It is Opening Day on the PGA Tour … no, actually, a brand new season is beginning
The offseason is lastly completed. PGA Tour golf is again. A grand complete of 18 days may have handed since Rory McIlroy earned his $15 million payday for capturing the FedEx Cup and the beginning of the brand new season on Thursday on the Greenbrier in West Virginia.
The offseason is however a fleeting thought in skilled golf, however this break is definitely longer than most of them have been because the Tour went to its wraparound schedule within the fall of 2013.
There could also be extra time from end to begin, however that does not imply there are fewer tournaments or that the schedule won’t be simply as crammed because it was final season. There are 49 tournaments, which does not embody the Presidents Cup in December and the Olympics subsequent August.
And with 11 tournaments (one opposite-field occasion) over the subsequent 11 weeks, the times of skipping the autumn occasions are fleeting for many gamers, together with Tiger Woods, who will make his first-ever fall begin in an official PGA Tour occasion because the wraparound system started.
This is a better have a look at the autumn schedule and upcoming 2019-20 season generally.
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The opener
A Navy Tribute on the Greenbrier is again and is the primary of 11 tournaments that can conclude with the RSM Basic at Sea Island that will likely be performed the week previous to Thanksgiving. The Greenbrier, which was final performed in July 2018, has moved from its former date to kick off the brand new season, with Bryson DeChambeau at No. 11 because the highest-ranked participant within the area.
It’s a probability for veterans equivalent to Zach Johnson and Invoice Haas — who didn’t make the FedEx Cup playoffs — to get off to a quick begin, in addition to a chance for PGA Tour rookies who simply earned their playing cards equivalent to Viktor Hovland, Maverick McNealy, Scottie Sheffler and Doug Ghim.
Bubba Watson, Keegan Bradley, Jimmy Walker and Kevin Na are additionally entered.
The path
The autumn occasions don’t precisely observe any smart geographic plot. After the Greenbrier occasion in West Virginia, the Tour strikes to Jackson, Mississippi, for the Sanderson Farms Championship (Sept. 19-22).
Then it is out West to Napa, California, for the Safeway Open (Sept. 26-29), adopted by the Shriners for Hospitals for Youngsters Open (Oct. Three-6) in Las Vegas after which the Houston Open (Oct. 10-13). After being off the schedule this previous season, the Houston Open returns to Golf Membership of Houston. This match used to precede the Masters.
From there, the tour heads abroad for its Asian Swing of tournaments in South Korea (CJ Cup, Oct. 17-20), Japan (Zozo Championship, Oct. 24-27) and China (WGC-HSBC Championships, Oct. 31-Nov. Three). That very same week is an opposite-field occasion, a brand new match known as the Bermuda Championship.
After an off week, the tour performs its remaining official occasions of the autumn on the Mayakoba Basic (Nov. 14-17) close to Cancun, Mexico, and the RSM Basic (Nov. 21-24) in Sea Island, Georgia.
The promotion
The Sanderson Farms Championship is now a standalone match awarding 500 factors (and a Masters invitation) to the winner. It had beforehand been performed reverse the WGC occasion in China. The Bermuda match steps into that function.
The off week
The concept of skipping per week as soon as the schedule will get began is uncommon, however the Tour initially had deliberate to have an occasion within the San Francisco Bay Space hosted by NBA star Steph Curry per week earlier than or after the Safeway Open. That fell aside as a consequence of sponsorship and venue points, therefore the Tour juggled the schedule because it left one week open.
The Tiger plan
Quickly after the Masters, Woods dedicated to the Zozo Championship, a brand new occasion on the PGA Tour schedule and first-ever official occasion in Japan. It replaces a earlier match that had been performed in Malaysia, the CIMB Basic.
As a part of the journey to Japan, Woods will partake in a one-day skins recreation that features Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama on Oct. 21. Specifics of the occasion have but to be introduced.
That is the primary time that Woods will compete in an official fall PGA Tour occasion because the tour went to its wraparound schedule in 2013.
The final time Woods performed a fall occasion was on the 2012 CIMB Basic in Malaysia, which on the time was unofficial; Woods tied for fourth. A yr earlier, he performed the Frys.com Open and tied for 30th. (Woods performed the Turkish Airways Open on the European Tour within the fall of 2013 and tied for third.)
