PGA Tour: Musical Chairs: Notes from the Ballwasher

1).It's the time of year when thoughts turn to PGA Tour "playing privileges" and the game of musical chairs that seems to go on every week. But first let's talk about Tommy Gainey's big break.

2).First off, I'll repeat the widely acclaimed, by the Press anyway, Tommy Gainey winner's press conference last Sunday:

http://www.pgatour.com/2012/tournaments/r493/10/21/gainey-interview/index.html

Lots of good stuff in there, especially the respective ironies of beating Furyk (who sought him out to offer advice last year) and Davis Love (who beat Two Gloves by one shot, a ten foot par-putt at Disney in 2008).

3).Gainey won't get a Masters invitation on the back of his McGladrey win, but he confirms his card for 2013, gains access to the "Invitationals" and, like Jonas Blixt, will reach the Top 50 - long way to go in his case admittedly - and its accompanying Masters exemption, if he's good enough.

4).Looks like the "Top 125 moneylist" threshold will drop to about $680K, making Boo Weekley safe after last week, and giving Christian and Knox, Cejka and Chopra a mountain to climb.

5).Before we leave The McGladrey, I can't think of a course I'd rather play of all the PGA Tour tracks than the Seaside Course, for playability, apparent flow of the course, and scenic qualities. Excluding those I've played, but Seaside just looks beautiful and a reminder that Colt and Allison were top drawer architects, great in any era.

6).This week sees two or three dozen Tour pros in a limited field event in Malaysia, guaranteed money to persuade the very disappointing field to turn up. Next year, it seems the "CIMB Classic" (misnomer of the year award) will be part of the PGA Tour schedule as an official event, to be followed by the equally official WGC-HSBC Champions event. These will be part of the FedEx series, may even kick off the 2013/2014 Tour season, but I'd say this is misguided by the Tour.
The Tour has changed all the qualifying criteria for a Tour card, and now advertises that new card-holders and last year's journeymen are inferior citizens and the top guys will automatically get a two-event start.
I'm pleased the Tour now recognises the "HSBC" as official, but this Malaysian enticement with guaranteed money is bull-sh1te.

7).The web.com Tour Championship starts Thursday in Texas with the Top 60 moneywinners competing. Following Sunday's final round, the season's Top 25 money-winners will have earned PGA Tour cards.
The field includes Tour veterans Woody Austin and Skip Kendall, one-time Aussie hot-shot Nick Flanagan, Sweden's David Lingmerth who is assured of a card, and a variety of other young guns and old lags.
Among those who committed to web.com business and missed out are Lee Janzen (very unkucky), Will MacKenzie, Peter Lonard and Jamie Lovemark. Stage 2 Q-School for them.

8).And, talking of Q-School, the following advance to Stage 2 from last week's qualies:
Messrs Oliver Fisher, Romain Wattel, Dinwiddie, Seamus Power, Sluiter, Hafthorsson and Niklas Lemke.
And the great Trevor Murphy.
Ross McGowan, Dougherty and Gustafsson failed to qualify, while Boyd and Bourdy withdrew before play began - as did Lara and Canizares this week.
The second week of Stage 1 qualifying is underway, and Wallace Booth, Rikard Karlberg, Victor Dubuisson and Andrew Marshall are among those off to a fine start. Derksen, Zanotti and Lafeber among those starting today.
Updates on this thread.

9).Then there's the Champions Tour. Last week's Tour qualifiers saw Messrs Mouland, Fowler and Farry advance to the Final, TC Chen missing out. Presumably we'll see Barry Lane and one or two others for the Finals in November. Probably only about four slots available so the chances of fortune, if not fame, are slim.

10).Roger Chapman, Lyle and Mouland are in the final Champions event of their regular season, in San Antonio. The Top 30 of the moneylist will advance to the Charles Schwab Cup Championship next week, and secure their fully exempt Champions Tour cards for next season. Bernhard Langer remains in pole position for the Schwab million dollar jackpot.
This "old duffers" Tour gets more competitive by the year; next season will start with Elkington and Mediate on board and Vijay eligible to join them in February. Will Colin Montgomerie join them? He may like to, but I can't see any way in which he would have any "status" as things stand, but a summons any day to the World Golf Hall Of Fame - doubtless way overdue in his mind - would change all that.

Excellent write up kwini as usual. Disappointed Gary didn't tee it up, would have been interesting to see how he got on over there. Would probably have done so if he had secured his Euro card as a sort of insurance.

