PGA commish debates moving Championship

golf

Associated Press

DUBLIN

It’s not as simple as shifting a couple of tournaments on the PGA Tour schedule.

The concept of moving the PGA Championship from August to May is gaining traction, even though there are so many other pieces of the puzzle that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan should be believed when he says that it’s not a done deal.

The idea is for the PGA Tour to end its lucrative FedEx Cup before the NFL gets going, which the tour can only hope will give the season-ending Tour Championship more pop than a $10 million prize couldn’t.

For starters, that would mean moving The Players Championship from May back to March, and slotting the PGA Championship somewhere in May. That also means two other PGA Tour events would have to vacate their spot to allow for the Tour Championship to end around Labor Day.

But that’s just the math. That doesn’t take into account the squabbling that is sure to follow.

“That’s sort of Jay’s problem now,” Jack Nicklaus said. “And I think Jay is wrestling with it. But I think they’ll come up with a solution that nobody’s going to agree with. But after you have it for a couple of years, you’re going to see the reasons why they’re doing what they’re doing and what they’re trying to do.”

Nicklaus met with Monahan and other tour officials Tuesday morning, and Nicklaus seemed agreeable, even though his Memorial Tournament could be affected.

The Memorial began in 1976, the perfect date to commemorate legends of the game with a tournament that tries to imitate the pure standards of golf found at Augusta National and a golf course at Muirfield Village that is rarely anything but pure.

It traditionally is two weeks before the U.S. Open.

Move the PGA Championship to May — already a risky proposal that could rule out so many northern golf courses because of the weather — and suddenly the Memorial could be squeezed between the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open.

Nicklaus said he also has met with PGA of America chief Pete Bevacqua about a potential move. And he thinks the Memorial being held on either side of a major would actually help his tournament.

“Because the Memorial Tournament would be the only tournament they (the PGA Tour) have to promote in there in the middle,” Nicklaus said.

“So it would probably be better for us.”

By saying that, Nicklaus ignored the tournaments before and after his own — Colonial last week, which dates to 1946 and is a shrine to Ben Hogan; the FedEx St. Jude Classic, sponsored by the same company shelling out all that money for the FedEx Cup.