The FedEx Cup affect
Six of the eight winners within the fall occasions final yr made the 30-man Tour Championship area, which supplies a sign of how necessary these tournaments have turn out to be. Or, one other means to have a look at it: This previous season, it took 376 factors to make the highest 125 and qualify for the primary FedEx Cup playoff occasion, and greater than 30 gamers had made it to that quantity by the RSM Basic.
The rise from eight to 11 tournaments will solely heighten the significance of getting began early. Ready till January implies that roughly one-fourth of the season will already be accomplished. And by the point the Masters rolls round in April, half the season may have been contested.
The Presidents Cup
For the third time, the Presidents Cup will likely be performed at Royal Melbourne in Australia — the positioning of the one U.S. defeat within the competitors, again in 1998. The occasion is Dec. 12-15, three weeks after the final official PGA Tour occasion and likewise per week after the Hero World Problem, Woods’ annual basis match within the Bahamas. Whereas Woods expects a number of members of his group to hitch him within the Bahamas, a superb variety of worldwide group gamers are prone to compete that very same week on the Australian Open in Sydney, together with Adam Scott, Marc Leishman, Jason Day (who wants a captain’s choose), Cameron Smith, Louis Oosthuizen and defending champion Abraham Ancer. Worldwide captain Ernie Els goes to play the Aussie Open, and Hideki Matsuyama — who has received the Hero up to now — is claimed to be leaning towards taking part in in Australia as properly.
The at-large picks will likely be made the week of Nov. four, and Woods has some powerful calls to make, together with one on himself. Woods, regardless of taking part in simply 12 instances this yr, completed 13th in factors, however was largely ineffective after his Masters victory. Forward of him on the factors listing are U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland, Tony Finau, Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler. Kevin Kisner, who received the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship earlier this yr and went 2-Zero-1 in his lone Presidents Cup look in 2017, is one other candidate.
This can be a difficult scenario for Woods, who undoubtedly will really feel stress — acknowledged or in any other case — to choose himself, however would even be leaving a doubtlessly worthy candidate at residence.
After a lackluster finish to the season and a minor knee process in late August, it appears apparent that Woods might want to have a superb match in Japan so as to justify choosing himself.
The adjustments
One change will likely be observed instantly because the 36-hole minimize has been diminished for 2019-20 from the highest 70 gamers and ties to the highest 65 and ties. Additionally, there’ll now not be a second minimize after 54 holes if the minimize quantity exceeds 78 gamers.
Reverse-field occasions will see area sizes diminished from 132 to 120 gamers, with the primary event occurring on the Bermuda Championship.
The sphere dimension can also be being diminished on the Genesis Invitational, the match that advantages Woods’ basis, to 120 gamers from 144, bringing in it in keeping with the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial.
The remainder of the schedule
After a break to finish the yr, the 2019-20 schedule resumes in Hawaii with the Sentry Match of Champions, with the identical order of tournaments as final season by the Masters (April 9-12), together with two World Golf Championship occasions and the Gamers in a six-week span main as much as the primary main championship.
The PGA Championship (Could 14-17) is 5 weeks after the Masters and will likely be performed at Harding Park in San Francisco. The Rocket Mortgage Basic in Detroit is shifting to earlier than the U.S. Open, after the Charles Schwab Problem and earlier than the Memorial.
The WGC-FedEx St. Jude strikes from following The Open to 2 weeks after the U.S. Open (June 18-21) at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York, and two weeks previous to The Open (July 16-19) at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England. The 3M Championship in Minneapolis is shifting to the week following The Open.
The Olympic Golf males’s match (July 30-Aug. 2) is the next week, previous to the regular-season-ending Wyndham Championship. Not like 2016, there will likely be no match performed the identical week because the Olympics.
The FedEx Cup begins 4 weeks after The Open, two weeks after The Olympics, with the Northern Belief in TPC Boston (Aug. 13-16), adopted by the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields, Illinois (Aug. 20-23), and the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta (Aug. 27-30).