The PGA Tour is an organization that operates the USA's main professional
golf tours. It is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach,
Florida, USA. Its name is officially rendered in all caps as “PGA TOUR".
The PGA Tour became a separate entity in 1968, branching off from the PGA of America, which is now primarily an association of club professionals. (Before 1968, the tour was known as the PGA of America's "Tournament Players
Division.")
The PGA tour does not run any of the four major golf tournaments or the Ryder Cup. The
PGA of America, not the PGA Tour, runs the PGA Championship in August. It also runs the Senior PGA Championship, and co-organizes the Ryder Cup with
the PGA European Tour.
The governing body of golf in the U.S. (and
Mexico) is the USGA, which runs the
U.S. Open in June. The Augusta National Golf Club runs the Masters
in April, and the R&A
runs the British Open in July.
The PGA Tour does run the "fifth major," The Players Championship, the
Presidents Cup, and all the other regular events on the PGA Tour.
The PGA Tour does not run the women's tours in the U.S., which are controlled by the independent LPGA.
In 1981, the PGA Tour had a marketing dispute with the PGA of America and decided to officially
change its name. Beginning in late August 1981, it became the TPA Tour, for the "Tournament
Players Association." [1] The disputed issues were resolved within seven months and the tour's name was
changed back to the "PGA Tour" in March 1982, before any majors (or The Players Championship) were played. [2]
Tours operated by the PGA Tour
The PGA Tour operates three tours, which are played mostly in the U.S., with
occasional events in Canada and Mexico, and one major championship in the U.K. in each of the
first two listed.
The PGA Tour also conducts an annual Qualifying Tournament (known colloquially as Q-School), a six-round tournament held each fall; the top 30
finishers, including ties, receive privileges to play on the following year's PGA Tour. Other upper-level finishers receive
privileges on the Nationwide Tour.
The top 25 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.
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 apply only 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, with an extra year added for each additional win
with a maximum of five years. Winning a World Golf Championships event or
The Tour Championship provides a three-year exemption. Winners of the
major championships and The
Players Championship earn a five-year exemption. Other types of exemptions 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 earnings list who are not
otherwise exempt; two-time, one year exemptions for players in the top twenty-five on the career money list; 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.
Similar to other major league sports, there is no rule limiting PGA Tour players to "men only." In 2003, Annika Sörenstam and Suzy
Whaley played in PGA Tour events, and Michelle Wie has done so in each year from
2004 through 2007. None of these three made the cut, although Wie
missed by only one stroke in 2004.
The LPGA, like all other women's sports, is limited to female participants only.
The PGA Tour places a strong emphasis on charity fundraising, usually on behalf of local charities in cities where events are
staged. With the exception of a few older events, PGA Tour rules require all Tour events to be non-profit; the Tour itself is
also a non-profit company. 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.
On the controversial side, however, this PGA Tour "fundraising" claim is misleading because the TV promotional spots claim the
Tour has "donated" over $1 billion to charity ("Drive to a Billion"). The reality is that the monies raised for charities derive
from the tournament's positive revenues (if any), thanks mainly to hundreds of volunteers providing free labor -- and not any
actual monetary donation from the PGA Tour, whose purse monies and expenses are guaranteed.
There is also a PGA European Tour, which is 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. However, the PGA Tour, European Tour, and many of the regional
tours co-sponsor the World Golf Championships. These, along with the major championships, usually count toward the official money
lists of each tour as well as the Official World Golf Ranking.
Television and radio 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". [3]
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, and unlike the U.S. deal, it does not include the World Golf Championships. Setanta has set up the
Setanta Golf channel to present its coverage. [1]
In the United States and Canada, radio coverage of the PGA Tour is available on XM
Satellite Radio, on the PGA Tour Network, channel 146.
The structure of the PGA Tour season
Outline of the season
The table below illustrates the structure of the PGA Tour season.
Three of the four majors take place in eight weeks between June and August. In the past, this has threatened to make the last
two and a half months of the season anti-climactic, as some of the very top players competed less from that point on. In
response, the PGA Tour has introduced a new format, the FedEx Cup. From January through
mid-August players compete in "regular season" events and earn FedEx Cup points, in addition to prize money. At the end of the
regular season, the top 144 FedEx Cup points winners are eligible to compete in the "playoffs," four events taking place from
mid-August to mid-September. The field sizes for these events are reduced from 144 to 120 to 70 and finally the traditional 30
for the Tour Championship. Additional FedEx Cup points are earned in these events. At the end of the championship, the top point
winner is the season champion. To put this new system into place, the PGA Tour has made significant changes to the traditional
schedule.
