Ready for Another PGA Tour Season? Thankfully, This Is the Final September Start
The new PGA Tour season begins this week. Thankfully, that should be among the few remaining times we need to type that sentence in the middle of September.
After a decade-long run of staging a wraparound calendar schedule, the PGA Tour has mercifully abandoned that plan and will go to a January-to-August slate starting in 2024.
That means—as it is currently constructed—the fall events that begin this week at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California, and count as part of the 2022-23 season, will no longer receive FedEx Cup points that count for the following season beginning next year.
It’s a smart move and the Tour deserves credit for this change, which was originally announced by commissioner Jay Monahan in June.
The switch should ultimately be a benefit to all ranges of the PGA Tour membership—and fans as well.
With a condensed eight-month schedule, the top players on the PGA Tour will get what they’ve long craved—the opportunity to take time off in the fall without falling behind in the FedEx Cup points race. And that will be even more pronounced as the Tour has changed the playoff format to include only the top 70 finishers, down from 125.
But the plan also allows for those who don’t make the playoffs to continue playing in the fall in order to try to keep their playing card, improve their position or simply keep playing to make more money.
The details are yet to be worked out, but the original idea was to have six events next fall that were full-field tournaments and allowed those outside of the top 70 to continue to compete for status during that year’s season. The top 70 would be locked but there could be movement below, allowing those who finished outside of the top 125 or 150 an opportunity to improve their status.
Those who finish in the top 70 are free to do as they please, but know that starting on Jan. 1, everyone starts at zero in the race to make the FedEx Cup playoffs.
The commercial aspects of this are smart for the PGA Tour as well. Frankly, it’s difficult for there to be much buzz about the start of a new golf season when the previous one just ended two weeks ago. The nine fall events to be staged starting this week—with a break for next week’s Presidents Cup—are unlikely to garner strong fields, and they are in a TV wasteland due to the NFL, college football, baseball playoffs, the start of the NBA season ... it’s a tough time to compete.
But these weeks will remain important for dozens of players who need starts to try and keep their jobs on the PGA Tour. And for those hardcore fans who enjoy still watching golf, there remains an outlet. It’s sort of a win-win situation that takes care of the star players but not at the expense of the rank and file.
For now, there is one more run with the wraparound schedule, and these nine tournaments will have added meaning with a reduced playoff field waiting next August.
Some other changes the Tour announced recently are set to go into effect or still to be determined.
> For the first time, all PGA Tour players who are exempt will receive a base of $500,000 to be applied against earnings. It’s not a stipend. A player will compensated for an amount earned less than $500,000. But all rookies get the funds up front, which is a nice boost for players who are responsible for their own travel. There are 30 rookies or first-year members of the PGA Tour starting this season.
> We will see a majority of the top players on the PGA Tour in the same events, a minimum of 17 times. As part of a plan unveiled by Monahan last month, those players who are part of the Player Impact Program—a number that will likely be more than 20 in 2023—will be required to tee it up in 12 elevated events, along with the four major championships and the Players Championship—if they are eligible. They are then required to add three events of their choosing for a total of 20.
> The PIP will operate off of two lists for the 2022 winners (with a $100 million prize pool) as the Tour transitions to a new criteria that will go into place next year to determine the top 20. Among the changes is dropping a social media component. So it is possible the PIP players heading into 2023 will number more than 20.
> The known elevated events are the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, WGC-Dell Match Play, Memorial, FedEx St. Jude Championship, BMW Championship and Tour Championship. The final three are the FedEx Cup playoff events, for which only 70 will qualify, with 50 advancing to the BMW and 30 to the Tour Championship.
Still to be determined are four more elevated events, and while it’s possible a fall event could be included, it would seem the Tour is running out of time for that. A couple of possibilities would be the Zozo Championship and the CJ Cup, which have limited fields. It seems more likely the four will be part of the 2023 schedule.