Thanks gw,
I saw you got the clubs out last week - how'd it go? Did you get your lad to join you??

Boyd missed the cut in Perth so he probably wishes he'd gone ahead with his original plan.

Padraig Harrington $600K the richer today! Must be the guys kept chatting to him, but sure he's pleased to beat three US Ryder Cuppers. Anything you can do . . . . and all that.

Yeah I took him to the local driving range, that's about all the budget can stretch to at the moment (which won't change anytime soon.....less than a year after surviving redundancy it's happening all over again, as if they hadn't saved enough money! this time I think my numbers up.)

Surprisingly hit the ball really well, I suppose when you haven't played for so long you forget all the bad habits. My son also enjoyed it, since he's given up football after getting a hard time from his supposed teammates, he's taken an interest in golf again.

It was good fun, just reminds me how much I miss playing

Good luck gw, sport is the greatest respite from the real world. At my advanced years, it's tempting to believe that sport (and family) is the real world and everything else is entirely secondary.

Yep you're right there, won't go down without fighting though, I'm Employee Rep Speaker! ha ha

Golf World have somehow continued their eerie run of picking winners (most notably doing a feature on Ernie Els the month before he won The Open)... Latest issue which came through the letterbox last week has an article on Tommy Gainey (albeit admittedly he's only 1 of 3 PGA Tour players showcased therein - each from different continents; Gary Christian is one of the others, which might bode well for him???).

Wearing two gloves is the way to go - has been for me anyway for a few years...

Thanks, kwini

There seems to be a common trend this one with guarranteed money in this period in Asia. Perhaps they still feel that players need to be shown a carrot to make them come over. €5560 for the last #78 spot in Shanghai this week...

Rather surprising leaderboard after Rd1, wouldn't have picked Troy Matteson in a hundred years, but maybe not quite as surprising for Overton who I think did well here in the past...Solid finish for Woods in the end and good to see Bhullar continuing his good form on the Asian Tour and keeping it up with the big boys...

Also a bit surprised to see Noh playing (average) in Malaysia rather then being in Shanghai where he used to hold the course record (until this morning)...

Still not sure why we should give a hoot for this CIMB event, any more than Nedbank or that other Thousand Oaks cocktail party.

Guaranteed money, crummy field, no cut, probably $40K for last place, but owgr points handed out like confetti. Who cares?

What a load of parc.


Seems we have a hurricane coming up the coast, with an impact already being felt in Florida as the PGA Tour is cramming three Q-School rounds into two days to try and ensure that the Port St.Lucie First Stage quilifier is completed on time.

Just had a look at the PGA Tour First Stage qualies and I see Victor Dubuisson as being "JWD" instead of in the 11th position his scores would apparently warrant.

JWD is a new one on me; anyone know what it means?

Superficially it appears Dubuisson is out.

I believe that should be a 'justified' withdrawal. For example...

http://www.ajga.org/Membership/Withdrawing.asp

Woof!
Hope everything's alright for tricky Vicky.
Q-School's loss should be O'Grady's gain.

Some updates from Q-School, First Stage:

Going well (with their position in their respective qualies):
Karlberg: 2nd
David Skinns: 2nd
Bryden MacPherson: 2nd
Joakim Mikkelsen of Norway: 6th
Lafeber: 17th


Struggling:
Matt Richardson: 22nd (assume he's the former GB&I Walker Cupper)
Marshall: 23rd
Wallace Booth: 30th after a terrible 3rd round.
Zanotti: 34th
Derksen: 35th
Frittelli: 43rd
Ben Briscoe: 44th
Garcia-Heredia: 52nd
Tom Whitehouse: 63rd
Pablo Martin: 67th
Dubuisson is no longer competing after a good start; trying to find out why.

Probably missed one or two that I either know nothing about and are out with the washing, or are Hafthorsson who I've somehow lost track of.

I guess Peter Uihlein is staying in Europe next year since he is not in Stage 1 PGAT qualifying? I don't think he would be exempt into stage 2.

26th on the Challenge tour OOM so he has an outside shot of getting promoted to the EuroT next year with a good solid round tomorrow. He is 26th, and 6300 Euro behind #20. I guess, at worst, he will have full status on Challenge Tour and exempt to their final stage of Euro Q-school.