The logo of the FedEx Cup
In 2007 THE PLAYERS Championship moved to May so as to have a marquee event
in five consecutive months. The Tour Championship will move up to mid-September,
and an international team event (Ryder Cup or Presidents
Cup) follows at the end of September. The Tour will continue through the fall, with the focus on the scramble of the less
successful players to earn enough money 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. [4]
Tournaments
In 2007 there are 48 events in the 44 week regular season, of which 47 are official money events, including four alternate
events played the same week as a higher status tournament. The 48th event is the Presidents
Cup team event. 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 (autumn) 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 of year (and available
daylight hours). After two rounds, there is a cut where the top 70 professional players and ties will advance to the next rounds
and earn money. The winner usually receives 18% of the total purse.
2007 schedule
The following table lists the main season events for 2007. The designations in the "Status" column are explained in the notes
below the table. The numbers in parentheses after the winners' names are the number of wins they had on the tour up to and
including that event.
Event categories
- Majors: The four leading annual events in world golf are the
Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, The (British) Open Championship, and the PGA Championship.
- World Golf Championships (WGC): 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 Ranking, 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 FedEx Cup starts with an elite event open only to winners from the preceding PGA Tour season, which
produces a field about 30-strong instead of the usual 150 or so.
- Playoff event: The last four tournaments of the FedEx Cup will have fields based on the FedEx Cup rankings. The fields
will be cut each week: Barclays Classic 144 players; Deutsche Bank Championship 120 players; BMW Championship 70 players; The
Tour Championship 30 players.
- Team: A United States team of 12 elite players competes in the Ryder Cup and the
Presidents Cup in alternate years. The Ryder Cup, pitting a team of U.S. golfers against
a European team, is arguably the highest profile event in golf, outranking the majors. The Presidents Cup, which matches a team
of U.S. golfers against an international team of golfers not eligible for the Ryder 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 vary somewhat in status, but 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". Five events in particular have such associations:
- The EDS Byron Nelson Championship, named after Byron Nelson, was until 2007 the only current event named after a PGA Tour golfer.
- The Arnold Palmer Invitational, formerly the Bay Hill Invitational,
closely identified with Arnold Palmer and played at a resort he owns.
- The Nissan Open and Crowne Plaza
Invitational at Colonial, both identified with Ben Hogan, although the Colonial is more
closely identified with him.
- The Memorial Tournament, founded by Jack
Nicklaus, played on a course he designed, and annually honoring a selected "legend".
- The AT&T National, while not hosted by a "legend," was able to gather a strong
field because it was hosted by "future-legend" Tiger Woods.
- Invitational: These events are similar to the regular ones, but have a slightly smaller (around 100-120 players),
selective field. The top 70 on the previous year's money list can automatically take part to invitationals, as well as past
champions of the event. There is an increased amount of sponsor's exemptions as well, and some invitationals allow the defending
champion to invite one or several amateurs as well. Invitational tournaments include the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, the Arnold Palmer 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.
- Fall Series: After the final playoff event of the FedEx Cup season (THE TOUR Championship), the season concludes with
this series of events, whose focus is expected to be the effort by players low on the Money List to secure their membership on
the PGA Tour for the following season without having to re-qualify through Q-School.
There are also a number of events which are recognized by the PGA Tour, but which do not count towards the official money
list. Most of these take place in the off season (November and December). This slate of unofficial, often made-for-TV events
(which includes the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge, the Franklin Templeton
Shootout, the Skins Game, etc.) is referred to as the "Challenge Season" or, less
approvingly, the "Silly Season".
