While the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League have competitive schedules that begin in the autumn of one year and conclude in the spring of the following year, this wrap-around schedule stuff is relatively new to the world of golf. To be exact, this is just the third season that the PGA Tour schedule begins at the Frys.com Open in mid-October and concludes some 11 months later at the Tour Championship in Atlanta in September. While this type of scheduling is nothing new to the NBA and the NHL, it is also a common occurrence on the European PGA Tour. That circuit runs from early December to the following November.
The rationale to the wrap-around schedule was to legitimize a handful of tournaments that had historically been contested after the Tour Championship in September but prior to the start of the New Year. These events included longtime events in Las Vegas, Mississippi, and Sea Island, Georgia, along with the relatively new Frys at Silverado. Prior to three years ago, those tourneys featured second-tier fields as well as zero status. The champion didn’t receive an automatic berth into majors such as the Masters and the PGA Championship. In an effort to appease tournament sponsors and directors as well as the local fan base, the tour extended the schedule so that playing in Mississippi in November would be the equal of Pebble Beach.
So here we are in mid-November, six weeks away from the start of the 2016 calendar year. Yet we are also six weeks into the new 2015-2016 PGA Tour season. It’s been a very good six weeks for the likes of Emiliano Grillo, Smylie Kaufman and Peter Malnati, while it hasn’t necessarily been a happy six weeks for well known linkisters such as Boo Weekley.
Boo Weekley is a well known tour member who has been a professional golfer since 1997. He is from the Florida Panhandle area just like fellow PGA Tour professionals Bubba Watson and Heath Slocum. He has won twice at Harbour Town and most recently won at Colonial in May of 2013. He also was a colorful member of the victorious 2008 United States Ryder Cup team.
Last week at the Sanderson Farms Tournament in Mississippi, Weekley was quoted as saying he hated the wrap-around schedule. Weekley contended that the current 11-month schedule meant he had no real time off from the rigors of the PGA Tour. He claimed the circuit schedule was developed for the benefit of PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and not for the professional golfers. To be specific about the veracity of Weekley’s commentary, he stated that the wrap-around schedule “sucks.” In typical Boo-like fashion, he added that “It’s just golf after golf. Ain’t no time for hunting and fishing, man.”
Boo is true about the length of the tour schedule, one that includes 46 tournaments during an 11-month period of time. Yes, it is a different scenario when you consider that in the olden days the Masters was one of the earlier events on the PGA Tour schedule and nowadays is the 22nd event of the season. Nonetheless, the popularity of the PGA Tour means that there are all kinds of markets out there that want to host a PGA event. Annadale, Mississippi, Napa and Pebble Beach would never be able to have a major sports franchise, but once every year they are the equal of Boston and New York and Atlanta when it comes to putting on a big-time golf tournament with the world’s greatest players.
Of course, not everyone handles the tour schedule like Boo. Established golfers such as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have always taken extensive time off from the game. Currently, young guns such as Jordan Spieth play extensively, even to the point of competing in Australia in December. In the end, golfers such as Boo Weekley only have to play 15 events per year to maintain their status on the tour. He is an independent contractor who can pick and choose which events he wants to attend. Of course, part of the problem is that Boo is a 40-something with a diminishing golf game. While he was a top-30 golfer in 2013, his ranking has fallen to 111th in 2014 and 76th in 2015. For Boo to stay among the game’s top 125 golfers and remain exempt on a tour that has added $13 million to his bank account, he will need to go to places like Mississippi in November if he wants to be a member of the 2016-2017 PGA Tour.
I can think of five professional golfers who are quite appreciative of the extended PGA Tour schedule. With five tournaments already in the record books, each and every one of the winners is new to the winner’s circle.
In mid-October, Emiliano Grillo, a 23-year-old from Argentina, was a first-time winner at the Frys at Silverado in Napa. A recent graduate of the Web.com Tour, Grillo had a pair of high finishes on the PGA Tour last year at Puerto Rico and Alabama. The winner of the following week’s event at Las Vegas, namely Smylie Kaufman, survived a leader board logjam. His final-round 61 propelled him to a one-stroke victory over six other linksters. Kaufman is 23 years old. One week after Las Vegas, the tour found itself on the other side of the world in Kuala Lampur. The youth movement continued for a third straight week as former NCAA champ Justin Thomas won, beating Adam Scott by one shot. His second-round 61 propelled him into the lead. Thomas is just 22 years old.
Last week featured a pair of PGA Tour events. The World Golf Championships held a big-money tourney in China and the rest of the circuit went to Annadale, Mississippi. The first-time winner trend continued as Peter Malnati won in Mississippi and Russell Knox of Scotland came up big in China. Malnati played collegiately at Missouri while Knox played at Jacksonville. Five years ago Malnati was winning the Missouri Open and the Nebraska Open while Knox was coming in first at the Silver Star Hotel and Casino Golf Classic on the Hooters Tour.
The commercial says these guys are good. They are younger and there are more of them. True, the equipment is superior to those good ol’ days of persimmon and balata, but the equipment is not the secret equalizer that allows you to shoot 61 on a PGA Tour course. You never know who’s going to be a one-hit wonder, but you probably need to get used to Justin Thomas, Smylie Kaufman and Emiliano Grillo. I think we’ll see them on leader boards for quite some time to come.