Update on Q-School, First Stage with some qualies complete, four others with one round to go:

Qualified:
Rikard Karlberg
Joakim Mikkelsen from Norway (don't know anything about him).
David Skinns


Failed to Qualify:
Andrew Marshall
Frittelli
Pablo Martin
Dubuisson (still can't establish why he JWD'd when apparently going well.)
Wallace Booth
Tom Whitehouse
Sean Jacklin
Ben Briscoe
Garcia-Heredia
Zanotti
McLardy
Lafeber (Heartbreak for the Dutchman, double-bogeyed his 71st hole to miss by one spot.)
Derksen (Bad day for Holland as Derksy bogeyed that same 71st hole to also miss by one.)


Looking good:
Bryden MacPherson

Struggling:
Matt Richardson


That's it, Final round being completed at four locations today, though somewhat "Sandy" dependent at Port St.Lucie.

Hi all,

bit of a quiet second week for the Euros at US q-school, not as much success as last week, only 6 guys through so far that I've seen - Karlberg moonlighting from Asia, minitour vets Skinns and Paul Cormack of Scotland, college grads Mikkelsen of Norway and Norlander of Sweden, and Tahitian (i.e. Frenchman) Guillaume. Unlucky for the Dutchmen who miss out by a single place (maybe Lafeber should've messed up his partner's scorecard). Still waiting on scores from Florida, with outside chances for Matt Richardson, Sam Osborne and Monaco's only pro golfer Piaget, and California where Dornoch's Jimmy Gunn is on the bubble.

Hope everyone is keeping well on here, only been making sporadic visits recently due to limited internet access, good to see things are still going strong!

Not sure if anyone much cares, but for the sake of completeness this is the full record of Europeans at Q-school stage 1.

Week 1

North Carolina
Qualified: Robert Dinwiddie (ENG), Jonas Enander Hedin (SWE), Stephan Jaeger (GER), Seamus Power (IRL), Stefan Wiedergruen (GER).
Missed Out: Christopher Cannon (ENG), Iain Hall (IRL), Mark Laskey (WAL), Ross McGowan (ENG), Nemanja Savic (SRB)

Florida
Qualified: None.
Missed Out: Stephen Grant (IRL), Immu Korvenmaa (FIN), Adrien Mörk (FRA), Gyles Robin (JER), Sam Walker (ENG)

Texas
Qualified: None.
Missed Out: Cyril Bouniol (FRA), Pelle Edberg (SWE), Peter Gustafsson (SWE), Fergal Rafferty (IRL), Oscar Stark (SWE)

Nevada
Qualified: Oliver Fisher (ENG)
Missed Out: Chris Devlin (NIR)

California
Qualified: None
Missed Out: Nick Dougherty (ENG), Andrew Gunson (SCO)

Massachusetts
Qualified: Birgir Hafthorsson (ISL), Niklas Lemke (SWE), Tim Sluiter (NED), Romain Wattel (FRA)
Missed Out: Julien Clément (SUI), Mark Murphy (IRL), Morten Orveland (NOR), Pierre Relecom (BEL)
Withdrew: Grégory Bourdy (FRA), Gary Boyd (ENG)

Week 2
Texas (1)
Qualified: Paul Cormack (SCO), Rikard Karlberg (SWE)
Missed Out: Kelvin Day (ENG), Roger Furrer (SUI), Andrew Marshall (ENG), Cedric Scotto (FRA)
Withdrew: Victor Dubuisson (FRA), Pablo Martín (ESP)

Texas (2)
Qualified: Joakim Mikkelsen (NOR), Henrik Norlander (SWE)
Missed Out: Wallace Booth (SCO), Nicolas Tacher (FRA)
Withdrew: José Manuel Lara (ESP)

California (1)
Qualified: Vaita Guillaume (FRA)
Missed Out: Oscar Zetterwall (SWE)

Florida (1)
Qualified: None.
Missed Out: Ramón Bescansa (ESP), Ben Briscoe (WAL), Tom Whitehouse (ENG)
Withdrew: Jon Martin Vikstrom (NOR)

South Carolina
Qualified: None.
Missed Out: Olafur Loftsson (ISL)
Withdrew: Alejandro Cañizares (ESP)

Georgia
Qualified: David Skinns (ENG)
Missed Out: Sam Del Val (ESP), Robert-Jan Derksen (NED), Maarten Lafeber (NED), Denny Lucas (ENG)
Withdrew: Alfredo García-Heredia (ESP), Jeff Karlsson (SWE)

Florida (2)
Still waiting on scores...