> This year’s fall schedule remains very important for the playing out of the season because the tournaments will receive full FedEx Cup points. Talor Gooch presents a good example. Gooch, who moved on to LIV Golf, would have qualified for the Tour Championship despite not playing a PGA Tour event after May. He had a strong fall last year that saw him post five top-11 finishes, including a victory at the RSM Classic. That helped him earn enough points to finish in the top 30 without competing in the playoffs and earning points only at the British Open after the Charles Schwab Challenge.
The nine events including this week’s Fortinet Championship are (following the Presidents Cup) the Sanderson Farms Championship, Shriners Children’s Open, the ZOZO Championship, the CJ Cup, the Bermuda Championship, the World Wide Technology Championship, the Cadence Bank Houston Open and the RSM Classic.
The PGA Tour season will then resume in early January at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, which will be the 10th event in a 43-week schedule.
Rancor and Rhetoric
Shane Lowry capped a chaotic, awkward week with a victory at the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship, shooting a final-round 65 and then watching Rory McIlroy narrowly miss a tying eagle putt at Wentworth. Jon Rahm shot a final-round 62 to tie McIlroy for second and Patrick Reed went out early and posted a 63—narrowly missing a birdie putt at the 18th—to finish tied for fifth. Another LIV Golf player, Talor Gooch, finished fourth.
There was a good bit of chatter about whether or not the LIV Golf players should even be in the field, led by McIlroy, who said two weeks ago at the Tour Championship that he was “not looking forward’’ to seeing any of them.
Plenty of barbs went back and forth. Billy Horschel called out the LIV players who never previously supported the European Tour; Gooch shot back that Horschel was hardly one to talk about playing in a lot of DP World Tour events. And on it went.
“There’s been a lot of petty comments in the last few weeks and I’m not going to comment on them,’’ said LIV golfer Ian Poulter, a long-time supporter of the DP World Tour (formerly European Tour).
But Poulter did comment.
“I’ve spoken to the guys a lot in the last number of months, none of which seemed to have a problem with me, my age making a decision that I’ve made,’’ Poulter said after the first round. “So I’m not going to comment on people’s comments, that have said stuff on socials and in front of you guys, I’m not going to play the clickbait game. I’m just not playing it.’’
Of course, there’s two sides to this story.
Those who have a problem with LIV Golf suggest that those players made a decision to leave and that they should stick with it. (The PGA Tour has suspended players who play LIV events; the DP World Tour is involved in litigation, allowing them to play through at least February).
The LIV players maintain they simply feel they should be able to play where they want, if eligible. And all who were in the BMW field qualified under the existing criteria.
After the first round, the second round was postponed and then canceled in the wake of Queen Elizabeth’s II’s death. The tournament took a pause on Friday and resumed as a 54-hole event, leading to the inevitable lame takes on 54 holes and what constitutes competition.
Poulter was one of the 11 LIV players out of 15 who started to make the cut but one who didn’t was Sergio Garcia, who shot an opening-round 76, then at some point withdrew without a reason prior to the second round on Saturday. The fact that Garcia didn’t give a reason and then showed up on the sideline of the Texas-Alabama game (Garcia lives in Austin) on Saturday did him no favors.
Sure, Garcia had little success in few starts at Wentworth. But a big LIV talking point was being able to compete in events where they were eligible, and Garcia decided to do that ... then quit after a 76. Sure, his chances of making the cut were slim, but that’s a bad look that does not help the LIV cause.
Not only did Garcia deny countryman Alfredo Garcia Heredia (who is fighting to keep his exempt status) from a spot in the field by playing (as did others), he of course could have shot a good second-round score and made it. Min Woo Lee shot an opening 76 as well. He rebounded with a 62 in the second round to play the last day.
Yes, others withdrew prior to the second round, all citing injury—which misses the point. Garcia brought unwanted attention to himself and gave any naysayers an easy target.
Fore! Things
1. Shane Lowry’s victory at the BMW PGA was his first since the 2019 British Open at Royal Portrush, a period of more than three years.
2. Scottie Scheffler became the first player to add PGA Tour player of the year honors to Korn Ferry Tour player of the year and PGA Tour rookie of the year awards.
