PGA Championship Moving to May

[boogielicious]

I have a selfish reason for wanting the PGA to move and it involves TPC Norton. Since they started doing that FedEx tournament on Labor Day weekend, Jimmy Buffett has had to move his show to mid-August. Now, first of all, Buffett is a big golf fan, so it is not an anti-golf thing. But he was a bigger fan of playing Great Woods on Labor Day weekend. TPC Norton uses the venue parking lot for the tournament, so there are no concert.

So move to May PGA! Move to May PGA!

[scotth]

On 6/8/2017 at 5:40 AM, Broke100Once said:

 PGA in June and then the US Open in July.  

Don't think the USGA will ever give up having the U.S. Open in June on Father's Day - think how much money they spend in marketing that concept.  Especially to help the PGA.  

They may work with each other as much as possible, but know of several clubs that were unofficially removed from contention of hosting a Open because they courted the PGA to host that event.  They seem to have a pretty heated rivalry.  

Would not mind seeing the PGA in May.  It is a long time between The Masters and U.S. Open.

[NCGolfer]

One major per month from April-July...Playoffs and Ryder/Presidents Cup in the fall.  Doesn't sound too bad to me...especially if you put the Players back in March.  That would give you a good spread of tournaments and allow for a decent layoff for the better players.  Perhaps a bit too much but they will play in other tournaments to get ready for the season...Pebble, Hawaii, etc.

I like it.

[MuniGrit]

Good. NFL kills the the PGA ratings and it gets rid of the long break from Masters to US Open. 

[b101]

On 10/06/2017 at 1:54 AM, Buckeyebowman said:

There ain't no damn way the R&A will move the Open Championship to May! Some of those courses are on the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska! It's damned cold up there, man. July is the height of Summer there, and the best chance of getting a tourney in on time, and even then it can be chancy with the weather.

 

On 08/06/2017 at 3:37 PM, Missouri Swede said:

I looked up a climate chart for St Andrews. In May, average high is 56*F, average low is 42.  Warm days get into the upper 60s, cold nights into the lower 30s. So I suspect frost might be a problem. 

Slow reply I know, but just seen these. Sorry to disappoint, but weather-wise, we'd be fine in May. You can play links courses all year round and we definitely don't have frost in May! You'd get rain, probably for sure, over one of the four days and it'd be unlikely to be sunny for, say, two of the four, if you were in Scotland, but it'd be fine. 

No, the reason it wouldn't move is because the R and A are (justifiably) happy with when the Open is. Why change something that works so well?

[DeadMan]

I know I already said it, but they'd better hope for a good spring for these northern courses to be in good shape. The New York City-area courses are probably going to be fine. Oak Hill could be interesting. Rochester still gets snow in April, and it's really tough to get a golf course into good shape if you have late snow or late cold snaps. We get snow through late April here, and courses are generally not in good shape until late May or early June. There's only so much you can do with winter kill.

[Marty2019]

What I don't like about this is the way it made the Players Championship look like the little brother.   That's our local tournament down here, we like to think it's a big deal, and it kind of felt like it was being slighted- the news being the PGA moving to May.  (Oh, and by the way, the Players will be in March.)

But, that said, this is actually good for me.   I'm generally out of town in May, and March is pretty nice down here, so I'm fine with it, really.   

[iacas]

5 hours ago, Marty2019 said:

What I don't like about this is the way it made the Players Championship look like the little brother.

Uhhh… it is. It's not a major. It is the little brother.

I get what you're saying about it being your local event, but…

[ChrisP]

I think it was a move they had to make if they wanted to expose the Fed Ex Cup playoffs more. I think many people, like myself, stop paying attention to golf in late August as football season sweeps in. This move allows the Fed Ex Cup to move up and take place mostly before the football season, so it will get some more exposure. Hopefully this will also get more people excited for the PGA as right now it seems to be the "forgotten major."

I would like to see some PGA Championships even played in March to allow courses like TPC Scottsdale and Palm Beach Gardens to get a shot at the PGA. I think it's too hot there in May to play them there.

Edited August 9, 2017 by ChrisP

[Hardspoon]

I like that the PGA will have a wider selection of courses to choose from, and it distributes the majors a bit better.

Also - it's not like this is irreversible.  If it doesn't work, they can always go back.

[NJpatbee]

The FedEx Cup is important to the pro's because of the $$ but to me it is nowhere near as exciting and important as the four majors or Ryder Sup.

[Marty2019]

13 hours ago, iacas said:

Uhhh… it is. It's not a major. It is the little brother.