California (2)
Qualified: None.
Missed Out: Jimmy Gunn (SCO)

I care.
How'd'you figure out all these guys?

I missed out a few I'd never heard of and were not doing well but you sleuthed twice the number I found!

As I said above, the Dutch guys at Callaway Gdns were especially unlucky.

Moronic that McIlroy is not staying in China.

While Americans avoiding the HSBC Champions:
Apart from Woods, Simpson, Stricker, Zach Johnson are among those missing while apparently Hunter Mahan is on a monster appearance fee to play in Thailand instead of China.

Looks like Garcia is also absent, but upside is that Thomas Bjorn is elevated to first alternate and will hopefully get in.

(I'm sure there's a good reason Allenby is in the field but can't for the life of me figure out what it might be.)

Why oh why are Mcilroy/Woods skipping the HSBC? They are playing an exhibition match tomorrow in China, why not stay for the main event?

"Moronic that McIlroy is not staying in China."
"Why oh why are Mcilroy/Woods skipping the HSBC?"

Why, why, why... indeed...

I hear that Rory is allegedly receiving $2million for that little appearence tomorrow with Tiger. He needs it badly...

In his defence, if there is one, he confirmed that he will play Singapore and Hong Kong before finishing the season in Dubai in the following 3 weeks after HSBC...

kwinigolfer wrote:

(I'm sure there's a good reason Allenby is in the field but can't for the life of me figure out what it might be.)

Allenby must be getting via the Order of Merit from the Australasian Tour. He was 4th on the 2011 OOM.

2011 OOM

GPB,
That'll be it then. Thanks!

PS: Watney's had some good wins, but not in a full-field event since 2009.

I like Watney, though, no pretension about him whatsoever - refreshing change.

kwinigolfer wrote:GPB,
That'll be it then. Thanks!

PS: Watney's had some good wins, but not in a full-field event since 2009.

I like Watney, though, no pretension about him whatsoever - refreshing change.

Here's the field qualifications for the HSBC: http://www.hsbcgolf.com/who-is-qualifying

robo,
Must admit, I've rather discounted this page as I don't understand it; for instance why Tommy Gainey is eligible for The McGladrey, but not Garcia for Greensboro.
Didn't catch that Kuchar and, presumably, Furyk are also boycotting the HSBC. I know others disagree, but this is where the players, McIlroy included, make a mockery of the WGC's. Imagine the outrage in the US media if the ROTW boycotted, say Doral, in their droves. Disappointing isn't in it.

kwinigolfer wrote:GPB,
That'll be it then. Thanks!

PS: Watney's had some good wins, but not in a full-field event since 2009.

I like Watney, though, no pretension about him whatsoever - refreshing change.

FWIW, Woods has not won a full field PGAT event since August 2009.

GPB,
But then he seldom plays in them! This season a refreshing change to see him at Pebble, Honda and, briefly, Greenbrier.

kwinigolfer wrote:robo,
Must admit, I've rather discounted this page as I don't understand it; for instance why Tommy Gainey is eligible for The McGladrey, but not Garcia for Greensboro.
Didn't catch that Kuchar and, presumably, Furyk are also boycotting the HSBC. I know others disagree, but this is where the players, McIlroy included, make a mockery of the WGC's. Imagine the outrage in the US media if the ROTW boycotted, say Doral, in their droves. Disappointing isn't in it.

The invites for each year have been based on strength of fields of the PRIOR year events...

So in qualifying section 3 (top 23 events on the PGA Tour as per OWGR rating), the McGladreys from 2011 barely slipped in as the T22nd highest rated event (with ATT Pebble) with a rating of 42 for the winner. So basically 15 PGAT events rated from 38-24 were left out.

Same for the Euro Tour in section 5, except the used the top 22 2011 events and added the 2012 Shanghai due to its anticipated high OWGR. So that's 23 for the Euro Tour total. However since some Euro events are co-sanctioned with Asia and the Sunshine Tour they did not count against the Euro Tour's 23. As it turned out only 4 Euro events (not counting the Challenge tour co-sanctions), and all rated at 24 were not invited.

And as for American's not showing... Yeah... there are more no-shows this year than last, mostly due to the fact some additional Americans were in the area last time for the Presidents Cup.

Of the Americans eligible:

Those playing (12): Watson, Bradley, Wagner, Snedeker, Stanley, Mickelson, Haas, Dufner, Piercy, Watney, DJ, Garrigus.

