Beyond Greg Norman, What’s Next for PGA Tour Players?

What with the LIV lawsuits and threats and finger-pointing, it’s easy to forget that golf goes on beyond Greg Norman. Greg, get a life.  It’s not all about you. It’s about golf.

The PGA Tour is just finishing the regular 2022 season at the Tour Championship with a bevy of spectacular golfers. Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa.  And more.

However, in just two weeks, the 2022-2023 PGA Tour schedule will begin with the Fortinet Championship in California.  It is the last of the wrap-around seasons on the PGA Tour, thank goodness. (That wrap-around was always weird.) After that, some things are known, and many things are unknown.

What has been established is that, in 2024, the regular season will be shorter, as announced by PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan in June.

It will be January to the end of August.  There will be 35 events, and the top 20 players will appear in 20 of them, at least. It sounds restrictive for the rest of the top 125 or that there won’t be many opportunities for those outside the top 20, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Most tournaments have between 144 and 156 players.  And if you fall behind, there’s a way to catch up late in the year.

There are at least 25 tournaments between the Sony Open and the start of the FedEx Playoffs that are available for the top 125 members of the PGA Tour, and three or four or five invitationals that typically have 120 players in the field instead of the usual 144 to 156.

That includes several enhanced purse events and The Players. It does not include the PGA, the U.S. Open, the British Open, or the Masters which usually has 80 to 95 players or the Sentry Tournament of Champions which will probably have between 60 and 80.

The PGA Championship has a field comparable to the size of the Players as does the U.S. Open and British Open.

There is also one WGC event remaining on the calendar, the WGC Dell Match Play. That one has fewer players and an enhanced purse. It is a true limited-field tournament.

The Players, which has the biggest purse all season, $25 million, invites all top 125 plus an additional 25 to 30 players.  Nothing but their own talent is stopping any one of them from winning The Players and taking home the biggest prize money check of the season.

While there has been some suspicion that the fields could be cut back to 125 or less, no one at Tour HQ has said that.  And even at 125, it means excellent opportunities for a lot of golfers because nobody plays all of them.

That’s what opens up opportunities for Monday qualifiers and those from 126 to 200 in FedEx points, which is how things are counted these days.

The regular season will conclude with the FedEx Playoffs, but starting in 2023, only the top 70 can compete in the first Playoff event, and that gets cut to 50 for the second, and to 30 for the Tour Championship.  That is a big incentive for top players to play more events or be left out of the big money.

At the end of the season, after the Tour Championship, there will still be a top 125 list of players to determine eligibility for play on the PGA Tour for the next season.

But after August of 2023, there will be fall events that will ultimately determine the top 125 for the 2024 season.

There is also the top 50 list which is important because it gets a player entry into some of the majors.

In addition, in 2024, as many as three international events will be played between Labor Day and Thanksgiving.  These new tournaments will be filled by the top 50 players. So yes, the rich will get a bit richer. No one knows yet if additional players will participate,

Perhaps this is a bone the PGA Tour is throwing for the top dogs who really drive interest.

Interestingly, there is no change to the number of FedEx points awarded for any event on the PGA Tour calendar for next year. So that means, no matter where a player falls in the world rankings, it does not affect his ability to get enough FedEx points to get to the playoffs.  And that will help his world rankings.

What with the LIV sideshow, it’s easy to forget reality. While that may not be a part of the LIV plan, Norman et al. have become a lot like that stinging insect that somehow got in the car and just won’t go out the window even though all the windows are completely down.

Do you need a flyswatter? Bug spray? A big, hungry lizard? Probably you have to pull over and just open all the doors and chase it out.

Regardless, golf reality is that 2024 will probably look a heck of a lot like 2023.  The insect will continue to buzz around, and the Tour and others will swat at it, open windows, bring in lizards, and wait until something eats it or it goes away on its own.

Short of the earth being hit by a giant meteor, two or three super-volcanoes blowing up and causing too much winter, or the “big one” opening the San Andreas fault in Northern California, the 2023 season will start in mid-September and go through August.

We will have exceptionally exciting tournaments, unbelievable golf shots, and fabulous champions. And the buzzing, stinging insect will fly off somewhere and leave the rest of us alone.