PGA Tour
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The PGA Tour is an organization headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA that operates the USA's main professional golf tours for men. Its name is officially rendered in all caps as “PGA TOUR."
The PGA Tour should be distinguished from a number of other golf organizations. Since 1968, it has been completely separate from the Professional Golfers' Association of America (“PGA of America”), which is now primarily an association of club professionals. (Prior to 1968, it was the PGA of America's Tournament Players Division.) The PGA of America, not the PGA Tour, runs the PGA Championship and the Senior PGA Championship and co-organizes the Ryder Cup with the PGA European Tour. The PGA Tour does not run the women's tours in the United States, which are controlled by the independent LPGA. The governing body of golf in the United States is the United States Golf Association.
Tours operated by the PGA Tour
The PGA Tour operates the following tours, which operate mostly in the USA with occasional events in Canada and Mexico, and one major championship in the United Kingdom in each of the first two listed:
- PGA TOUR, the top tour
- Champions Tour, for golfers 50 and over
- Nationwide Tour, a second-level tour
The top 20 money-winners on the Nationwide Tour also receive privileges on the following year's PGA Tour. A golfer who wins three events on that tour in a calendar year earns a "battlefield promotion" which garners PGA Tour privileges for the remainder of the year, and the following year.
At the end of each year, the top 125 money-winners on the PGA Tour receive a tour card for the following season, which gives them exemption from qualifying for most of the next year's tournaments. However at some events, known as invitationals, exemptions only apply to the previous year's top seventy players. Players who are ranked between 126-150 receive a conditional tour card, which gives them priority for places that are not taken up by players with full cards.
Winning a PGA Tour event provides a tour card for a minimum of two years. Winning a World Golf Championships event provides a three-year exemption. Winners of the major championships earn a five-year exemption. Other types of exemption include lifetime exemptions for players with twenty wins on the tour; one-time one year exemptions for players in the top fifty on the career money list who are not otherwise exempt; and medical exemptions for players who have been injured, which give them an opportunity to regain their tour card after a period out of the tour.
There is no rule limiting PGA Tour players to men only. In 2003, two women, Annika Sörenstam and Suzy Whaley, played in PGA TOUR events; in 2004, 2005, and 2006 Michelle Wie did the same. None of the three made the cut, although Wie missed by only one stroke in 2004.
The PGA Tour places a strong emphasis on charity fundraising, usually on behalf of local charities in cities where events are staged. In 2005, it started a campaign to push its all-time fundraising tally past one billion dollars, and it reached that mark one week before the end of the season.
Note also that there is a PGA European Tour, which is totally separate from either the PGA Tour or the PGA of America; this organization runs a tour, mostly in Europe but with events throughout the world outside of North America, that is second only to the PGA Tour in worldwide prestige. There are several other regional tours around the world.
Television coverage
In January 2006 the PGA Tour announced a new set of television deals covering 2007 to 2012. CBS Sports will remain the main carrier of PGA Tour golf, and will increase its events from 16 to 19 per season. NBC Sports will increase its coverage from 5 to 10 events. The Golf Channel will be the Tour's cable partner on a 15 year contract, providing early round coverage of all official money events and four round coverage of a few events at the beginning and towards the end of the season. These deals do not cover the major championships as the PGA Tour does not own the rights to them. The fees involved were not mentioned in the press release, but it stated, "total prize money and other financial benefits to players will increase approximately $600 million over the term as compared to the previous six years, a 35-percent increase". [link]The PGA Tour is also covered extensively outside the United States. In the United Kingdom Sky Sports was the main broadcaster of the tour for a number of years up to 2006. However Setanta Sports won exclusive UK and Ireland rights for six years from 2007 for a reported cost of £103 million. The deal includes Champions Tour and the Nationwide Tour events, but like the U.S. television deals it does not include the major championships. Setanta is expected to establish a specialist golf channel to present its coverage. [Broadcaster is seeking £200m for TV soccer]. The Sunday Times, 1 July 2006.