Those not playing (11): Kuchar, Simpson, Mahan, Stricker, Woods, Fowler, Z. Johnson, Gainey, Moore, Furyk, Van Pelt.

Near as I can tell.. the only Euro's choosing not to play are Rory and Sergio.

kwinigolfer wrote:I know others disagree, but this is where the players, McIlroy included, make a mockery of the WGC's. Imagine the outrage in the US media if the ROTW boycotted, say Doral, in their droves. Disappointing isn't in it.

You're right... I do disagree... but ONLY because the WGC-HSBC isn't fully official on the PGAT Tour... and neither is it's "companion" event the CIMB. Bottom line... at least through 2012, I wouldn't expect the PGAT Americans to fully embrace the HSBC or CIMB under those circumstances... and they haven't

But I think that changes tremendously next year. CIMB is expanding it's field and IS fully official for the 2013-2014 season... and the WGC-HSBC is like 98% certain to be as well (refer to our prior conversation on the 2% doubt). So FULLY official events change the dynamic entirely. The CIMB being official is important to the equation because it gives the PGAT players an opportunity to take in TWO official events to make for a nice trip... as opposed to the "unofficial" situation they are in this year. My guess... Next year the American participation goes up to around 80%, maybe even 90% for the HSBC. A few will still probably skip... kinda like a few top internationals skip the PLAYERS Championship now.

Rickie Fowler injured I think, so he gets a free pass.

But: When is a WGC a WGC? The governing bodies need to figure that out. Surely Finchem is half pregnant here, trying to be all things to all people and succeeding only in undermining the entire event. In my opinion his m.o., but once again, others will have a different view.

The Players a different case entirely, as of course is Wentworth. Apples and oranges.

kwinigolfer wrote:
But: When is a WGC a WGC? The governing bodies need to figure that out. Surely Finchem is half pregnant here, trying to be all things to all people and succeeding only in undermining the entire event. In my opinion his m.o., but once again, others will have a different view.

A WGC is a WGC when it's embraced by ALL the worlds tours... and I don't mean just NOT VETOED. By that I mean when the HSBC was elevated to WGC status, the PGAT was clear that it would not stop it, but it would take a wait and see attitude towards it. You have to remember that this was coming up only a few years after the FedEx came into being... and one benefit to the FedEx for the top players was that the season for most of them could end with the Tour Championship. Now the HSBC comes along and wants the PGAT to fully accept it as official, but the players advisory council is telling Timmy no way. Now of course all that has changed with this new wrap around schedule.

And get ready... but the exact same thing is happening with the supposed WGC Tournament of Hope in South Africa. The PGAT will not veto that one either, but it will not grant the event even the limited quasi-official status the HSBC has enjoyed to this date. I don't know what's happening behind closed doors beyond that point... but the dates and sponsor for the South African WGC has not been announced... and I'll bet that has to do with issues of potential sponsors being somewhat reluctant if the Americans not supporting it.

Unless it's unanimous a tournament should not be awarded WGC status. High time for O'Grady to withdraw Europe's support for the three in America and we can all go back to square one.

In the meantime, it's farcical.

robo,
It wasn't that the FedEx was for the players to "end with the Tour Championship", it was to enable them to go round the world collecting appearance fees and, just possibly, prizemoney.

As for the South African event, more likely that the PGA Tour will award WGC status to the bow and arrow affair at Sherwood . . . . . .

"Sandy" has finally got on its bike and allowed golfers to finish the last Stage 1 qualie:

Good news for Aussie Bryden MacPherson, and very good news for Sam Osborne Manuel Villegas, Alan Wagner and Kevin son-of-boring-Bob Tway.

And a sickener for Matt Richardson who disappointingly failed to make it. Looks like his promising future is slipping well behind him. Too bad.

kwinigolfer wrote:"Sandy" has finally got on its bike and allowed golfers to finish the last Stage 1 qualie:

Good news for Aussie Bryden MacPherson, and very good news for Sam Osborne Manuel Villegas, Alan Wagner and Kevin son-of-boring-Bob Tway.

Sounds like a collection of famous people's relatives... Elle MacPherson, Ozzy Osborne, Camilo Villegas, Richard (or Johnson) Wagner and of course, the boring Bob Tway...

Is 'Sandy' going to be as bad as it's made to look on tv over here?

kwinigolfer wrote:Unless it's unanimous a tournament should not be awarded WGC status. High time for O'Grady to withdraw Europe's support for the three in America and we can all go back to square one.

