PGA announces 2011 Schedule
The PGA tour announced the 2011 schedule today. Lucky for the association, the tour is worth $288 million despite some loyal sponsors backing out. The tour for next year added seven title sponsors and only lost one tournament,
The Turning Stone Resort Championship.
The schedule, which was announced today, consisted of 45 tournaments, just more than those of 2010 did. All the golf fans are excited for yet another exciting season ahead. Even though one tournament was missing, the total prize
money is not greatly affected. The purse of all the four majors in 2011 will pretty much be the same. The prize money for 2011 is $3.8 million more than the sum this year. Considering the Turning Stone tournament was worth $4 Million, there has not been a
big increment towards the financial side of the tour.
FedEx will become the main sponsor for one year at the St. Jude Classic in Memphis. This tournament will be held a week before the U.S Open. FedEx used to be the title sponsor until 2007, when it withdrew to focus more on the FedEx
Cup. Along with FedEx, other sponsors include Farmers Insurance for a tournament in San Diego, Hyundai in Hawaii, McGladrey in St. Simons Island in Georgia, CIMB in Malaysia, Cadillac in Doral, Florida and Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina. Nationwide
will be the Memorial Tournament’s presenting sponsor and Hyundai has taken over as the main sponsor of the season-opening Champions Tournament at Kapalua in Hawaii.
The only two events without major sponsors are the Bob Hope Classic and The Heritage at Hilton. However, the tour commissioner, Tim Finchem, said that both these tournaments could make it another year without title sponsors.
"The 2011 schedule reflects the overall strength and stability of the PGA Tour," commissioner Finchem said in a statement retracted from the tour's headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. "We believe this will enhance the viewing
experience for the fans on site as well as our television audience.”
Another change is that there will be an open week between the second and third FedEx Cup events. The Deutsche Bank championship will be held from October 2nd to October 5th and the BMW Championship will be
held between October 15th and October 18th. Following the playoffs, the fall series will start and will now only consist of four tournaments in 2011. The alteration made to the schedule is that the Viking Classic was shifted from the
Fall Series to regular season. The Viking Classic will take place at the same time as the Open at Royal St. Georges, July 14th to July 17th.
The Reno-Tahoe Open, which was held during the Open Championship week this year, has now been coincided with the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. Both the tournaments will be held on from August 4th to August 7th.
The WGC Accenture Match Play Championship scheduled for the week of February 21st
–27th in Marana, Arizona is reduced to 18 holes from 36 holes. Due to this alteration, the quarterfinals of the prestigious event will change from Saturday morning to Saturday afternoon. The semi-finals on Sunday morning will be followed by
the final on Sunday afternoon.
Seeing how the world is undergoing economical recession, tours do have to be budgeted smartly. The European Tour is facing crisis because of the Irish Open. Since its title sponsor ‘3’ Mobile backed out, there were rumours that
the tournament would be cancelled. Fortunately, the European Tour chief announced this month that the tournament would stay on the tour.
Overall, the dates and venues have now been confirmed. With this year full of Tiger scandals and European dominance in golf, all the players are eager to tee off in the 2011 season.
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