The structure of the PGA Tour season
Outline of the season
The table below illustrates the structure of the PGA TOUR season. The events shown are for 2006, but there are only minor variations in the overall pattern from one year to the next. Tournaments sometimes change venue, and quite often change name, especially when they get a new sponsor, but the principal events have fixed and traditional places in the schedule, and this determines the rhythm of the season.Three of the four majors take place in eight weeks between June and August. This threatens to make the last two and a half months of the season anti-climactic, as some of the very top players compete less from this point on. Interest is sustained by the following factors:
- The race to top the money list. However, quite often this is clinched well before the end of the season.
- The race to finish in the top 30 of the money list, so as to qualify for the lucrative and prestigious finale to the season, the Tour Championship, whose winner earns a three-year exemption.
- The scramble of the less successful members of the tour to make the top 125, in order to retain their Tour card for the following season. Players who are on the margins of the top 125 often play every week at this time of year.
- The last several events are known collectively as the "Fall Finish". Points are awarded for top ten places in these events and the player who accumulates most points receives additional prize money.
In 2007 THE PLAYERS Championship is moving to May so as to have a marquee event in five consecutive months. The Tour Championship will move up to September as some of the leading players dislike the length of the current season and don't play many events in the last two months. In the events from the start of the season to the Tour Championship the players will compete for the FedEx Cup. The Tour will continue through the fall, with the focus on the scramble of the less successful players to retain their tour cards. 2007 will also see the introduction of a tournament in Mexico, though it will be an alternate event staged the same week as the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. [link]
Schedule
There are 49 events in 44 weeks, including one team event with no prize money, so there are 48 events with prize money. Most members of the tour play between 20 and 30 tournaments in the season. The geography of the tour is determined by the weather. It starts in Hawaii in January and spends most of its first two months in California and Arizona during what is known as the "West Coast Swing," and then moves to the American Southeast for the "Southern Swing." Each swing culminates in a significant tour event. In April, tour events begin to drift north. The summer months are spent mainly in the Northeast and the Midwest, and in the fall the tour heads south again.In most of the regular events on tour, the field is either 132, 144 or 156 players, depending on time zones. After two rounds, there is a cut where the top 70 players and ties will advance to the next rounds and earn money. The winner usually receives 18% of the total purse.
The 2006 season is below. The status designations shown in the table are explained in the next subsection. The major championships are shown in bold. The numbers in brackets after the winners' names show the number of career wins they had on the PGA Tour up to and including that event.
Categories of event on the PGA Tour
- Majors: The four leading annual events in world golf. The The Open Championship is the only PGA TOUR event played outside of the United States and Canada.
- World Golf Championships: A set of events co-sanctioned by the International Federation of PGA Tours which attract the leading golfers from all over the world, including those who are not members of the PGA TOUR.
- Unique: The unique status of the The PLAYERS Championship is based on the fact that it is the only event apart from the majors and the World Golf Championships which attracts entries from almost all of the world's elite golfers. Official recognition is given to its unique position in the sport by the Official World Golf Rankings, which allocate it a fixed number of points (which is 20% less than for a major), whereas the number of points allocated to "regular" events is dependent on the rankings of the players who enter each year, and is only determined once the entry list is finalized. It is increasingly referred to by the media as the "Fifth major". In North America some people would like to make the tournament an official major and it will be ranked equally with the majors in the FedEx Cup point system. However there is little support for this in the rest of the world, and any revision to the points system for the world rankings would require a global consensus.
- Small field: The season starts and finishes with two elite events for fields which are about 30-strong instead of the usual 150 or so.
- Team: A United States team of 12 elite players competes in the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup in alternate years. The Ryder Cup is arguably the highest profile event in golf, outranking the majors. The Presidents Cup is less well established, but is still the main event of the week when it is played. There is no prize money in these events, so they are irrelevant to the money list.
- Regular: Routine weekly tour events. The "regular" events do vary in status, but the table does not indicate which of them are more prestigious because this is a subjective matter. The relative status of the events is not based on the size of the prize fund to a very large degree, as this doesn't vary much. Some of the other factors which determine the status of a tournament are:
- *Its position in the schedule, which influences the number of leading players that choose to enter.
- *Its age and the distinction of its past champions.