In the meantime, it's farcical.

robo,
It wasn't that the FedEx was for the players to "end with the Tour Championship", it was to enable them to go round the world collecting appearance fees and, just possibly, prizemoney.

As for the South African event, more likely that the PGA Tour will award WGC status to the bow and arrow affair at Sherwood . . . . . .

I don't think it's the least bit farcical... it's a matter of the PGAT having built something... and not willing to just give it away... The PGA Tour is not the World Golf Benevolent Association... it's an organization who's purpose is to serve it's members, the players of the PGA Tour.

And as for the post Tour Championship part of the season the players wanted... it's not so much WHAT they could do with the time post TC... it's that after the Tour Championship the players could choose for themselves what they were going to do for those 3 months. For some it was significant time off.. for others it was silly season...

I think Manuel is Camilo's brother n'est ce pas?

Not sure about the hurricane, but Shotrock and 1grumpygolfer should be centre-stage. As my son will be, who emigrated to Brooklyn ten days ago, just in time. Hopefully we'll be on the northern fringes, last year's "Irene" did enough damage round here.

Whatever happens, no huricane can do the sort of damage a republican win would do in nine days' time so everything's relative.


robo,
I'm left with the conclusion that a WGC is only a WGC when Finchem says so and it's in the USA. Surely, it wouldn't have received thie WGC recognition unless Timmy said so - I didn't think these things could be less than unanimous?
But we'll have to agree to differ on all that, said he eagerly awaiting a butcher's at the 2013/2014 Tour calendar!

Yes, I think Manuel Villegas is Camilo's younger brother. And might be playing with him in Stage II next month as Camilo is not yet exempt into Final Stage.

Finchem works for the PGATour members and his first priority is to them, and not the EuroTour or the Asian Tour or anyone else

If Finchem has to choose between the best interests of "Golf in General" or the PGAT, he is going to choose the PGAT, nearly every time and should not be criticized for it.

There is a reason why nearly every golfer in the top 30 is on the PGATour (or wants to be).

GPB, I understand all that.

But surely the WGC's are intended to be a celebration of WORLD golf, agreed upon mutually by all the world's tours? For the biggest Tour to only embrace those WGC's (which presumably they were a party to) that suit them is disingenuous at best.

The other side of the story is that many of those same "top 30" golfers from around the world "on the PGA Tour" are sponging, starting with McIlroy and Westwood.

Almost without exception, the golfing galacticos want the rewards of the biggest events without investing, plying their trade, in the smaller tournaments.

Donald ducking the Disney tournament next week due to a conflict with a medical procedure for one of his daughters.

Subtle Kwini but well done.

"...Almost without exception, the golfing galacticos want the rewards of the biggest events without investing, plying their trade, in the smaller tournaments...."

And there is consequences to not playing well. Look at Paul Casey and Sergio. both fell well out of the Top 50 after a prolonged slumps. You still have to golf your ball.

Here's the newly released PGA Tour calendsar for 2013. Just posting, haven't had the chance to inhale the changes or quantify their significance:

http://www.pgatour.com/2012/r/10/29/2013-pga-tour-schedule/index.html

Comments welcome!

Virtually the same...?! Only see that Valero is moved the other side of the Masters and... where's Mayakokobaba?

...starting 31Dec? With lot's of fireworks presumably...

pd,
Just had a closer look and I think you're spot on, and we knew the Texas date change some time ago.
Mayakoba will be part of early 2013/14, possibly in October or November 2013. The FedEx off week has sensibly been changed so that it follows the Deutsche Bank.

Think robo and I concur that the bigger changes will be the October thru December 2013 dates, what with the statrus change for CIMB, perhaps HSBC, and allegedly McGladrey opening the batting for the 2013/2014 FedEx season.

Pleased to see the "Tampa" date retained, albeit without a title sponsor. Hope they keep Tampa, I prefer the Innisbrook course to any of the other tracks on the Florida "swing".

kwinigolfer wrote:pd,
Just had a closer look and I think you're spot on, and we knew the Texas date change some time ago.
Mayakoba will be part of early 2013/14, possibly in October or November 2013. The FedEx off week has sensibly been changed so that it follows the Deutsche Bank.

Think robo and I concur that the bigger changes will be the October thru December 2013 dates, what with the statrus change for CIMB, perhaps HSBC, and allegedly McGladrey opening the batting for the 2013/2014 FedEx season.

