The PGA Championship will no longer need the tag “Glory’s Last Shot” given it will be confirmed later today that the traditional final Major of the season is moving from an August date and to May starting from 2019.
As such, the PGA Championship will become the years second Major. The reshuffle will see the Players Championship move from a May date and return to its original March date, a date it held from 1977 to 2007.
And The Open, golf’s oldest Major, will now become the fourth and last Major in the year.
The Major golfing calendar in 2019 and going forward will read
April … Masters
May … PGA Championship
June … U.S. Open
July … The Open
This new arrangement will be rubber stamped at an 11am media conference Tuesday US time to be jointly hosted by PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua and PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monaghan.
The last time a PGA Championship was held in May was 1949, when Sam Snead won at Hermitage Country Club in Virginia, with Bethpage Park outside of New York to play host to the 2019 PGA Championship.
At the heart of the return of the PGA Championship to May is the desire to conclude the PGA Tours FedEx Cup Series before the start of a new NFL season. And we saw last year the scheduling confusion created by having to move events due to the return of golf the Olympics.
The R&A, as host of The Open, is unconcerned at becoming the last Major in the season as evident when Martin Slumbers, as CEO of the R&A addressed the question recently at Royal Birkdale.
“I think from our perspective I don’t really mind whether we’re the third major or the fourth major,“ he said. “We try to do our very best with The Open Championship to make it as good as we possibly can do. I can absolutely understand some of the logic, and if it ends up as resulting in more people watching our game, then that’s a great outcome.“
More as it emerges.
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