Money winners and most wins leaders
Players who lead the money list on the PGA Tour win the Arnold Palmer Award (since 1981).
| Year |
Money winner |
Earnings (US$) |
Most wins |
| 2007 |
Tiger Woods[3] |
10,867,052 |
7: Tiger Woods |
| 2006 |
Tiger Woods |
9,941,563 |
8: Tiger Woods |
| 2005 |
Tiger Woods |
10,628,024 |
6: Tiger Woods |
| 2004 |
 Vijay
Singh |
10,905,166 |
9: Vijay Singh |
| 2003 |
Vijay
Singh |
7,573,907 |
5: Tiger Woods |
| 2002 |
Tiger Woods |
6,912,625 |
5: Tiger Woods |
| 2001 |
Tiger Woods |
5,687,777 |
5: Tiger Woods |
| 2000 |
Tiger Woods |
9,188,321 |
9: Tiger Woods |
| 1999 |
Tiger Woods |
6,616,585 |
8: Tiger Woods |
| 1998 |
David Duval |
2,591,031 |
4: David Duval |
| 1997 |
Tiger Woods |
2,066,833 |
4: Tiger Woods |
| 1996 |
Tom Lehman |
1,780,159 |
4: Phil Mickelson |
| 1995 |
 Greg Norman |
1,654,959 |
3: Lee Janzen, Greg Norman |
| 1994 |
 Nick
Price |
1,499,927 |
6: Nick Price |
| 1993 |
Nick
Price |
1,478,557 |
4: Nick Price |
| 1992 |
Fred Couples |
1,344,188 |
3: John Cook; Fred Couples;
Davis Love III |
| 1991 |
Corey Pavin |
979,430 |
2: 8 players (note 1) |
| 1990 |
Greg Norman |
1,165,477 |
4: Wayne Levi |
| 1989 |
Tom Kite |
1,395,278 |
3: Tom Kite; Steve Jones |
| 1988 |
Curtis Strange |
1,147,644 |
4: Curtis Strange |
| 1987 |
Curtis Strange |
925,941 |
3: Paul Azinger; Curtis Strange |
| 1986 |
Greg Norman |
653,296 |
4: Bob Tway |
| 1985 |
Curtis Strange |
542,321 |
3: Curtis Strange; Lanny Wadkins |
| 1984 |
Tom Watson |
476,260 |
3: Tom Watson; Denis Watson |
| 1983 |
Hal Sutton |
426,668 |
2: 8 players (note 2) |
| 1982 |
Craig Stadler |
446,462 |
4: Craig Stadler, Tom Watson,
Calvin Peete |
| 1981 |
Tom Kite |
375,699 |
4: Bill Rogers |
| 1980 |
Tom Watson |
530,808 |
7: Tom Watson |
| 1979 |
Tom Watson |
462,636 |
5: Tom Watson |
| 1978 |
Tom Watson |
362,429 |
5: Tom Watson |
| 1977 |
Tom Watson |
310,653 |
5: Tom Watson |
| 1976 |
Jack Nicklaus |
266,439 |
3: Ben Crenshaw, Hubert Green |
| 1975 |
Jack Nicklaus |
298,149 |
5: Jack Nicklaus |
| 1974 |
Johnny Miller |
353,022 |
8: Johnny Miller |
| 1973 |
Jack Nicklaus |
308,362 |
7: Jack Nicklaus |
| 1972 |
Jack Nicklaus |
320,542 |
7: Jack Nicklaus |
| 1971 |
Jack Nicklaus |
244,491 |
6: Lee Trevino |
| 1970 |
Lee Trevino |
157,037 |
4: Billy Casper |
| 1969 |
Frank Beard |
164,707 |
3: 4 players (note 3) |
| 1968 |
Billy Casper |
205,169 |
6: Billy Casper |
| 1967 |
Jack Nicklaus |
188,998 |
5: Jack Nicklaus |
| 1966 |
Billy Casper |
121,945 |
4: Billy Casper |
| 1965 |
Jack Nicklaus |
140,752 |
5: Jack Nicklaus |
| 1964 |
Jack Nicklaus |
113,285 |
5: Tony Lema |
| 1963 |
Arnold Palmer |
128,230 |
7: Arnold Palmer |
| 1962 |
Arnold Palmer |
81,448 |
8: Arnold Palmer |
| 1961 |
Gary Player |
64,540 |
6: Arnold Palmer |
| 1960 |
 Arnold Palmer |
75,263 |
8: Arnold Palmer |
| 1959 |
 Art Wall, Jr. |
53,168 |
5: Gene Littler |
| 1958 |
Arnold Palmer |
42,608 |
4: Ken Venturi |
|