Pleased to see the "Tampa" date retained, albeit without a title sponsor. Hope they keep Tampa, I prefer the Innisbrook course to any of the other tracks on the Florida "swing".

I had posted in the past that I thought Houston was getting unfairly jobbed out of their pre-Masters date, even though it's only one year. (Shell Houston Open will go back to week before the Masters in 2014). But now, I'm hearing maybe.. supposedly there is this certain golfer who has never played the Shell Houston Open before... and who never plays the week before the Masters when Houston is normally played, but always tries to play TWO weeks before the Masters... Of course I can't think of that guys name right now... hmmm.... all I'm hearing is "we're gonna need some bigger bleachers"...

And yes... on the Fall... at least 5, maybe 6 fall "regular" events for 2013-14 season... and at least 2, maybe 3 Asia/Pacific Rim...

robo,
Fred Couples no doubt! That's intriguing; of course, Phil would most likely be playing Houston; can't think of too many who would go to San Antonio if they haven't already been there.
Pity the European Tour can't schedule an event, say, in the Bahamas for that pre-Augusta week!

kwinigolfer wrote:robo,
Fred Couples no doubt! That's intriguing; of course, Phil would most likely be playing Houston; can't think of too many who would go to San Antonio if they haven't already been there.
Pity the European Tour can't schedule an event, say, in the Bahamas for that pre-Augusta week!

Fred Couples??? HA.... we're talking JBE' Kruger here...

As for the Valero... my guess is the Valero will get at least a slightly better field just due to some internationals wanting two weeks here instead of one... hurts me to say this, but my bet is most of those who will play two will take Masters/Heritage over Valero/Masters.

Problem is Greg Norman's TPC San Antonio Oaks Cours is no kind of prep for Augusta and it just hasn't gone over with the players as "big" as they thought it might. They cleaned up a lot of the mistakes on course this year over last year... but it's still a bit of a contrived mess IMO. The bunkering is fantastic... but the strategically poor use of native area's and the WTF? greens are a bit of a puzzler.

On the other hand the Pete Dye Canyons Course, where the Champions Tour played this past week, gets much better reviews... aesthetically, playability (as in fairness), sensibility (as in fairness again)... Canyon's wins out in every category.

Another good part of this schedule... the Web.com playoffs (which I think will generate at least some interest) will play 4 events instead of the 3... and they've figured out how to schedule where two of those WEB events will be on PGAT open weeks... Smart... so you have a 9 total events in 7 weeks. So year end PGAT / Web.com goes like this...

Aug 19-25 PGAT The Barclays

Aug 25-Sep 1 - WEB.COM Hotel Fitness
Aug 26-Sep 2 - PGAT Deutsche Banke Championship

Sep 2-8 - WEB.COM Chiquita Classic

Sep 9-15 - PGAT BMW Championship
Sep 9-15 - WEB.COM NW Hospital in Columbus

Sept 16-22 - PGAT Tour Championship

Sept 23-29 - WEB.COM Championship Final

Sep 30-Oct 6 - Presidents Cup

Sept 23-29: web.com Final
And I think that will be at the Dye's Valley course at TPC Sawgrass.

Only regret is that none of this largesse goes past the Central Time Zone.

But it should be a terrific 7 weeks.


The Greg Norman Course at San Antonio just doesn't look good. They used to have the ferris wheel and roller coasters overlooking the previous course, now it seems the agronomy equivalent is part of the course. Shame, because I think I'm right in saying that Valero (and possibly the Salesmanship Club) do as good a job as anyone in charitable and community benevolence.

They ought to go back to Oak Hills.

Thanks robo

kwinigolfer wrote:

They ought to go back to Oak Hills.

Ahhhh.... Oak Hills the Tillinghast masterpiece and first course I ever played where both nines finished on par-3's, and GREAT par'3's at that. But as much as I love the course, the modern PGAT would never work there again. They've already squeezed every inch out of the available land to get it to just under 6800 yards. Even the practice tee is only 70 yards wide an has a back fence up at 260 yards, and room for tournament infrastructure is an issue as well.

But again I say one of the best places to play ANYWHERE... Our club has a reciprocal with them, and I used to get over for a few rounds at least every other year. A most welcoming laid back, yet well-healed membership... who can enjoy themselves playing just for fun... or enjoy themselves playing for a little sumpin, sumpin.... if you get my drift.