Gone are two World Golf Championships from the PGA Tour schedule. New to the schedule is the first PGA Tour-sanctioned tournament in Scotland that doesn’t involve a claret jug.
The PGA Tour released next season’s schedule on Tuesday that gives a glimpse of its strategic partnership with the European Tour, with players from both tours eligible for tournaments on each side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Scottish Open, a week before the British Open, will have a field split between European Tour and PGA Tour members with points applying to both tours.
Fifty members from the European Tour will have access to the Barbasol Championship in Kentucky and the Barracuda Championship in California. Those tournaments are held the same weeks as the Scottish Open and British Open.
Missing from the schedule is the WGC event in Mexico City. It was moved to Florida this year on a one-time basis because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now Mexico is hosting a regular tournament the last week in April at a site to be determined.
FedEx had sponsored a WGC in Memphis, Tennessee. The FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind is now the opening postseason event. Previously, the first postseason event was rotating between New Jersey and Boston.
“The PGA Tour and the European Tour are both stronger than at any time in our history as we are positioned to grow - together - over the next 10 years faster than we have at any point in our existence,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said.
As part of the tour’s alliance, the Irish Open will nearly double its purse to $6 million, and the PGA Tour pledged to work with Europe on commercial opportunities for the tournament.
As for the PGA Tour schedule, it starts in Napa, California, with the Fortinet Championship on September 16-19. That’s two weeks after the Tour Championship, and a week before the Ryder Cup.
The CJ Cup in South Korea, which moved to Shadow Creek in the Las Vegas area last year because of the pandemic, returns to Las Vegas at The Summit Club. That precedes the Zozo Championship in Japan and the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
The Zozo Championship was in California last year. While it indicates it will return to Japan, changes are possible depending on the pandemic situation in Tokyo. And there is no guarantee the HSBC Champions will be held.
The Phoenix Open and Pebble Beach are trading places. After the Farmers Insurance Open in its traditional spot the last week in January, the tour goes to Pebble Beach, Phoenix and wraps up the West Coast Swing in Los Angeles for the Genesis Invitational.
