New Look Tour Schedule Coming Into Focus And The Small Markets Are Trouncing America's Big Cities

If you told me a few years ago that the FedExCup and wraparound schedule designed to save fall events in smaller markets would lead to minimizing the PGA Tour's presence in Chicago, New York, Boston and Houston, I'd have told you no chance. 

As Doug Ferguson of the AP reports, the 2018-19 revamp of the PGA Tour schedule is shaping up in curious ways.  (As noted by The Forecaddie last week, Florida will have its swing back and that's a very good thing.)

After explaining how May will feature the Byron Nelson and Colonial stops surrounding the PGA Championship--cue the claims of Trinity Forest not being a good preparation for PGA venues--Ferguson says there is a possibility of Houston landing before the U.S. Open when Memphis shifts to the beautiful month of August for its expected WGC upgrade in place of Firestone (hit the link if you don't believe me). 

But the real puzzler is what the playoff shortening means for two huge markets.

There’s one other potential wrinkle to the end. The FedEx Cup playoffs will be three tournaments instead of four, and while this is the final year of the playoff event at the TPC Boston (previously Deutsche Bank, currently Dell Technologies Championship), it might not be the end of Boston.

One possibility the tour is exploring is for The Northern Trust to alternate between the New York area (such as Liberty National) and Boston.

So if this goes forward, remember that the introduction of the playoffs changed Chicago's former Western Open in July to a rotating BMW in multiple cities later in the summer. 

The incredibly successful Boston stop, a relatively modern creation, may go away and the old annual New York stop at Westchester has been converted to a rotation that could spread north.

To recap: Houston, Boston, New York* and Chicago all have seen or are about to watch their regular tour events compromised in the name of making Sea Island, Las Vegas, Napa, Jackson, Kuala Lumpur, Jeju Island and Playa Del Carmen stops part of the FedExCup, while possibly adding Minneapolis and Detroit stops. 

Fascinating big market strategy!

*New York is, admittedly about to be overrun with annual major golf events starting with last year's Presidents Cup and running to at least 2024's Ryder Cup. But other than the Presidents Cup, the rest are run by other organizations.