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The PGA Tour calendar says it’s the third week of January, and for years that has meant the Tour involves the Coachella Valley for the American Specific.
However as Tour gamers collect within the desert this week, they accomplish that below a schedule that, whereas not altering the week of the American Specific, does elevate the desert occasion in significance.
The Tour has ended its 10-year experiment with a wraparound season, which had the FedEx Cup factors race beginning in tournaments in September and ending with the Tour Championship in August. With the chase for FedEx Cup factors now aligned with the beginning of the calendar 12 months, the American Specific is now not the twelfth occasion of the season. As a substitute, the La Quinta event is the third occasion within the chase, preceded solely by the Sentry and the Sony Open in Hawaii.
The outcome isn’t solely a shorter 36-event schedule however a possible increase for occasions early within the calendar such because the American Specific.
“The season is condensed, so guys will play extra in a condensed timeframe,” mentioned Pat McCabe, American Specific government director. “You heard a variety of the interviews over in Maui (at The Sentry), even for the fellows who certified for the Sentry, that it actually felt nice for them to get an ‘off season’ and get a while to recharge the batteries and spend time with family and friends. And perhaps not even contact a membership for weeks at a stretch. So guys are sort of anxious and desperate to get going.”
It’s not simply that the gamers are desperate to return to event golf. In some circumstances golfers may have zero FedEx Cup factors heading into the American Specific in the event that they didn’t qualify for The Sentry, one in every of eight signature occasions on Tour in 2024, or in the event that they skipped the Sony Open in Hawaii. That’s not solely essential for qualifying for the FedEx Cup Playoffs in August, but additionally for probably qualifying for the subsequent $20 million signature occasion, the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am, Feb. 1-4.
Whereas the highest 50 golfers from the 2022-23 FedEx Cup standings are in all eight of the signature occasions, golfers not certified can nonetheless earn a berth within the big-money occasions via common Tour occasions just like the AmEx. What the Tour is looking the Aon Subsequent 10 and the Aon Swing 5 permits 15 gamers to make the sector of the signature occasions.
The highest 10 gamers in FedEx Cup factors not in any other case eligible after the event earlier than a signature occasion makes that signature occasion’s area. Additionally, the 5 high level earners in a sequence of occasions earlier than the signature occasions additionally make the big-money area. For the Pebble Seaside event, the American Specific is a part of a Swing 5 factors chase that features the Sony Open and the Farmers Insurance coverage Open in San Diego.
“You heard some gamers even who had been in Sentry that perhaps they aren’t within the subsequent elevated occasion which might be Pebble Seaside,” McCabe mentioned. “So what meaning is that they must play as a result of they’ll qualify in the event that they play nicely, us or Torrey or Sony to get into Pebble. And that’s the final word purpose, to get into these elevated occasions.”
The West Coast Swing has three signature occasions: The Sentry, which is the primary occasion of the calendar 12 months and is crammed by golfers from the earlier two years of winners; the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am, which is drastically altering its format to a no-cut event of 80 golfers and can solely be performed on two programs moderately than its conventional three; and the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles, hosted by Tiger Woods and that includes a bigger area and a 36-hole lower.
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