Professional Golf Finally Has an Off Season

Granted, it is only two and a half weeks long, but professional golf finally has an offseason. The PGA TOUR does not return until the Tournament of Champions on January 5, 2017; the European Tour restarts January 12 at the BMW South Africa Open.

It is about time, and frankly, as a fan, the layoff is not long enough. I have never liked the wrap-around PGA TOUR schedule. Fans need time to recharge — even if players perhaps do not.

I’d like to see the PGA TOUR go to a January through September calendar. The Tour Championship series can start in August and end in August before the NCAA and NFL football seasons begin. To accommodate this, I’d move the Players Championship back to March, and slot the PGA Championship into May. Under this play, the PGA TOUR would have a significant event every month of the season:

January: Tournament of Champions
February: WGC Match Play
March: The Players
April: The Masters
May: The PGA Championship
June: The US Open
July: The Open Championship
August: The FedEx Cup Playoffs
September: Ryder Cup/President’s Cup

You can read my entire plan to fix the PGA TOUR schedule here