As originally proposed, the new qualifying avenue to distribute the final 50 PGA Tour memberships each year was to be a three-tournament series. Tuesday brought the announcement of those three events – plus a fourth yet to come.
All with $1 million purses, too. Apparently, the Web.com Tour Finals had some juice in the marketplace.
“When we first started, we thought three events was sufficient,” said tour chief Bill Calfee, noting that this season produced only one $1 million payout. “We thought it might be a little bit of a stretch to get three.
“When we got into the marketplace, we found more interest in these Finals than we expected. We thought we had four [dates] that we could commit to.”
Four events also provides a truer long-term measurement, not to mention that it replicates the FedEx Cup framework.
The series will begin in Fort Wayne, Ind., where the new Hotel Fitness Championship joins the schedule on Labor Day weekend. The series continues on in the next two weeks to the Chiquita Classic outside Charlotte, N.C., and the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship at Columbus, Ohio.
Following a week off, the series finale will be played Sept. 26-29 at the still-undetermined venue.
Fields will consist of the top 75 players on the Web.com Tour money list and Nos. 126-200 in PGA Tour earnings. The Web.com Tour’s top 25 have guaranteed cards based on season-long performance, but still must play for priority order to get into PGA Tour fields.
A separate Finals money list will determine priority order. The last 25 PGA Tour cards will be given to the top finishers not among the first 25 Web.com Tour graduates.
“We think this is the right way to do it,” Calfee said.
The remaining Finals stop should be in place within a month, with Calfee saying three markets remain in the running. Two of those are believed to be Charleston, S.C., where the developmental tour’s finale previously was held on Daniel Island, and the PGA Tour’s home at TPC Sawgrass.
