August 31, 2011
PGA Tour: The Elite Golfers’ Meet
The pga tour organizes men’s pro golf tours in the North Americas and the United States. Its purpose is to give opportunities for talented players to showcase their skills and at the same time uphold the integrity and expansion of the game. The tour season kicks off with three majors between June and August, which sparked a controversy that resulted to the introduction of the FedEx Cup. In this tournament, players earn FedEx points aside from the prize money. After the regular season, the top 125 winners with the most FedEx Cup points battle it out in the “play-offs” that happens between August to September.
The pga tour also handles the Champion’s Tour, the Nationwide Tour and its flagship, pga tour. It also conducts the Q-school, a yearly qualifying tournament of six rounds every fall. The top 25 winners of this game are qualified to play in the PGA Tournament the following year. The rest of those who finish within the top 75 are qualified to play in the Nationwide Tour. At the end of every year, the organization recognizes the top 125 money winners from the Nationwide Tour and is also given privileges on the next year’s PGA Tour. The Champion’s Tour, on the other hand, is a tournament for golfers aged 50 and above. This year, 2011, the senior majors gather to compete in regular events in Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom. The developmental Nationwide Tournament, on the other hand, will be hosted by Canada, Colombia and Mexico this year. Whenever a pga tour event is staged, proceeds usually are given to charitable institutions of the cities that host them. PGA supports a number of organizations like educational institutions, health and human services, youth development and after school mentoring programs.
The events in this tournament can be categorized as follows:
Majors – This include the annual events such as the U.S. Open, The Open Championship, Master’s Tournament and PGA Championship.
WGC – World Golf Championships include sets of events for golfers from around the globe, including those who are not members of the PGA.
Unique – One tournament consisting of winners only (Hyundai Tournament), the other is for elite golfers around the world (The Players Championship)
Playoff – The event where top 125 players from the FedEx Cup points list are endorsed to the Barclays Classic. Fields are cut each week where Deutsche gets the top 100, BMW to 70 players and the Tour Championship getting the final 30 golfers.
Team – Twelve elite golfers form the US team and competes in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup.
Regular – These are weekly tour events.
Invitational – These tournaments are similar to the regular events but with a smaller selection of 100-120 players only. Usually, the top 70 money winners from the previous year and past champions get invited to this event.
Alternate – These are events that occur in the same week and are high status tournaments with reduced monetary awards and weakened fields.
Fall Series – The Tour Championship ends with this series to provide for players in the lower money winners list to increase their earnings and qualify for the following season.
The pga tour schedules for 2011 are all set and can be found on their official website.
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