The PGA Tour Fall Series is a series of events on the PGA Tour that covers the end of the calendar year.
This series was created in 2007 as part of the reorganization of the entire tour schedule. The new structure includes a regular season and the FedEx Cup playoffs, which will determine the season champion. This slate of tournaments had the working title "Quest for the Card" before the PGA Tour finalized the name.
The Fall Series began as a group of seven events (now down to four for the 2011 season) that will determine who joins the 30 FedEx Cup finalists in receiving full-season exemptions to the following year's tournaments. These will be the golfers who did not qualify for the FedEx Cup finals, but finish in the top 125 on the money list at the end of the Fall Series. Golfers finishing outside the top 125 can only enter the following year's tournaments based on other exemptions or through qualifying, e.g. "Q-school."
The winner of each Fall Series event, as in the case of all other PGA Tour events, receives an exemption for the remainder of that season and the entirety of the following two seasons, and also receives an automatic invitation to the following year's PGA Championship. However, winners of Fall Series tournaments do not receive invitations to the following year's Masters unless they qualify by other means. Masters invitations for PGA Tour winners not otherwise exempt are extended only to winners of tournaments that offer a full FedEx Cup points allocation. Those who finish the season in the Top 30 of the PGA Tour money list also earn a spot in the Masters.
In 2007, the Fall Series began the week after the final FedEx Cup event, The Tour Championship. In 2008, the first event took place the week before The Tour Championship. The Fall Series then took a week off before resuming with its final six events.
Major changes came to the Fall Series in 2009:
In that year, the Fall Series began with the Turning Stone Resort Championship, and then took a week off for the year's major team event, the Presidents Cup. It was intended to continue with three more events leading into the HSBC Champions, but the Viking Classic was canceled when several weeks of nearly continuous rain made the course unplayable. The Fall Series then took off for the HSBC Champions before ending with the Children's Miracle Network Classic.
The 2010 Fall Series schedule saw one change from previous years before it was announced. The Turning Stone Resort Championship moved to August, becoming an alternate event opposite another WGC event, the Bridgestone Invitational. This left four Fall Series events, but the gap was filled by a new event, the McGladrey Classic.
In 2011, the Viking Classic, moved to July and became an alternate event to The Open Championship, leaving four events.
Source: Official 2008 PGA Tour schedule
Every round of all Fall Series events will be televised on Golf Channel and broadcast via satellite radio on Sirius XM Satellite Radio channel 146.