The PGA Tour season ends on August 27. The Ryder Cup begins a month later. And then the highest 50 gamers within the FedEx Cup won’t need to play once more till the beginning of 2024 until they need to add to their trophy case or checking account.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan doesn’t see many high gamers staying residence.
“I don’t think it’s realistic a player is going to the finish the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup and not play golf until January,” Monahan mentioned final week on the Wells Fargo Championship.
The concept of an actual offseason sounds good on paper. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have been amongst those that lobbied for a shorter common season. Woods in 2005 was lobbying for a condensed schedule that may carry one of the best gamers collectively extra typically.
The FedEx Cup arrived in 2007 and Woods was true to his phrase. He didn’t play for 10 weeks, returning at his Target World Challenge in December. He received, prompting Colin Montgomerie to say, “If he took a bloody year off, it would help — never mind 10 weeks.”
Mickelson had a stretch of enjoying post-Tour Championship in Singapore, China and the California occasion his administration firm ran. All have been tied with company and enterprise offers. Woods wound up going to Australia and Asia till again issues slowed him.
Now the PGA Tour will get a way of how this era of stars will react.
FedEx Cup factors proceed in the course of the seven-tournament fall schedule, although the highest 50 are locked in for all of the USD 20 million occasions. The fall is for gamers to maintain full standing by ending within the high 125 or to enhance their place to qualify for a number of the large occasions.
So why play? The manner Monahan sees it, that’s simply what they do.
“I still think players want to say sharp. They’re going to be competing against players in the top 70. I think you’ll see the same if not more players playing at that time of the year,” he mentioned. “Listen, winning is always going to have an incredible consequence on your career.”
If that’s the case, nonetheless to be decided is the place the highest gamers go. It was Ernie Els who mentioned in 2007 the latter a part of the 12 months is when “you’ve got the wheelbarrow out. You want to cash in a little bit.”
It’s additionally price noting the case of LIV Golf. Some high gamers, reminiscent of Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, went three months with out competing after the inaugural season ended. Time off did wonders for Koepka’s well being, and he had a runner-up end on the Masters.
Johnson hasn’t contended anyplace since returning and is No. 20 within the LIV Golf standings.
RICKIE’S GOLDEN TICKET
Before he had received on the PGA Tour, Rickie Fowler mentioned in a 2011 interview that the standing of being among the many high 50 on the planet was as worthwhile as successful a event.
So take into account his tie for 14th within the Wells Fargo Championship a victory.
That was simply sufficient to maneuver Fowler to No. 50 on this week’s world golf rating, a spot he had not been for the reason that finish of November 2020. Fowler missed the minimize at Mayakoba and fell to No. 52, and he’s been on the skin ever since.
The low level was the top of the 2022 season when he dropped to No. 185. Fowler tied for sixth on the Fortinet Championship, and he’s been steadily climbing ever since. He hasn’t missed a minimize since October.
Fowler would appear sure to remain within the high 60 after the PGA Championship, which might make him exempt from the U.S. Open. He has to remain within the high 50 after the PGA to be exempt from the British Open.
The PGA Championship was the one main he performed final 12 months.
LIV BOTTOM TO MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIP
Sihwan Kim stands out on LIV Golf this 12 months as a result of his title at all times appears to be on the backside of the 48-man fields.
Well, not at all times. He is coming off his greatest end of the season two weeks in the past when he was forty fifth in Singapore. In 5 occasions, Kim has completed forward of a complete of 4 gamers — Chase Koepka, Abraham Ancer and James Piot in Singapore, and Sam Horsfield in Australia when the Englishman withdrew due to harm.
Next up for Kim? The PGA Championship.
Never thoughts the 34-year-old American is at No. 239 on the planet rating. He has earned one in all three spots from the brand new “International Federation Ranking.” It was created this 12 months to assist tournaments determine gamers competing on the Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia and Sunshine Tour.
Kim nailed down one of many high three spots by successful the Asian Tour Order of Merit final 12 months. He is in a droop in the meanwhile, however he doesn’t need to look too far again to seek out good golf. He received twice final 12 months, together with the International Series-Thailand, and three of his seven high 10s have been in International Series occasions.
The different two International Federation Ranking spots are going to Kazuki Higa of Japan and Ockie Strydom of South Africa. Higa acquired an invite to the Masters final month.
Kim was the freshman of the 12 months at Stanford, and he received the U.S. Junior Amateur in 2008 at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. The PGA might be his second main. He missed the minimize within the British Open at St. Andrews final summer time.
EYE ON PEBBLE
The U.S. Women’s Open is lastly going to probably the most iconic U.S. Open course, and there’s a protracted line to get in. The USGA has accepted a file 2,107 entries for the Women’s Open at Pebble Beach on July 6-9.
Pebble Beach has held the boys’s U.S. Open six occasions, and now the world’s greatest girls get a crack. The U.S. Women’s Open already is ready to return to Pebble three extra occasions by means of 2048.
It was the primary time the variety of entries surpassed 2,000. The earlier file was 1,874 set final 12 months for the Women’s Open at Pine Needles.
Qualifying started Tuesday and takes place at 23 programs by means of June 7. Among those that signed as much as qualify embody previous champions Paula Creamer and Cristie Kerr, who every acquired exemptions two years in the past.
Three-time Women’s Open champion Annika Sorenstam acquired a particular exemption, as did 2011 champion So Yeon Ryu.
DIVOTS
The PGA Tour is enhancing its “PGA Tour University” program by providing the main participant popping out of faculty a card for the remainder of 2023 and all of 2024 (topic to re-rankings throughout 2024). Players who end at Nos. 2-5 have Korn Ferry standing by means of 2024 and might play limitless PGA Tour occasions on sponsor exemptions. … The Epson Tour is including the Black Desert Resort Championship in Salt Lake City to its schedule. The file purse of USD 375,000 brings the season prize fund to over USD 5 million. Five years in the past, the tour’s prize cash was slightly below USD 3 million. … Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech has an opportunity to hitch Jon Rahm as the one back-to-back winner of the Ben Hogan Award given to the nation’s high faculty golfer. Aberg was named a finalist together with Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt and Michael Thorbjornsen of Stanford. … Six days after he was appointed Presidents Cup captain, Jim Furyk was tapped to be one in all Zach Johnson’s assistants on the Ryder Cup. Furyk, the U.S. captain within the 2018 loss in France, was an assistant for successful groups at Hazeltine and Whistling Straits.
STAT OF THE WEEK
Out of 11 gamers with LIV Golf who filed an antitrust lawsuit in opposition to the PGA Tour final August, solely Bryson DeChambeau and Matt Jones stay as plaintiffs. Peter Uihlein was the latest participant to take away himself from the lawsuit.
FINAL WORD
“Tiger was pretty clear when he captained the Presidents Cup in Australia that was going to be his moment. He wants that moment to be shared with others. Once he tells you he’s going to do something a certain way, that’s the way he’s going to do it.” — Jay Monahan on why Tiger Woods wasn’t thought-about to be Presidents Cup captain once more.