For both players and golf fans viewing at home, this week’s Masters will look different and sound different from every Masters previously played. Because of the changes to the PGA Tour schedule resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 Masters will be played in November for the first time, with no spectators on the grounds of Augusta National. Other than a smattering … [Read more...]
3 Former Bulldogs Among Players in Field for Tour Championship at East Lake
Spectators will not be all that’s missing from the 2020 Tour Championship. The event returns to East Lake Golf Club this week for the 20thtime, and will be unlike the previous 19 Tour Championships held at the historic Atlanta club. Like the previous 13 PGA Tour events played this year after the three-month cancellation of tournaments due to Covid-19, the Tour Championship will … [Read more...]
Rory McIlroy Wins for Second Time at East Lake; Takes Home $15 Million Bonus
For the sixth time since 2012, Rory McIlroy entered Sunday’s final round of the Tour Championship at East Lake with an opportunity to take home a nice trophy and an exorbitant check. McIlroy converted just one of his first chances, a .200 batting average that placed him squarely on baseball’s Mendoza line, a benchmark for light hitting utility infielders. Three times he shot … [Read more...]
Plenty of Changes for This Week’s Tour Championship at East Lake
If the Tour Championship was to designate a theme song for the 2019 tournament, the obvious choice would be David Bowie’s “Changes.” This week’s tournament has new dates, a new scoring format, new public parking locations and several other new additions. The altered scoring format is covered in an accompanying article here and general information about the tournament can be … [Read more...]
Scoring System Altered for Tour Championship to Guarantee One Winner
Since the PGA Tour introduced the FedExCup Playoffs in 2007, tour officials have strived to find the best format for determining a season-long champion. Over the past dozen years, the tour has made several changes to the Playoffs points system after the first one was found to have a serious problem in terms of having the FedExCup champion determined in the season-ending Tour … [Read more...]
Woods Rallies for First Time in a Major to Take Fifth Masters Title
While he was winning 14 majors between 1997 and 2008, Tiger Woods established a 100 percent predictable model for divining whether he was going to win a Grand Slam event going to the final round. When leading or sharing the lead after 54 holes, Woods was 14-0 in Grand Sam events. When he was trailing going to the final round, he was 0-for-everything else. His spotless … [Read more...]
Masters preview: McIlroy the Favorite, No Green Jacket for Tiger or Phil
The list of potential 2019 Masters champions is long, with a clear but not overwhelming favorite who comes into the tournament as the game’s hottest player, but who does not have the best relationship with Augusta National. Everything points to a Rory McIlroy victory in Augusta next week. He has finished sixth or better in each of his six starts in PGA Tour stroke play … [Read more...]
PGA Tour Preview: Significant Changes Highlight 2019 Schedule
The 2019 portion of the PGA Tour schedule began with two events in Hawaii, and will be followed by four annual stops in California and one in Arizona, the same as it has for the past two decades. After that, the usually standard sequence of tournaments has been significantly shuffled, along with a number of rules changes that are slightly confusing but not overly impactful. … [Read more...]
New PGA Tour Season Tees off in California with Large Georgia Contingent
Ten days after the 2017-18 PGA Tour season ended, the 2018-19 season begins this week in Napa, Calif., with the first of eight Fall tournaments played over the next seven weeks. Three of the events will be played in Asia, including a WGC tournament in China. There will also be a tournament that week in Jackson, Miss., with the 2018 portion of the schedule wrapping up with … [Read more...]