Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri is excited about the changes in the latest schedule released by the PGA Tour for the 2018-19 season.
The PGA Tour has unveiled a revamped tournament schedule with changes for players and fans with significant championships every month and culminating with the FedExCup Playoffs in August.
The most important changes, which had been indicated earlier, are the movement of THE PLAYERS Championship from May to March (March 11-17) and the PGA Championship moves from August to May 13-19.
Also, the FedExCup Playoffs will feature three events, instead of four, with the Northern Trust (August 5-11 with 125-player field); the BMW Championship, (Aug 12-18 with 70 players); and the TOUR Championship (Aug 19-25 with 30 players).
The final World Golf Championships event of the season, until now staged in Akron, Ohio, will be held from July 22-28 at TPC Southwind in Memphis as the WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational, replacing FedEx St. Jude Classic. Two new tournaments will also come in.
The Houston Open and A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier will move to the fall and will be played next as part of the 2019-20 schedule, and will therefore not feature in 2018-19.
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Lahiri, who has been on the PGA Tour since 2015, said, It is very exciting. With Majors moving, and the Players moving, we were all waiting for the schedule to figure out how to attack next year. It is going to be very interesting with the schedule becoming more compact as well. You will see a lot more players in the Fall Season.
He added, The biggest thing in next year's schedule is that we are going to have 2-3 events less. So , people will play will a little more early in the season to get a head start, As the next few years go the Fall season will get a lot of more important. Till five years ago, there really was no schedule as such for Fall. Going ahead it will have 20 % of the season, which goes longer and deeper. The approach to the Fall and the rest of the season will also be different.
The FedeXCup will also end before the start of the football season, allowing more spectator interest.