As the PGA continues to assess what changes might be made after Sunday’s epic collapse at the 39th Ryder Cup at Medinah, one of the things talked about in the golf community was an week break between the TOUR Championship that ends the PGA Tour Season and the Ryder Cup itself.
Currently no break exists and fatigue was certainly a factor for players come Sunday.
With the renewed emphasis on playing meaningful golf in September, the once empty early fall schedule has turned into a nine week gamut of seven high-pressure and big-money events that require the very best in the world to play pretty much all of them.
One can make the reasonable argument of moving the Ryder and President’s Cup further back a week into the first full weekend of October.
This would give an added 10th week to get the WGC-Bridgestone, PGA Championship and the four week FedEx Cup playoffs all in and gives a third virtual bye week in that stretch. Currently, there is a de facto week off between the PGA and the playoffs and between the BMW Championship and the finale TOUR Championship.
Not even tennis, which squeezes in three two-week majors between Memorial and the week after Labor Day has such a grueling schedule.
With so much on the line at the Ryder Cup, taking that extra week to recharge the most important club in the bag—the brain—is essential. Not all 24 players at the Ryder Cup had played the week before in Atlanta and players like Ian Poulter looked much fresher as a result.
As long as the best players in the world continue to have a number of them over 40, then that extra break is needed to get through a five-round gauntlet over three days.
The problem is though that nothing could be implemented until 2018 and the next time the PGA would get to host with an extra bye week would be 2020 if ever.
Why? Blame the Olympics.
Starting in 2016, golf becomes an Olympic sport and all these tournaments now have to fit in around a week of Olympic play. As part of the deal to be included, the world’s governing bodies promised no major championships during the summer games. This added big tournament gets slotted in once every four years and throws the schedule from the British Open Championship forward into flux.
Looking for relief from the European PGA is a non-starter as they are trying to stop their top stars from playing as much over here in the United States to begin with. There is not a lot of sympathy for players like Poulter and Rory McIlroy playing full schedules on the PGA Tour and only token appearances over there. It is their job to protect the Nicolas Colsaerts and Paul Lawrie’s of Europe that play full-time over there and earn their way onto the team.
This is not suggesting that there is any serious tension here, as the PGA and the PGA Tour here have been separate entities since 1968 which kills a lot of the leverage that the PGA itself has because they are at the mercy of the Tour themselves. To suggest that Europe will give that extra week of padding, however, does not seem realistic if the PGA cannot do it themselves.
In a sport where nutrition and fitness becomes more important, it will be up to the golfers to decide what tournaments are important enough to play earlier so they have the right mindset when they hit this emotionally-wringing week.