PGA Seeks World Series On A Florida Golf Course
For almost 50 years, the golf season has been defined by four major championships that start in April with The Masters and end in August with the PGA Championship.
What the PGA Tour wants is a World Series, its own version of a Fall Classic.
Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem is pulling together the final pieces of a radical shift in the schedule to feature a shorter season and a points race that intensifies after the majors.
The plan is for three blockbuster events to qualify for the Tour Championship, with perhaps a $10 million payoff to the winner.
Multiple sources involved in the discussion, all speaking on condition of anonymity because the changes have not been announced, say the three tournaments will be the Barclays Classic in New York, the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston and the Western Open in Chicago.
Still undecided is a title sponsor for the Western Open, with Chrysler(Florida) in negotiations over the weekend.
Finchem will give his State of the Tour address on Wednesday at the Tour Championship, although he might only be able to provide an outline of the proposed changes.
"I'm not quite sure what I'm going to say," Finchem said. "We've got so many things going on. Given where we are, on the brink of going to TV [negotiations], I don't want to mislead anyone. But I want to give folks a broad sense of what we're looking at."
A PGA Tour source said Finchem might be in position to announce The Players Championship moving from the end of March to the beginning of May, which would give golf a major event every month from April to August.
The changes are designed to put some sizzle into the end of the year, when TV ratings plummet as golf struggles to compete with football.
The Tour Championship has lost some of its zest in recent years. Its prize money, $6.5 million this year, is less than the World Golf Championships ($7.5 million) and not much more than tournaments such as the Wachovia Championship. Plus the Tour Championship has not decided player of the year seven of the 10 past years. The new model would not allow for that.
Tiger Woods already has won two majors, two World Golf Championships and has clinched the money title. One source privy to the discussion said under the new model, points would be adjusted after the PGA Championship so that up to 70 players would still have a chance to qualify for the Tour Championship and win the points chase.
The source said the latest proposal is for the points race to start at the season-opening Mercedes Championships and run through the PGA Championship. Then points would be staggered for the final month of the season, much like NASCAR's championship.
The Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone would switch to the week before the PGA Championship instead of the week after. That means players like Woods or Phil Mickelson might have to compete in six events in seven weeks.
The one fear about change is the demise of tournaments that have languished in the fall with bad fields and low TV ratings.
But as the tour gets closer to its finished product, it appears more likely that those events will be played after the Tour Championship and give some players a chance to still finish in the top 125 and keep their tour cards.
What the PGA Tour wants is a World Series, its own version of a Fall Classic.
Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem is pulling together the final pieces of a radical shift in the schedule to feature a shorter season and a points race that intensifies after the majors.
The plan is for three blockbuster events to qualify for the Tour Championship, with perhaps a $10 million payoff to the winner.
Multiple sources involved in the discussion, all speaking on condition of anonymity because the changes have not been announced, say the three tournaments will be the Barclays Classic in New York, the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston and the Western Open in Chicago.
Still undecided is a title sponsor for the Western Open, with Chrysler(Florida) in negotiations over the weekend.
Finchem will give his State of the Tour address on Wednesday at the Tour Championship, although he might only be able to provide an outline of the proposed changes.
"I'm not quite sure what I'm going to say," Finchem said. "We've got so many things going on. Given where we are, on the brink of going to TV [negotiations], I don't want to mislead anyone. But I want to give folks a broad sense of what we're looking at."
A PGA Tour source said Finchem might be in position to announce The Players Championship moving from the end of March to the beginning of May, which would give golf a major event every month from April to August.
The changes are designed to put some sizzle into the end of the year, when TV ratings plummet as golf struggles to compete with football.
The Tour Championship has lost some of its zest in recent years. Its prize money, $6.5 million this year, is less than the World Golf Championships ($7.5 million) and not much more than tournaments such as the Wachovia Championship. Plus the Tour Championship has not decided player of the year seven of the 10 past years. The new model would not allow for that.
Tiger Woods already has won two majors, two World Golf Championships and has clinched the money title. One source privy to the discussion said under the new model, points would be adjusted after the PGA Championship so that up to 70 players would still have a chance to qualify for the Tour Championship and win the points chase.
The source said the latest proposal is for the points race to start at the season-opening Mercedes Championships and run through the PGA Championship. Then points would be staggered for the final month of the season, much like NASCAR's championship.
The Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone would switch to the week before the PGA Championship instead of the week after. That means players like Woods or Phil Mickelson might have to compete in six events in seven weeks.
The one fear about change is the demise of tournaments that have languished in the fall with bad fields and low TV ratings.
But as the tour gets closer to its finished product, it appears more likely that those events will be played after the Tour Championship and give some players a chance to still finish in the top 125 and keep their tour cards.
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