was a member of the Policy Board when the FedExCup debuted in 2007. Another Policy Board member was Brad Faxon, who recalls that “we always had the thought to eliminate competing against the NFL when the FedExCup started. This new schedule is good. I think it’s better to have only three playoff events.� That they were in on the ground floor or the FedExCup Playoffs but didn’t really get to reap the enormous benefits gives Durant and Faxon reason to laugh. Yet they’re in good company, because their contemporaries – players like Browne and Billy Andrade and Mark Calcavecchia – pretty much were on their way off the PGA TOUR when the FedExCup Playoffs started. But to a man, they sing the same refrain. “No regrets, none at all,� said Andrade, who, like Faxon and Browne, never qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs. “The PGA TOUR provided me with so much, so I’m thrilled that I was part of it.� Durant played in just the very first FedExCup Playoff in 2007. “We probably all wish we were out there for these playoff tournaments, there’s so much money, but to be fair, we had our opportunities and they were pretty good, too,� he said. “It’s the way life rolls. There’s nothing to be bitter about.� Instead, Browne points to the mission of the PGA TOUR – to provide financial opportunities – and appreciates that the FedExCup Playoffs “are another way to funnel proceeds to members.� But he credits PGA TOUR leadership for molding the schedule the way it has; whereas in much of his career it ended without that season-ending crescendo, now the close of the season – three playoffs in a row coming on the heels of a summer stretch of two majors and a World Golf Championship – is the best part of the year. “You could make that point and you’d have a hard time arguing that,� said Browne. Not that there aren’t highlights elsewhere in the 2018-19 schedule, among them: With THE PLAYERS Championship returning to March (14-17) for the first time since 2006, there will be four straight tournaments in Florida. That easy travel flow will appear again in the summer with three Midwest stops – new tournaments in Detroit (Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club June 27-30) and Minneapolis (3M Open at TPC Twin Cities July 4-7), followed by a longtime favorite in Silvis, Ill. (John Deere Classic July 11-14). Given the PGA Championship’s move to May, the month of August will be cleared for the PGA TOUR’s dynamic sprint to the season’s finish line with three straight weeks of playoffs: THE NORTHERN TRUST (Aug. 8-11), the BMW Championship (Aug 15-18) and TOUR Championship (Aug. 22-25). From the PGA TOUR’s perspective, a significant aspect of the schedule involves the vitality of the deals with the title sponsors. Nine are signed on for 10 years, six others for at least seven years, and 29 partners have deals that extend beyond 2020. All positive factors at a time when the PGA TOUR is firmly establishing a different look to its schedule and welcoming a wave of younger faces. While a veteran such as Calcavecchia – who was in his 12th PGA TOUR season and had won seven times by the time Jordan Spieth was born – competed most of his career without the FedExCup Playoffs, he suggests there is a common denominator with he and that younger star. “My goal was always to get to the TOUR Championship at the end of the year,� he said. “I don’t think that’s any different.� Spieth would likely agree. But what has changed are the logistics to getting to the TOUR Championship. Andrade pointed out that back in his playing days, competitors lagging well down the money list could make a big charge in the mid-August-to-late-October stretch and he was a big fan of those tournaments. Now, “they are still big tournaments in the fall, only players need to take advantage of them to get a jump on the (FedExCup) list.� Back when the FedExCup was announced, then-Commissioner Tim Finchem said there were layers of intent. One, an exclamation point was needed to the season, with the best players gathered for a series of tournaments. Successful as that has been with 11 seasons of the FedExCup, that scenario will be stronger with the 2018-19 playoffs. But Andrade and others remember Commissioner Finchem talking of “creating a situation where players will play more,� and that vision has come to fruition, too. Consider the fall and early January tournaments that begin the wrap-around season. Players have approached them differently as the race for the FedExCup has become more established and numbers from the 2017 TOUR Championship prove this. Of the 30 players who made it to East Lake Golf Club, 12 of them had started their seasons by playing in at least five of the first nine weeks. Then, at the other end of the schedule, the push to improve FedExCup status and take advantage of the Playoffs has produced stellar fields, too. Of the top 20 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, 17 of them played in at least six of the last nine PGA TOUR tournaments, including No. 1 Dustin Johnson, who played in eight of them. That represents a shift in the landscape, because 15 years ago six of the world’s top 10 players play in just two or three of the final 10 weeks of the season, Such data has made a believer out of a Faxon, who was involved in discussions to bring on the FedExCup Playoffs, but not the wrap-around schedule. “The wrap-around season didn’t make sense to me until I realized the NBA, NHL and NFL all do it successfully,� said Faxon. “But now it all makes more sense and I’m very impressed how they moved it this quickly.�

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PGA TOUR unveils significantly revamped 2018-19 Season schedulePGA TOUR unveils significantly revamped 2018-19 Season schedule

July 10, 2018July 10, 2018| 9:00

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA – The PGA TOUR today unveiled a revamped tournament schedule for next season, providing an exciting change for players and fans as they are able to engage in – and better follow – a cadence of events highlighted by significant championships every month and culminating with the FedExCup Playoffs in August. Highlights from the new 46-tournament schedule: · The FedExCup Playoffs will feature three events, instead of four: THE NORTHERN TRUST, August 5-11 (125-player field); the BMW Championship, August 12-18 (70 players); and the TOUR Championship August 19-25 (30 players). TPC Boston will continue as a Playoffs site every other year, rotating with the New York City area as host of THE NORTHERN TRUST starting in 2020.   · As previously announced, two new tournaments have been added, though now the dates have been confirmed: the Rocket Mortgage Classic June 24-30, the first PGA TOUR tournament to be held in the city of Detroit; and the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities July 1-7, which becomes the first PGA TOUR Champions tournament to transition to the PGA TOUR. · Per last week’s announcement, the RBC Canadian Open is moving from its traditional spot in late July to June 3-9, leading into the U.S. Open. Hamilton Golf & Country Club in Hamilton, Ontario, will host the event for the first time since 2012. · The Puerto Rico Open returns to the schedule following its cancellation this year due to the devastation of Hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico is slotted for February 18-24, the same week as the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. · As previously announced, THE PLAYERS Championship moves from May to March (11-17) and the PGA Championship moves from August to May (13-19). · Also announced previously is the final World Golf Championships event of the season, until now staged in Akron, Ohio, will be held July 22-28 at TPC Southwind in Memphis as the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational (replacing the FedEx St. Jude Classic). · The Houston Open and A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier are moving to the fall and will be played next as part of the 2019-20 schedule. “We are extremely pleased with the way the schedule has come together, particularly with the number of changes that were involved and the strength of the partnerships required to achieve this new look,� said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “It’s been our stated objective for several years to create better sequencing of our tournaments that golf fans around the world can engage in from start to finish. And by concluding at the end of August, the FedExCup Playoffs no longer have the challenge of sharing the stage with college and professional football. This will enhance the visibility of the FedExCup Playoffs and overall fan engagement with the PGA TOUR and the game as a whole.� Monahan credited FedEx, umbrella sponsor of the FedExCup, title sponsors and host organizations for their crucial role with the revamped schedule. “Beginning with our 10-year extension with FedEx last May and continuing with many recent, long-term title sponsor commitments, as well as new sponsors and host organizations joining the PGA TOUR, our key constituents have validated our vision and the direction for our future,� he said. “Our thanks to these tremendous partners for their flexibility and support during this process. We feel strongly that together, we have created a schedule that will heighten interest in all tournaments while further elevating the FedExCup Playoffs.� The season also features venue rotations for several tournaments, including the first two FedExCup Playoffs events. THE NORTHERN TRUST returns to Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, where it was last held in 2013, while the BMW Championship returns to Medinah Country Club near Chicago for the first time since 1966. The three rotating major championships add historical notes to the schedule. Coinciding with the PGA Championship’s first May dates since 1949 will be its debut at Bethpage Black on New York’s Long Island. The Open Championship, meanwhile, will be held at Royal Portrush July 15-21, marking its return to Northern Ireland after nearly 70 years. And the U.S. Open (June 10-16), last held at Pebble Beach Golf Links in 2010, returns next year when the club celebrates its 100th anniversary.

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