PGA Tour announces radical overhaul of schedule for 2018-19 season
The PGA Tour overhauled its schedule for next season, changing the rotation of its major championships for the first time since 1971.
As was first announced last summer, the PGA Championship will move from August to May on the calendar. The move out of August, where it has long been the season’s final major, is to avoid conflict with the Summer Olympics, which are held in August every four years — the next being 2020.
The last time the PGA Championship was not the year’s final major was in 1971 when tour officials moved it to February citing expected oppressive heat in Palm Beach, Florida in July.
MAJOR changes coming to the PGA Tour schedule https://t.co/IofEpFFIFz
— trey wingo (@wingoz) July 10, 2018
Every year since, and before going back to the start of the stroke play era in 1958, it has been placed in either July or August as the fourth major.
The current marquee event in the month of May, the Players Championship, will be pushed back to March, before The Masters. The Players Championship will be held March 14-17 at its usual spot at TPC Sawgrass.
The U.S. Open will be the third major, June 13-16 at Pebble Beach, while the Open Championship, July 18-21 at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, will be the last.
This rescheduling of the PGA Championship will allow the tour to move its FedEx Cup Playoffs to August. Starting in 2019, the end-of-year playoffs will be reduced from four events to just three — the Northern Trust (August 8-11); the BMW Championship at Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Ill. (August 15-18); and The Tour Championship at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta (August 22-25).
The odd man out in the playoffs is the Dell Technologies Championship at TPC Boston, which traditionally was the second of four playoff events held over Labor Day weekend. This event will cease to exist after this season.
However, the TPC Boston will be home to the Northern Trust tournament every other year, rotating with Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J., the site of the 2019 Northern Trust event. The Northern Trust comes to TPC Boston in 2020, and then every other year going forward.
“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,” said Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, according to The Golf Channel. “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.”
Love the new PGA Tour schedule.
– Players in March gets the real season started sooner
– No two-month break between majors
– No real dead spot like we have right now pic.twitter.com/kYEXnSAUh3— Eric Patterson (@EPatGolf) July 10, 2018
Among other changes, the RBC Canadian Open will move from late July to June 6-9, just before the U.S. Open.
Also, the Houston Open and the Military Tribute at The Greenbrier will not be part of next season’s schedule, but they will return in the fall of 2019 as part of the 2019-20 season.
There will be two new events: the Rocket Mortgage Classic, which will be held June 27-30 at the Detroit Golf Club, and the 3M Open, slated for July 4-7 at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minn.
In addition, the Puerto Rico Open will return in 2019, scheduled for Feb. 21-24 at the Coco Beach Country Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. It will run opposite the WGC-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City.
The 2018-19 season begins October 4-7 with the Safeway Open in Napa, California, and ends with the Tour Championship.
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