 |
Tours operated by the PGA Tour
The PGA Tour operates the following tours, which operate mostly in the USA with occasional events in Canada and Mexico, and one major championship in the United Kingdom in each of the first two listed:
PGA TOUR, the top tour
Champions Tour, for golfers 50 and over
Nationwide Tour, a second-level tour
The PGA Tour also conducts an annual Qualifying
Tournament (known colloquially as Q-School), a six-round tournament held each fall; the top 30 finishers, including ties, receive privileges to play on the following year's PGA Tour. Other upper-level finishers receive privileges on the Nationwide Tour.
The top 20 money-winners on the Nationwide Tour also receive privileges on the following year's PGA Tour. A golfer who wins three events on that tour in a calendar year earns a "battlefield promotion" which garners PGA Tour privileges for the remainder of the year, and the following year.
At the end of each year, the top 125 money-winners on the PGA Tour receive a tour card for the following season, which gives them exemption from qualifying for most of the next year's tournaments. However at some events, known as invitationals, exemptions only apply to the previous year's top seventy players. Players who are ranked between 126-150 receive a conditional tour card, which gives them priority for places that are not taken up by players with full cards.
Winning a PGA Tour event provides a tour card for a minimum of two years. Winning a World Golf Championships event provides a three-year exemption. Winners of the major championships earn a five-year exemption. Other types of exemption include lifetime exemptions for players with twenty wins on the tour; one-time one year exemptions for players in the top fifty on the career money list who are not otherwise exempt; and medical exemptions for players who have been injured, which give them an opportunity to regain their tour card after a period out of the tour.
There is no rule limiting PGA Tour players to men only. In 2003, two women, Annika Sörenstam and Suzy Whaley, played in PGA TOUR events; in 2004, 2005, and 2006 Michelle Wie did the same. None of the three made the cut, although Wie missed by only one stroke in 2004.
The PGA Tour places a strong emphasis on charity fundraising, usually on behalf of local charities in cities where events are staged. In 2005, it started a campaign to push its all-time fundraising tally past one billion dollars, and it reached that mark one week before the end of the season.
Note also that there is a PGA European Tour, which is totally separate from either the PGA Tour or the PGA of America; this organization runs a tour, mostly in Europe but with events throughout the world outside of North America, that is second only to the PGA Tour in worldwide prestige. There are several other regional tours around the world.
Television coverage
In January 2006 the PGA Tour announced a new set of television deals covering 2007 to 2012. CBS Sports will remain the main carrier of PGA Tour golf, and will increase its events from 16 to 19 per season. NBC Sports will increase its coverage from 5 to 10 events. The Golf Channel will be the Tour's cable partner on a 15 year contract, providing early round coverage of all official money events and four round coverage of a few events at the beginning and towards the end of the season. These deals do not cover the major championships as the PGA Tour does not own the rights to them. The fees involved were not mentioned in the press release, but it stated, "total prize money and other financial benefits to players will increase approximately $600 million over the term as compared to the previous six years, a 35-percent increase".
The PGA Tour is also covered extensively outside the United States. In the United Kingdom Sky Sports is the main broadcaster of the tour.
The structure of the PGA Tour season
Outline of the season
The table below illustrates the structure of the PGA TOUR season. The events shown are for 2006, but there are only minor variations in the overall pattern from one year to the next. Tournaments sometimes change venue, and quite often change name, especially when they get a new sponsor, but the principal events have fixed and traditional places in the schedule, and this determines the rhythm of the season.
Three of the four majors take place in eight weeks between June and August. This threatens to make the last two and a half months of the season anti-climactic, as some of the very top players compete less from this point on. Interest is sustained by the following factors:
The race to top the money list. However, quite often this is clinched well before the end of the season.
The race to finish in the top 30 of the money list, so as to qualify for the lucrative and prestigious finale to the season, the Tour Championship, whose winner earns a three-year exemption.
The scramble of the less successful members of the tour to make the top 125, in order to retain their Tour card for the following season. Players who are on the margins of the top 125 often play every week at this time of year.
The last several events are known collectively as the "Fall Finish". Points are awarded for top ten places in these events and the player who accumulates most points receives additional prize money.