3. Scheffler won $14,046,910 in official prize money on the PGA Tour, the most in history and surpassing the record held by Jordan Spieth, who won $12,030,465 in 2014-15. Scheffler also added $5.75 million for finishing tied for second in the FedEx Cup standings and $4 million for the leading the Comcast Business Tour Top 10, based on regular-season points. And he banked another $1 million for winning the season-long Aon Risk Reward Challenge. That brought his total to nearly $25 million.
4. The LIV Golf Invitational Series continues this week outside of Chicago at Rich Harvest Farms, site of the 2009 Solheim Cup. The 48-player field will see little change this time after considerable upheaval for the second, third and fourth events. Aside from Henrik Stenson returning from injury, the only change to date involves just two players. Spain’s Adrian Otaegui, who tied for 13th at the BMW PGA Championship, will be replaced by David Puig. Both have been tournament invites, with Otaegui earning $1,044,500 in three previous LIV events. Puig, also from Spain, has played two events as an amateur but is planning to turn pro at the Chicago event.
Tough Presidents Cup Task
The International squad led going into the final day at Royal Melbourne three years ago, turning what had often being easy United States victories in the biennial competition into a tense contest eventually won 16-14 by the Americans.
That led to hope that things might be more competitive this year in Charlotte, especially with a slew of promising international players.
A good bit of that optimism went away with so many defections to LIV Golf, led by Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann. The International squad also lost potential players such as Carlos Ortiz, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace.
That meant captain Trevor Immelman ended up picking five rookies among his six at-large picks last week. Immelman, of course, is not giving up.
“This event is extremely important to us; everybody needs to understand that," he said. "I read so much on social media about we need to blow this event up, we need to change the format, we need to add female golfers.
“First of all, I believe female golfers could hold their own Presidents Cup. That’s how good they are. They don’t need male golfers to make them relevant. I watch the Solheim Cup every time and am just like glued to my TV. It's some of the best golf you watch every couple of years. So I think that's kind of demeaning to both the men and the women players when people throw that out.
“But we love this event. We love our team. When we grew up outside of the U.S. and Europe watching the Ryder Cup, watching the passion and the energy and the great golf from that event, this is our opportunity to be a part of that.
“We're thankful that we have that opportunity, and we look forward to it every time. Even over the years you look at the history books, everybody knows we've had our butts kicked, but that doesn't mean we'll come with any less passion and compete to try and win.’’
The Masters Countdown
The first round of the Masters is in 206 days, and a slew of new opportunities to earn an invitation now awaits through the end of 2022. This week’s Fortinet Championship marks the first of nine PGA Tour events this fall that bring an invitation with a victory for those not already qualified.
Those in the final Official World Golf Ranking top 50 at the end of 2022 will also receive invites if not already qualified to play the first major championship of 2023.
There are currently 58 players qualified for the 2023 Masters based on past-champion status, winners of past PGA Championships, U.S. Opens and British Opens, the finalists for the U.S. Amateur, the winner of the British Amateur, those finished among the top 12 and ties at the 2002 Masters, the top four finishers at the PGA, U.S. Open and British Open, nine PGA Tour winners since the Masters and seven who qualified by making it to the Tour Championship.
Still to be determined are the winners of the Asia Pacific Amateur, the Latin-America Amateur and the U.S. Mid-Amateur along with the final-year top 50 in the world, PGA Tour winners and those who qualify via the top 50 two weeks prior to the Masters.
Social Matters
> Shane Lowry’s victory at the BMW PGA came without making a bogey.
> A worthy winner.
> An ace caught on tape.
> A tough moment for Rory McIlroy at the BMW PGA.
Next Up
After a two-week break in the schedule, the PGA Tour is back for the opening event of the 2022-23 season, the Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort and Spa's North Course in Napa, California.
This is the first of 43 tournament weeks on the PGA Tour schedule, concluding at the Tour Championship next August. Nine of those events are played over the next 10 weeks—next week is the Presidents Cup—leading up to Thanksgiving.
Defending champion Max Homa is one of four players in the field who competed at last month's Tour Championship.
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