Big Schedule Changes Floated by New PGA Tour Commissioner

[Golfingdad]

Per this article:

Quote

Jay Monahan is starting his first week as new PGA Tour commissioner, and he's not wasting any time getting to work. According to an interview with the Wall Street Journal, one of his proposals involves a major reshuffling of the schedule.

WSJ's Brian Costa writes that Monahan wants to maximize the sport's attention during the NFL's offseason. That prerogative entails moving the PGA Championship from its August date to May.

...

However, a May move for the PGA Championship will have a domino effect. Most notably, the Players Championship would return to March (it was moved to its current May date in 2007) and the FedEx Cup playoffs would end Labor Day weekend instead of late September.

The idea of the first big tournament happening in March, and then having a major each month after that, culminating with the playoffs, all before the NFL season or baseball stretch run start making noise seems like a really good idea to me.

[DeadMan]

I feel like it's not going to make much difference. Your generic sports fan will care more about the NFL Preseason than the FedEx Cup Playoffs. PGA Championship to May is interesting. For my viewing, I'd prefer it to be in January or February, although that has obvious problems. I do like that we wouldn't have to wait 2 months between majors, but you pay for that on the back end with the July - April gap.

I like the idea of having the Players in March. It gives a nice little appetizer for the Masters. And it moves it away from Mother's Day, which makes it difficult to watch sometimes.

The other question is what happens from September - November. Expand the fall series to 6 events? Don't see how that makes sense.

[Patch]

9 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

I feel like it's not going to make much difference. Your generic sports fan will care more about the NFL Preseason than the FedEx Cup Playoffs. PGA Championship to May is interesting. For my viewing, I'd prefer it to be in January or February, although that has obvious problems. I do like that we wouldn't have to wait 2 months between majors, but you pay for that on the back end with the July - April gap.

I like the idea of having the Players in March. It gives a nice little appetizer for the Masters. And it moves it away from Mother's Day, which makes it difficult to watch sometimes.

The other question is what happens from September - November. Expand the fall series to 6 events? Don't see how that makes sense.

I am not much of PGA watcher. I subscribe to the "golf should be played, not watched" minority. However, your idea of a Championship in January, or February sounds intriguing to me. I know the NBA season is going on, but I don't get interested in that sport until the conference championships. Some sort championship in Jan/Feb would get a few hours viewing from me. Might as well be golf. 

[jamo]

I like the idea. My only question/confirmation: he doesn't actually have the ability to do this, right? The PGA of America would have to be on board  I'm not saying they wouldn't be, but even if they were I imagine it would take years to implement. 

Still, very interesting idea. 

[Golfingdad]

13 minutes ago, jamo said:

I like the idea. My only question/confirmation: he doesn't actually have the ability to do this, right? The PGA of America would have to be on board  I'm not saying they wouldn't be, but even if they were I imagine it would take years to implement. 

Still, very interesting idea. 

Yeah, I assume that there is a lot of convincing and voting that needs to be done for this to happen.  The article also mentions that even if it did, it very likely wouldn't be before 2019.

[tristanhilton85]

I like this idea a lot. There obviously is going to be a lot that goes into this to make it happen, and I doubt that it's something we'll see very soon, but hopefully it all works out.

[iacas]

3 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

The idea of the first big tournament happening in March, and then having a major each month after that, culminating with the playoffs, all before the NFL season or baseball stretch run start making noise seems like a really good idea to me.

I like it too. Plus it's a longer off season for the top players.

3 hours ago, DeadMan said:

I do like that we wouldn't have to wait 2 months between majors, but you pay for that on the back end with the July - April gap.

The gap now is August to April. Almost eight months.

With the Players in March that's still eight: July to March.

Hmmmmm. On second thought that might be a little too compressed.

3 hours ago, jamo said:

I like the idea. My only question/confirmation: he doesn't actually have the ability to do this, right? The PGA of America would have to be on board  I'm not saying they wouldn't be, but even if they were I imagine it would take years to implement.

I think they'd actually be up for it. They sometimes feel almost forgotten right now. Despite having the strongest field by far (not necessarily compared to the Players).

[colin007]

19 minutes ago, iacas said:

 

I think they'd actually be up for it. They sometimes feel almost forgotten right now. Despite having the strongest field by far (not necessarily compared to the Players).

True. I was flipping around the other night and saw that they were showing highlights from last year's PGA, and I was like "oh yeah, who won that again? Jimmy Walker?? WTF did he really?"

[Hardspoon]

I really like this idea. I think the best part is having a major (lowercase "M") tournament before the Masters. It'd be good to have a little build-up.

[Thrash13]

The Players moving to May was a weather thing I believe. Rain was an issue quite often when it was played in March, although I loved having it before The Masters! I'm completely on board with the PGA Championship moving to May, and more importantly, the FedEx Cup Playoffs finishing Labor day weekend or before. The Playoffs have provided some very good golf in recent years, but the NFL swallows everything up once it starts. Haha. 

Very interesting stuff indeed! Trying to move things in order to avoid NFL competition is always a smart choice in the U.S.

[jamo]

A benefit of the PGA in May: they could play at courses in the south without the heat being unbearable.

[boogielicious]

14 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

Per this article:

The idea of the first big tournament happening in March, and then having a major each month after that, culminating with the playoffs, all before the NFL season or baseball stretch run start making noise seems like a really good idea to me.

I like this too. Especially because it means that the DB Championship at TPC Boston would be moved away from Labor Day weekend and Jimmy Buffett could have the venue back! The parking for TPC Boston is at the music venue.

[Thrash13]

3 hours ago, jamo said:

A benefit of the PGA in May: they could play at courses in the south without the heat being unbearable.

Southern Hills in Tulsa comes to mind! Bring it on!

It's a fantastic golf course and a great challenge, but the 2007 PGA Championship featured sweltering heat and humidity. 

[jamo]

7 minutes ago, Thrash13 said:

Southern Hills in Tulsa comes to mind! Bring it on!

It's a fantastic golf course and a great challenge, but the 2007 PGA Championship featured sweltering heat and humidity. 

That's the example I had in my head as well.

[djfajt71]

I just noticed that the first 2 Web tourneys are Sun-Weds, and they go back to the traditional Thurs-Sun format.  Does anyone know why they decided to go this route. Personally, I think it would be great if it was executed all season  I like the idea of watching live tourneys every day.  But I'm sure some of those guys would like to Monday qualify for a PGA stop if they could. 

[iacas]

2 hours ago, djfajt71 said:

I just noticed that the first 2 Web tourneys are Sun-Weds, and they go back to the traditional Thurs-Sun format.  Does anyone know why they decided to go this route. Personally, I think it would be great if it was executed all season  I like the idea of watching live tourneys every day.  But I'm sure some of those guys would like to Monday qualify for a PGA stop if they could. 

Because the first two events on the PGA Tour are limited field (week 1) and then in Hawaii (week 2).

Doing that year-round would prevent guys who have status on both tours from being able to play a Web.com event one week and then a PGA Tour one the next, for example. Or Monday qualify. Or whatever.

[Chilli Dipper]

Moving the PGA Championship to May would also prevent the scheduling log-jam presented by the Olympic tournament, as seen by the numerous withdrawals in 2016.

[natureboy]

47 minutes ago, Chilli Dipper said:

Moving the PGA Championship to May would also prevent the scheduling log-jam presented by the Olympic tournament, as seen by the numerous withdrawals in 2016.

That's a good benefit. But did the proposal I saw put the PGA only two weeks before the Masters? I kinda like at least 4 weeks between them personally.