In 2007 THE PLAYERS Championship is moving to May so as to have a marquee event in five consecutive months. The Tour Championship will move up to September as some of the leading players dislike the length of the current season and don't play many events in the last two months. In the events from the start of the season to the Tour Championship the players will compete for the FedEx Cup. The Tour will continue through the fall, with the focus on the scramble of the less successful players to retain their tour cards. 2007 will also see the introduction of a tournament in Mexico, though it will be a secondary event staged the same week as the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
Schedule
There are 49 events in 44 weeks, including one team
event with no prize money, so there are 48 events with prize money. Most members of the tour play between 20 and 30 tournaments in the season. The geography of the tour is determined by the weather. It starts in Hawaii in January and spends most of its first two months in California and Arizona during what is known as the "West Coast Swing," and then moves to the American Southeast for the "Southern Swing." Each swing culminates in a significant tour event. In April, tour events begin to drift north. The summer months are spent mainly in the Northeast and the Midwest, and in the fall the tour heads south again.
The 2006 season is below. The status designations shown in the table are explained in the next subsection. The major championships are shown in bold. The numbers in brackets after the winners' names show the number of career wins they had on the PGA Tour up to and including that event.
Categories of
event on the PGA Tour
Majors: The four leading annual
events in world golf. The British Open is
the only PGA TOUR event played outside of
the United States and Canada.
World Golf Championships: A set of events
co-sanctioned by the International
Federation of PGA Tours which attract the
leading golfers from all over the world,
including those who are not members of the
PGA TOUR.
Special: The "special" status of the
The PLAYERS Championship is based on the
fact that it is the only event apart from
the majors and the World Golf Championships
which attracts entries from almost all of
the world's elite golfers. Official
recognition is given to its unique position
in the sport by the Official World Golf
Rankings, which allocate it a fixed number
of points (which is 20% less than for a
major), whereas the number of points
allocated to "regular" events is dependent
on the rankings of the players who enter
each year, and is only determined once the
entry list is finalized. It is increasingly
referred to by the media as the "Fifth
major". There is talk of making THE PLAYERS
Championship an official major.
Small field: The season starts and
finishes with two elite events for fields
which are about 30-strong instead of the
usual 150 or so.
Team: A United States team of 12
elite players competes in the Ryder Cup and
the Presidents Cup in alternate years. The
Ryder Cup is arguably the highest profile
event in golf, outranking the majors. The
Presidents Cup is less well established, but
is still the main event of the week when it
is played. There is no prize money in these
events, so they are irrelevant to the money
list.
Regular: Routine weekly tour events.
The "regular" events do vary in status, but
the table does not indicate which of them
are more prestigious because this is a
subjective matter. The relative status of
the events is not based on the size of the
prize fund to a very large degree, as this
doesn't vary much. Some of the other factors
which determine the status of a tournament
are:
Its position in the schedule, which
influences the number of leading players
that choose to enter.
Its age and the distinction of its past
champions.
The repute of the course on which it is
played.
Any associations with "legends of golf".
Four events in particular have such
associations:
The EDS Byron Nelson Championship, the only
current event named after a golfer (Byron
Nelson).
The Bank of America Colonial, closely
identified with Ben Hogan.
The Bay Hill Invitational, closely
identified with Arnold Palmer, and played at
a resort he owns; in 2007, the event will be
renamed the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The Memorial Tournament, founded by Jack
Nicklaus, played on a course he designed,
and annually honoring a selected "legend".
Invitational: These events are
similar to the regular ones, but have a
slightly smaller (around 100-110 players),
selective field. The top 70 on the previous
year's money list are fully exempt into
invitationals, as well as past champions of
the event, and an increased amount of
sponsor's exemptions. Invitational
tournaments include the Bank of America
Colonial, the Bay Hill Invitational, the
Verizon Heritage, the Memorial Tournament
and others. The tournaments usually do have
an association with a golf legend, or in the
case of the Verizon Heritage, a famous
course.
Secondary: Events which are played in
the same week as a higher status tournament
and therefore have weakened fields and
reduced prize money. They are often
considered an opportunity for players on the
bubble (near or below 125th or 150th) in the
money list to move up more easily or to
attempt an easier two-year exemption for
winning a tournament.
There are also a number of events which are
recognized by the PGA TOUR, but which do not
count towards the official money list. Most
of these take place in the off season
(November and December). This slate of
unofficial events (which includes the PGA
Grand Slam of Golf, the Wendy's 3-Tour
Challenge, the Franklin Templeton Shootout,
the Skins Game, etc.) is referred to as the
"Challenge Season" or, less approvingly, the
"Silly Season".
|
 |
|
 |
 |
