To the average golf fan out there, this is a most confusing time of the year. The PGA Tour held its Fed Ex Cup playoffs in September, crowned Billy Horschel its overall titlist, and wrote him a check for $10 million. Horschel was not included on the American side in the Ryder Cup Matches in Scotland, but that”s a whole different story. Anyway, after Team USA whined, finger-pointed and decisively lost the Ryder Cup in late September, the PGA Tour started up its new 2015 season during the first week of October 2014 with the playing of the Frys Tournament at Silverado in Napa.
The PGA Tour is currently going full steam ahead. After Napa it rolled into Las Vegas, then went to Sea Island, Georgia, and last weekend to Kuala Lampur. Yes, that Kuala Lampur on the other side of the world. This week the American circuit is on double duty. The stars of the game are in Shanghai (yes, that Shanghai) for the HSBC World Golf Championships tourney. The millionaire have-nots on the PGA Tour are in Mississippi for the playing of the Southern Farms Classic. The Shanghai tournament is a relatively new WGC event while the Mississippi tournament has been a part of the PGA Tour since 1968. My old Beverly Country Club caddie buddy, Lance Ten Broeck, won the 1984 version of this event although back then it was called the Magnolia Classic.
While the 2015 version of the PGA Tour is well into its fifth and sixth tournaments of the future new year, the active seniors on the Champions Tour concluded their 2014 campaign last weekend at Desert Mountain in Arizona. Tom Pernice won the Schwab Championship, the senior set”s version of its Tour Championship, and Bernhard Langer outlasted Colin Montgomerie to win the season-long race for the Schwab Cup title and its bonus purse. Langer”s golfing resume for 2014 featured a tour-leading five victories, including two senior majors — the Senior Players Championship and the Senior British Open.
The European PGA Tour is a worldwide golf circuit that began its 2014 season in late November of 2013 in South Africa. Although it is called the European Tour, it is global in nature. It hosts events in South Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, Continental Europe and the British Isles. Just like the American PGA Tour, its schedule also includes the four major championships as well as the four World Golf Championships. The Euros conclude their season later this month in Dubai for their version of the Tour Championship and then they almost immediately start up the 2015 season during the first week of December in South Africa. Currently, world No. 1 Rory McIlroy is atop the European Tour standings ahead of Ryder Cup teammates Jaime Donaldson and Sergio Garcia. The Euros advertise their “Race to Dubai” with the headline, “49 tournaments, 26 countries, 1 champion.” Obviously it”s a matter of have passport, will travel.
The ladies of the LPGA Tour also play a worldwide schedule with events in all three North American countries, Europe and Asia. They started their 2014 campaign way back in late January in the Bahamas. Last week they were in Taiwan, this week they”re in Japan, and after returning to the Western Hemisphere to play in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico, they conclude their season in Naples, Florida from Nov. 20-23 with their Tour Championship. The LPGA Tour was in big financial trouble some five years ago when it hosted just 24 tournaments and had some major gaps in its schedule. The women”s circuit is on the rebound and this past year the LPGA Tour featured 33 events. One of the tourneys added to the schedule this year was the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic, which was contested at Lake Merced in San Francisco. The LPGA returns to the Bay Area once again next April.
The only professional golfers currently on a holding pattern are those linksters who have another year of exempt status on golf”s top minor league circuit, the Web.com Tour. They concluded their season in late September and won”t begin their 2015 campaign until next January. A number of Web.com regulars have been attempting to Monday qualify into the PGA Tour events that have been held in Napa, Las Vegas, Sea Island, and now Jackson, Mississippi.
Locally, the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit ended its 2014 season last weekend at Buckingham Golf and Country Club with the playing of the Tournament of Champions. The local circuit hosted 12 tournaments in 2014. Nine of those events were open events while one was senior-oriented for golfers age 50 and older, and the other two were for juniors age 17 and younger. The Lake County Circuit historically begins in February and concludes its season in late October or early November.
Similar to other golf tours, the Lake County Circuit recognizes its top golfers on the scratch level, the senior level, the net level, and the senior net level. Because it is an amateur circuit with no cash winnings involved, the local circuit awards player performance points for all of its events. Major tourneys such as the Lake County Open, the Lake County Amateur and the Tournament of Champions garner twice as many points as the other individual or team-oriented competitions. The 2014 winners of the On The Links Golfer of the Year include overall champion, Billy Witt, senior titlist Jerry Pangle, net winner and two-time Lake County Junior champ Matt Wotherspoon, and senior net points leader Dr. Bob Jolin.
The days are getting shorter, the air is getting a bit cooler, and winter will soon be upon us in Lake County. The local golf scene will resume in less than four months. Meanwhile, the PGA Tour is already well into its 2015 campaign and the European Tour will soon be starting its new year in December. If you are a fan of the game, it can get a little bit confusing, but the most obvious point is that professional golf has now become a yearlong endeavor with the game being played in sunny Shanghai and sandy Dubai as well as Pebble Beach and Miami.
