For today’s mind-bender, we’d like you to consider that if 2019 PGA Championship was contested a year early, as in May 16-19, they might still be trying to finish at Bethpage Black in New York.
Take a look around the east coast and the weather this time of year is mighty testy.
Last week’s downpours would have made four days of uninterrupted play basically impossible.
Okay, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The PGA Tour was supposed to announce its 2019 schedule two weeks ago but Jay Monahan and his henchmen are still tinkering up there in their palatial Ponte Vedra Beach digs.
Even though it’s not out, the picture is starting to come into focus.
Which brings us to the 2019 PGA Championship which will be sandwiched right in between the Bryon Nelson and The Colonial, aka the Fort Worth Invitational.
So we pose this question:
Who is going to play next year in the Nelson, then the PGA then the Colonial?
Answer might be — no one.
Now we pose another question:
Will the PGA Championship pretty much wipe out the quality of the fields in Dallas and Fort Worth?
Consider the fact that they are already struggling to get any big names. Sure Jordan Spieth and Sergio Garcia played in Dallas last week but Sergio missed the cut and Jordy played like a little name rather than a big name. Even the little names make 15-inch putts, typically. Spieth missed one last week.
Tournaments the week before majors have typically suffered. Houston did a good job when it occupied the week before The Masters. It was able to get its greens to simulate the speed at Augusta National. Now it will be the Valero Texas Open the week before The Masters which looks for all intents and purposes as though the PGA Tour has a major grudge against tournaments in the state of Texas. Maybe one of the tour’s new slogans can be:
“Mess With Texas!”
Basically that is what they’ve done. Emperor Monahan and his thugs have thumbed their noses at The Valero, The Nelson and have sent Fort Worth to the slaughter house.
Jack Nicklaus and The Memorial will survive. They have Memorial Day weekend, which puts the Golden Bear’s event two weeks after the PGA and two weeks before the U.S. Open.
So who goes the week before the U.S. Open?
Well, the Houston Open isn’t totally dead yet although it is on major life-support. If it pulls though, somehow, the lucky Houstonians will go the week before the USGA’s crown jewel.
Good luck with that.
There’s still all those WGC events to scatter around the schedule — including the WGC Fed-Ex which looks like it might be held the week after the Open Championship. Yeah, let’s rush from the cooler temps in the United Kingdom to a late July scorcher in Memphis. That’s gonna go over like a lead balloon and it would be pure justice if a lot of big names skip the event because the PGA Tour basically stole it from Firestone (Bridgestone) and gave it to Federal Express.
You wonder if money has pretty much ruined the PGA Tour schedule?
The answer is pretty easy.
