Why PGA Tour’s fall season is essential to golf going ahead

Opposite to common perception, the PGA Tour’s offseason is over.

Simply two weeks in the past, Viktor Hovland decimated East Lake Golf Membership to win the FedEx Cup and cement himself as among the finest gamers on the planet.

However this week, the PGA Tour heads to Northern California, the place the Fortinet Championship kicks off the autumn schedule.

Hovland is not going to be there, as he and your entire European Ryder Cup group are enjoying within the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship outdoors of London.

However Justin Thomas and Max Homa, who will characterize Group USA in Rome, can be. They’re the one two Ryder Cuppers enjoying in Napa this week. Humorous sufficient, Captain Zach Johnson is within the discipline, too.

Picture by Mike Mulholland/Getty Photos

PGA Tour Fall Schedule & It’s Significance

The Fortinet Championship is the primary of seven occasions this fall, that are listed in its entirety beneath:

1. Fortinet Championship – Sept. 14-17 – Napa, California
2. Sanderson Farms Championship – Oct. 5-8 – Jackson, Mississippi
3. Shriners Kids’s Open – Oct. 12-15 – Las Vegas, Nevada
4. ZOZO Championship – Oct. 19-22 – Chiba, Japan
5. Worldwide Know-how Championship – Nov. 2-5 – Los Cabos, Mexico
6. Butterfield Bermuda Championship – Nov. 9-12 – Southampton, Bermuda
7. The RSM Basic – Nov. 16-19 – St. Simons Island, Georgia

Lots of the prime 30 gamers who teed it up on the Tour Championship in Atlanta will seemingly skip out on most of—if not all—these occasions.

So, too, will the highest 50, as those that certified for the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields robotically qualify for the primary two PGA Tour’s Signature Occasions in 2024, The Sentry and the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am.

However these gamers outdoors of that threshold, like Thomas, will compete for FedEx Cup factors at every Fall occasion, with 500 factors going to the winner.

Plus, winners earn a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour. Gamers ranked throughout the prime 10 over these seven tournaments will even qualify for The Sentry and the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am. In fact, which means the highest 10 not beforehand eligible.

Picture by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Photos

But when somebody like Peter Malnati, at the moment ranked a hundred and fifteenth, performs properly this fall, he would qualify for the Signature Occasions. Contemplating the big purses and elevated visibility of these tournaments, that may very well be a career-changing second for Malnati and others like him.

That’s the reason the subsequent two months on the PGA Tour calendar are so necessary and essential to the success of golf going ahead.

Though not the largest occasions, these seven tournaments are the place goals are made and hopes are crushed. A number of touring professionals must play properly, or else they should attempt to earn their 2024 PGA Tour card by means of Q-Faculty in December or attempt to rebound on the Korn Ferry.

Primarily, the PGA Tour fall makes or breaks, and determines the sector for a few of the most vital occasions in 2024. The stress is ramped up, despite the fact that, on the floor, it could not seem that method.

Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By. You possibly can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko for extra golf protection. Remember to try @_PlayingThrough too.