PGA Tour may consider dramatic schedule change

Omnisports

September 21, 2016 9:52 AM

Outgoing commissioner Tim Finchem mentioned a potential drastic schedule change on the PGA Tour.

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That idea has been kicked around, and even executed to a point in seasons past.

The Players Championship was moved to May in an attempt to get all five 'big tournaments' in a row.

But the season runs into the start of the NFL's regular season and the college football schedule, so golfers are tired of playing second-fiddle during the playoffs.

"How many viewers do you think will be watching us this weekend?" William McGirt said, via Golf Digest.

"We're never going to compete with college football. Ending the season on Labor Day is perfect. It's the start of football and the unofficial end of summer.

"What do you think the ratings are going to be this fall? Nobody is watching these events. Eventually you water down your product."

A potential change is to move the Tour Championship up to Labor Day weekend, thus ending the regular season before American football really gets going.

Under that notion, the PGA Championship would move into May and the Players would move back into March.

The Tour has a contract with broadcasters that runs through 2021, although they can opt out in 2018.

"If something's really working well, we really kick the tires pretty hard for a while before we mess around with it, and it's working pretty well," Finchem said.

"But on the other hand, we're also always asking, how can we do this better?

"I think we're focused increasingly on our television rights discussions laid out over the next few years.

"We'll probably get further into that before we'll start tinkering much with the schedule. But I wouldn't rule out changes, but at this point in time, I wouldn't assume changes either."

Omnisports