With approval by the Policy Board, the Nationwide Tour will now become the primary path to earning membership on the PGA TOUR. Meanwhile, the start of the TOUR season will begin after the final FedExCup event, the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola, with events in the fall awarding FedExCup points for the new season.
All changes will go into effect beginning in October 2013. The current 2012 season will not be impacted.
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With these changes, all 50 PGA TOUR membership cards will now be awarded through the Nationwide Tour, with the three final tournaments on the Nationwide Tour consisting of fields involving PGA TOUR and Nationwide Tour players to determine who earns those 50 cards. The annual Qualifying Tournament will now become a pathway exclusively to the Nationwide Tour.
The fields for the three final Nationwide Tour events will include the top 75 players on the Nationwide Tour's money list, the players ranked 126-200 on the PGA TOUR's FedExCup points list and non-members who meet certain eligibility standards. Finchem said the events will be "positioned on an off-week on the PGA TOUR so that we can command good television exposure and we can bring the atmosphere and the drama of that competition to the fans
For me there are many questions which I will explore with you as we digest all this information which was first presented to the players back at Torrey Pines, but the main problem I have is as follows.
Golf badly needs an off season, all the top guys are already under pressure from everyone of the 40 odd events in the PGA calendar not to mention all the big events world wide, just look at Australia for example last year with the Presidents Cup and don't forget the Ryder Cup.. Wrap up the PGA tour year in September, let the top guys go abroad to the European Tour finale, more Americans like Dustin Johnson, and Hunter Mahan this year have become better players honing their skills and experiences around the world and more Americans need to, then get the PR machine fired up for a starting date in February that has a chance of attracting a first class field, and that may just be the week before the Accenture WGC Match Play when the top players are coming to the States to start their WGC run in Phoenix and Florida, not Hawaii in January.
Next with the new format, if you finish at 126 by 2 cents on the PGA tour, then play poorly in the 3 tournament playoff on the Nationwide tour and miss out on the top 50, you are doomed to the Nationwide for a complete year before you can go through the process again to get back on the big tour. That is a tough pill to swallow..
Next what about all the fantastic rags to riches and riches to rags stories that we revel in every year over those 6 rounds in Florida in December. Hundreds of stories both good and bad that are simply gripping TV and part of the PGA Tour..
Next what about all our Canadian Tour players, Canucks and others who could hit a home run at Q School but now must win our Canadian Open or simply go to Q school to qualify for the Nationwide Tour..
I have more questions, NOT the least of which is who will replace Nationwide as the title sponsor when their deal runs out this year ?? RBC ?? is the whisper I am hearing although the loss of Jim Little to Shaw Communications may leave the bank short of sports guys with Jim's vision...
Further, The PGA Tour made significant changes to the schedule to introduce the Fed Ex Cup with the 3 playoffs culminating in the Tour Championship in late September, so the season technically came to an end then. Yes the Fall Series is still important to the guys trying to get into the top 125, but in the main they wanted the big show to end before the NFL took over Sunday's. Now they are going to start the 2013 right in the heart of NFL Sunday's without any stars, not good for the sponsors, or ratings although Finchem says the Fall series sponsors will be happy to be part of the regular PGA tour season. Really ?? with nothing at stake as there was at the Justin Timberlake last year when Luke had to win to beat Webb for the money title ?
Now the Tour Championship will end 2012, and 2013 will start 2 weeks later. Who will care, what will happen to the Hawaii Series in January that has been diminishing drastically in top player attendance already. This will have no affect on the world's best players who are all out in the Far East including China for the WGC, then on to Dubai for the culmination of the Race to Dubai in December.
As a result the top guys have all worked out their 25 events or less and as a result the bread and butter events like the Canadian Open are lucky to get a Rory or Tiger or Phil or Lee unless the sponsor is paying them a royal ransom, as RBC does with Luke, Ernie, Freddie etal.. So while the new system may be a fairer representation of the 150 finalists ( top 75 Nationwide, 126-200 PGA tour) it will be met with the same bewilderment and disinterest that has met the Fed Ex Cup.
Sorry about Hawaii, the Tournament of Champions had more publicity for those who missed it than those who came this year maybe Mark Rolfing's idea of an All Star Game would work, the Sony the week after is lucky to get 2 of the top 10, Pebble is more about Bill Murray although Phil saved it with his win this year, and Phoenix gets all it's pub for the drunks at 16, not so much the stellar field.
The new system is just another way of re-arranging the deck chairs, I'd rather the PGA tour wrapped up in September, had it's next focus on one week at Q school with all it's drama in December, then started up in February for the next season.
What about college phenoms, how do they qualify..
There are more questions than answers for me with the new system..
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles and at www.isr1050.com
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