- *The repute of the course on which it is played.
- *Any associations with "legends of golf". Four events in particular have such associations:
- **The EDS Byron Nelson Championship, the only current event named after a golfer (Byron Nelson).
- **The Bank of America Colonial, closely identified with Ben Hogan.
- **The Bay Hill Invitational, closely identified with Arnold Palmer, and played at a resort he owns; in 2007, the event will be renamed the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
- **The Memorial Tournament, founded by Jack Nicklaus, played on a course he designed, and annually honoring a selected "legend".
- Invitational: These events are similar to the regular ones, but have a slightly smaller (around 100-110 players), selective field. The top 70 on the previous year's money list are fully exempt into invitationals, as well as past champions of the event, and an increased amount of sponsor's exemptions. Invitational tournaments include the Bank of America Colonial, the Bay Hill Invitational, the Verizon Heritage, the Memorial Tournament and others. The tournaments usually do have an association with a golf legend, or in the case of the Verizon Heritage, a famous course.
- Alternate: Events which are played in the same week as a higher status tournament and therefore have weakened fields and reduced prize money. They are often considered an opportunity for players on the bubble (near or below 125th or 150th) in the money list to move up more easily or to attempt an easier two-year exemption for winning a tournament.
Leading money winners and winningmost players by year
Notes:
- Players with 2 wins in 1991: Billy Andrade; Mark Brooks; Fred Couples; Andrew Magee; Corey Pavin; Nick Price; Tom Purtzer; Ian Woosnam.
- Players with 2 wins in 1983: Seve Ballesteros, Jim Colbert, Mark McCumber, Gil Morgan, Calvin Peete, Hal Sutton, Lanny Wadkins, Fuzzy Zoeller
- Players with 3 wins in 1969: Billy Casper, Raymond Floyd, Dave Hill, Jack Nicklaus
Multiple money list titles
The following players have won more than one money list title through 2005:- 8: Jack Nicklaus
- 6: Tiger Woods
- 5: Ben Hogan, Tom Watson
- 4: Arnold Palmer
- 3: Sam Snead, Curtis Strange, Greg Norman
- 2: Byron Nelson, Julius Boros, Billy Casper, Tom Kite, Nick Price, Vijay Singh
Player and rookie of the year awards
PGA TOUR players compete for two player of the year awards. The PGA Player of the Year award dates back to 1948 and is awarded by the PGA of America. Since 1982 the winner has been selected using a points system with marks awarded for wins, money list position and scoring average. The PGA Tour Player of the Year award, also known as the Jack Nicklaus Award, is administered by the PGA TOUR and was introduced in 1990; the recipient is selected by the tour players by ballot, although the results are not released other than to say who has won. More often than not the same player wins both awards. The Rookie of the Year award was also introduced in 1990. Players are eligible in their first season of PGA Tour membership; several of the winners had a good deal of international success before their PGA Tour rookie season, and some have been in their thirties when they won the award.
Leading career money winners
The table shows the top ten career money leaders on the PGA Tour at 10 July 2006. Due to increases in prize funds over the years it consists entirely of current players. The figures are not the players' complete career earnings as most of them have earned millions more from unofficial events or on other tours such as the European Tour. In addition, elite golfers often earn several times as much from endorsements and golf related business interests as they do from prize money.
| Position | Player | Country | Prize money ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Tiger Woods | 58,695,844 | |
| 2. | Vijay Singh | 48,106,395 | |
| 3. | Phil Mickelson | 39,314,776 | |
| 4. | Davis Love III | 33,142,698 | |
| 5. | Ernie Els | 27,770,876 | |
| 6. | Jim Furyk | 26,971,320 | |
| 7. | David Toms | 25,305,472 | |
| 8. | Justin Leonard | 20,944,232 | |
| 9. | Nick Price | 20,541,108 | |
| 10. | Kenny Perry | 20,051,985 | |
There is a full list on the PGA Tour's website [here].
References
See also
- Professional golf tours
- Golfers with most PGA Tour wins
- Most PGA Tour wins in a year
- 2006 in golf
- Vardon Trophy
External links
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