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.

The logo of the FedEx Cup.

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. [2]