Golf

PGA's schedule aims for big finish

The 2007 FedEx Cup will be a yearlong points race climaxing in four tournaments.

By BOB HARIG
Published November 3, 2005

Looking for a playoff-like ending to its season and hoping a big-money bonus pool will lure players to compete more, the PGA Tour will make a radical change to its schedule beginning in 2007, including a yearlong points race called the FedEx Cup that will end with four huge tournaments.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem discussed the framework of the plan Wednesday during his annual State of the Tour address at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, which will see its date moved to mid September and be the culmination of the FedEx Cup.

Details of the schedule were not announced, leaving many tournaments, including the local Chrysler Championship, on hold.

Players will earn points from January through August hoping to qualify for a four-week championship series, with the last event, the Tour Championship, to be contested among the top 30 in the points standings.

The reason for such change?

"We have a long season, a very long season," Finchem said. "The Tour Championship was created to try and define that season ... but it's so far into the football season and so far into the fall and we have such varying strength of our tournaments leading up to it that we haven't been able to get the kind of strength that we see in other sports with the end of the season. We concluded that we needed to take some additional steps to deal with that."

The tour will not announce its 2007 tournament schedule until it has concluded negotiations with its television partners, which will bid for various parts of the new proposal. Finchem said that could take until the end of the year.

"It's obviously a big change to our season, and it certainly gives us something else to focus on, and I'm very excited," said PGA Tour player Adam Scott, who with Sergio Garcia and Olin Browne attended a news conference in Atlanta. "It's a little more compact, intense season with the FedEx Cup, certainly something to play for outside of just the majors or world golf events. There are considerable rewards at the end of it."

[Last modified November 3, 2005, 01:07:13]