CROMWELL, Conn. — The Vacationers Championship, with a date that many individuals would assume is among the many worst on the PGA Tour calendar—the week after the U.S. Open—is a hit story that commissioner Jay Monahan loves to debate. He is aware of the event properly, having graduated from Trinity School, which is simply 11 miles away from TPC River Highlands in Hartford. However on a soggy Wednesday afternoon, Monahan was within the media middle to speak about one thing else: the risk the LIV Golf Sequence poses to the PGA Tour and what the tour plans to do transferring ahead.
Because it seems, Monahan spoke for simply over 40 minutes and outlined a brand new construction the PGA Tour plans to implement quickly.
Listed below are 5 key takeaways from his information convention:
FedEx Cup playoff season will get revised for 2023
On the finish of this season, which concludes with the ultimate spherical of the Tour Championship on Aug. 28, the gamers ranked No. 125 and higher on the FedEx Cup level listing will qualify to compete within the first event of the FedEx Cup playoffs (the FedEx St. Jude Championship) and earn full exemptions on the PGA Tour for subsequent season. However Wednesday, Monahan introduced that the quantity would drop to 70 starting in 2023.
There’ll nonetheless be three FedEx Cup playoff occasions, however the high 50 within the level standings will transfer on to the second spherical in 2023, after which the highest 30 will advance to the Tour Championship after spherical two.
Golfers who fail to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs might want to earn their exemptions for the following season by taking part in in a collection of occasions within the fall.
The calendar-based season returns
Beginning within the fall of 2013, the PGA Tour adopted a wraparound schedule that ended within the late summer time of 2014, however Monahan introduced Wednesday that the tour intends to return to a calendar-based season in 2024. Which means the 2024 PGA Tour season will begin in January and finish in late August, making it extra condensed.
The benefit of this technique, particularly for elite gamers, is golfers can take pleasure in an low season and never fear about returning to motion in a low FedEx Cup level place.
“Selfishly, for me, I would love an low season,” Rory McIlroy stated Wednesday. “I want to not flip up in February and be a hundred and fiftieth within the FedEx Cup level listing as a result of I simply didn’t need to play within the fall and I wished to take a while off and spend a while with my household.”
Nonetheless, beginning in 2023, golfers who make it to the second spherical of the FedEx Cup playoffs may also qualify for a brand new collection of as much as three worldwide occasions held within the fall. These occasions are anticipated to be held in Asia, Europe and the Center East and have purses within the vary of $20 million every.
Huge purse will increase at eight occasions
A number of the most high-profile occasions on the PGA Tour may have considerably extra prize cash accessible to gamers beginning subsequent season, together with the Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, WGC-Dell Applied sciences Match Play and the Memorial Event. These occasions will go from a complete purse of $12 million to $20 million. The Sentry Event of Champions will go from $8.2 million to $15 million, the Gamers Championship may have a handbag of $25 million, and the FedEx St. Jude Invitational and BMW Championship will bounce to $20 million.
“One of many issues that we’ve heard over the past a number of months from our sponsors is, ‘Please inform us what we will do to assist,’” Monahan stated. “So the adjustments that we’re making, which will likely be roughly $45 million in incremental purse, is coming from a mixture of sponsor contribution, you recognize, methods to proceed to promote extra inside these occasions themselves, and our reserves.”
No free lunch on the PGA Tour
The LIV Golf Sequence contracts gamers to compete in its occasions, then pays them extra primarily based on their efficiency and the efficiency of the crew they play for that week. Nonetheless, PGA Tour gamers earn their cash primarily based on how they end at that week’s event.
Over the previous couple of weeks, there have been murmurs that golfers who make it to the PGA Tour needs to be paid a set quantity firstly of the season to pay for issues like journey and training. Requested about that matter, Monahan didn’t say it was off the desk, however didn’t say it was coming quickly.
“The inspiration of this tour, the meritocracy of taking part in on the PGA Tour, how arduous it’s to get out right here, how arduous it’s to get on the highest degree of the sport, that’s finally going to be the attribute,” Monahan stated. “That’s finally going to be the factor that may proceed to make this tour the best tour on the planet.”
For gamers becoming a member of the LIV Sequence, there isn’t any coming again
On June 9, Monahan despatched a letter to all PGA Tour members asserting that he had suspended the 17 members who performed within the LIV Sequence occasion in London, together with Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia. That made them ineligible to play in any PGA Tour-sanctioned occasions.
As he spoke, LIV Golf took to social media to announce that Brooks Koepka has joined the group, confirming the hypothesis and experiences that began circulating on Tuesday.
“I laid out on June 9 our place on the gamers that had signed up for that first occasion, just about all of whom made a long-term dedication to play in that collection,” Monahan stated when requested if he foresaw a method for LIV Golf contributors to return to the PGA Tour. “So one occasion has been performed, extra are to come back, and I feel our place there’s very well-established because it pertains to any gamers which can be going to play in future occasions.”
Put bluntly, golfers who depart the PGA Tour and compete in LIV Sequence occasions don’t have a method again.