I get what you're saying about it being your local event, but…

I know it's not as big as the PGA Championship.  But after the PGA Tour hyped it for years as "The 5th Major," it seemed like it was just being shoved aside and almost ignored in the news about the PGA Championship.  I know it's PGA Championship week, but it the PGA Tour wants the Players to be a big time tournament, they should act like it's a big time tournament.  It felt like "the PGA Championship wanted this week, so they took it."   That's just the feeling I got from the whole press conference. 

Bottom line, I know they're doing the right thing, and it's good for me, so it's okay.   Just... didn't feel right. 

 

Edited August 10, 2017 by Marty2019

[skydog]

22 hours ago, DeadMan said:

I know I already said it, but they'd better hope for a good spring for these northern courses to be in good shape. The New York City-area courses are probably going to be fine. Oak Hill could be interesting. Rochester still gets snow in April, and it's really tough to get a golf course into good shape if you have late snow or late cold snaps. We get snow through late April here, and courses are generally not in good shape until late May or early June. There's only so much you can do with winter kill.

I played Whistling ~May 20 a handful of years back....it was 43 degrees, raining,  and blowing 15+.  Course conditions be damned, that would be good tv! 

Honestly the move will probably eliminate some of the far Northern courses from the PGA rotation, but that will hopefully be offset with a few good southern courses that have probably been overlooked previously because of the August date.

[DeadMan]

2 hours ago, Marty2019 said:

I know it's not as big as the PGA Championship.  But after the PGA Tour hyped it for years as "The 5th Major," it seemed like it was just being shoved aside and almost ignored in the news about the PGA Championship.  I know it's PGA Championship week, but it the PGA Tour wants the Players to be a big time tournament, they should act like it's a big time tournament.  It felt like "the PGA Championship wanted this week, so they took it."   That's just the feeling I got from the whole press conference. 

Bottom line, I know they're doing the right thing, and it's good for me, so it's okay.   Just... didn't feel right. 

 

I think this increases the profile of the Players, honestly. It's going to be the big tournament before the Masters now. It will also hit into the schedule with the Florida swing better. I'm actually more excited to watch this tournament in March, when I'm going through golf withdrawal, than in May, when it overlaps with Mothers' Day and when I'm wanting to get out and play more.

1 hour ago, skydog said:

I played Whistling ~May 20 a handful of years back....it was 43 degrees, raining,  and blowing 15+.  Course conditions be damned, that would be good tv! 

Honestly the move will probably eliminate some of the far Northern courses from the PGA rotation, but that will hopefully be offset with a few good southern courses that have probably been overlooked previously because of the August date.

Does the PGA Championship really not play at courses in the South? I know people have said this, but they've played in Atlanta, Charlotte, and Tulsa in the past decade. There's definitely a northern bias to the courses, but what courses is the PGA Championship excluding because of the weather? A few in Florida and a few in Texas? Meh.

[skydog]

2 hours ago, DeadMan said:

Does the PGA Championship really not play at courses in the South? I know people have said this, but they've played in Atlanta, Charlotte, and Tulsa in the past decade. There's definitely a northern bias to the courses, but what courses is the PGA Championship excluding because of the weather? A few in Florida and a few in Texas? Meh.

I'm not saying they've necessarily excluded southern ones in the past, but yea, the North and Midwest/Great Lakes seem to get more than a fair share of PGAs historically....NY/NJ have three of the next six PGAs. I know you have to go where the big populations of people are to some extent, but off the top of my head I would like to see the likes of Austin CC maybe get one, throw in a desert course, and maybe something like Shoal Creek in Alabama.

[MuniGrit]

On 8/10/2017 at 7:42 AM, DeadMan said:

 

Does the PGA Championship really not play at courses in the South? I know people have said this, but they've played in Atlanta, Charlotte, and Tulsa in the past decade. There's definitely a northern bias to the courses, but what courses is the PGA Championship excluding because of the weather? A few in Florida and a few in Texas? Meh.

The south is brutal in August which is why they haven't played too much there. I hope someday they play the PGA or US Open at Bandon. Not sure the access is good enough or if Bandon would want it though.

Edited August 11, 2017 by MuniGrit

[Chris223]

So curious what this does regarding the PGA National Championship and the PGA Pro's who make it into the PGA Championship... are they still going to play in the middle of the summer to earn entrance into the PGA the following year???

[iacas]

11 hours ago, MuniGrit said:

The south is brutal in August which is why they haven't played too much there. I hope someday they play the PGA or US Open at Bandon. Not sure the access is good enough or if Bandon would want it though.

No way.

3 hours ago, Chris223 said:

So curious what this does regarding the PGA National Championship and the PGA Pro's who make it into the PGA Championship... are they still going to play in the middle of the summer to earn entrance into the PGA the following year???

Maybe? But that'd be a two-year process.