2011 PGA Tour
The 2011 PGA Tour, the 44th season since the Tour became independent from the PGA of America, will consist of a total of 49 sanctioned events running from early January to late November.[1] The schedule, announced on December 2, 2010,[2] has four phases:
- Regular season — Consisting of 37 events (one less than in 2010), starting on January 6 with the limited-field Hyundai Tournament of Champions (known as the SBS Championship in 2010) and ending with the Wyndham Championship on August 21.
- FedEx Cup Playoffs — As in previous seasons, this will be a series of four tournaments, starting with The Barclays on August 25–28 and ending with The Tour Championship on September 22–25.
- Fall Series — After The Tour Championship, the principal portion of the season ends with a series of four tournaments (down from five last season).[2] These tournaments, generally passed on by elite players, offer an additional opportunity for players to secure their tour cards for the following season by finishing in the top 125 on the money list, or to gain a two-year exemption by winning a tournament with a slightly weaker field than usual.
- After the main season, the 2011 tour will go on an Asia-Pacific swing consisting of four events, none of which offers official prize money.
- The CIMB Asia Pacific Classic Malaysia, a limited-field event held in Malaysia that debuted in 2010.
- The WGC-HSBC Champions, a World Golf Championships event held in China. Founded in 2005, it was elevated to WGC status in 2009, when it also became an event on the PGA Tour schedule. Although the prize money is unofficial, it now counts as an official PGA Tour win, if it is won by a PGA Tour member.
- The 2011 Presidents Cup, a biennial team competition involving a United States side and an "International" side drawn from non-European players (European players play against the USA in the Ryder Cup). In 2011, this event will be held in Melbourne, Australia.
- The Omega Mission Hills World Cup, a team event featuring two-man teams from countries around the world and also held in China. This will be the first World Cup of the event's new biennial schedule; it had been an annual event through 2009.
The regular season will include all four major championships and three of the World Golf Championships events. All four majors and all four WGC events are also sanctioned by the European Tour.
Comparison between 2010 and 2011
In late 2009, after the 2010 schedule had been announced, it was noted by golf media that most of the Tour's contracts for sponsorship of individual tournaments were locked in through that season. However, it was speculated that the expiration of those sponsorship contracts in 2011 would see substantial changes in the PGA Tour landscape.[3]
As it turned out, the 2011 schedule was largely the same as in 2010. The number of official money events was reduced by one with the demise of the Turning Stone Resort Championship, but the tour's total prize money will remain virtually the same. Seventeen tournaments will increase their prize money by a total of $3.8 million, almost completely offsetting the loss of the $4 million prize fund at Turning Stone. Assuming that the majors maintain their 2010 prize funds, the tour will offer a total of $288 million in purses.[4]
Changes for 2011
The Tour announced several changes from the 2010 schedule. Apart from the aforementioned demise of the Turning Stone Resort Championship, switches in scheduling of existing tournaments, and changes in sponsorships, the most important changes are:[2]
FedEx Cup off week
The off week for the FedEx Cup playoffs, which had previously been the week prior to The Tour Championship, will move to the week before the BMW Championship. This alleviates concerns about a short turnaround after the second playoff event, the Deutsche Bank Championship, which is the only tournament on the schedule that normally ends on Monday (specifically on Labor Day).
Match Play Championship final
The final of the Accenture Match Play Championship will be reduced from 36 holes to 18.
Fall Series
With the move of the Viking Classic into the regular season, specifically opposite The Open Championship, the Fall Series has been reduced to four events.
Schedule
The following table lists the main season events for 2011. "Date" is the ending date of each event. The numbers in parentheses after the winners' names are the number of wins they had on tour up to and including that event. For an explanation of the "Status" column, see PGA Tour event categories.
- ↑ The tournament was scheduled to end on February 6, but the end of the final round was pushed back to the following day due to delays for frost and frozen greens on three of the four scheduled days.
- ↑ The tournament was scheduled to end on August 28, but was shortened to 54 holes due to Hurricane Irene.
Money leaders
This shows the final money leaders for the 2011 PGA Tour season. These figures do not include FedEx Cup bonus money.
| Rank | Player | Country | Events | Prize money ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luke Donald |  England | 19 | 6,683,214 |
| 2 | Webb Simpson |  United States | 26 | 6,347,353 |
| 3 | Nick Watney | United States | 22 | 5,290,673 |
| 4 | K. J. Choi |  South Korea | 22 | 4,434,691 |
| 5 | Dustin Johnson | United States | 21 | 4,309,961 |
| 6 | Matt Kuchar | United States | 24 | 4,233,920 |
| 7 | Bill Haas | United States | 26 | 4,088,637 |
| 8 | Steve Stricker | United States | 19 | 3,992,785 |
| 9 | Jason Day |  Australia | 21 | 3,962,647 |
| 10 | David Toms | United States | 23 | 3,858,090 |
There is a full list on the PGA Tour's website here.
Awards
See also
Notes and references
- ↑ "2011 PGA Tour schedule" (Press release). PGA Tour. December 2, 2010. Archived from the original on 4 December 2010. Retrieved December 2, 2010.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "2011 schedule includes key change during the Playoffs" (Press release). PGA Tour. December 2, 2010. Archived from the original on 4 December 2010. Retrieved December 2, 2010.
- ↑ Sobel, Jason and Harig, Bob (November 3, 2009). "With 2010 status quo, 2011 up in the air". ESPN.com. Retrieved December 4, 2010.
- ↑ Associated Press (December 2, 2010). "PGA Tour releases '11 schedule". ESPN.com. Retrieved December 4, 2010.
- ↑ Each tournament is allocated a certain number of Official World Golf Rankings points for its champion, and points for lower finishes are based on a sliding scale. The major championships and the Players Championship have fixed allocations, but the points of the other tournaments depend on the strength of the field so they are not available in advance.
- ↑ No comeback player award this season