PGA Tour 2018/19 schedule delayed amid Houston Open concerns
Players Championship moves to March, US PGA to May, Texas Open before The Masters - PGA Tour schedule to receive drastic changes.
The PGA Tour was all set to unleash its drasticaly new schedule for the 2018-19 season at The Players Championship last week, but it's now been pushed back due to the Houston Open frantically trying to find a new title sponsor and golf course.
Houston appears to be in the same boat as Washington's National tournament, which lost its title sponsor, Quicken Loans, a year ago.
The National is set to be played in July without a title sponsor barring an unlikely last-second intervention. It will, however, have tournament host Tiger Woods in its lineup.
PGA TOUR: HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!
According to reports, the Houston Open, won by Ian Poulter earlier this season, is very close to signing a new sponsor and golf course (there is strong rumour of a new venue in Memorial Park), but that is the reason for the PGA Tour's delay to its new calendar - which will see some very drastic changes.
If Houston finds a sponsor, it could still get the pre-Open slot although Minneapolis and 3M are chomping at the bit to take it. That city has put on a successful PGA Tour Champions event since 1993, with 3M as the title sponsor since 2001.
If Houston survives, the events that are apparently going away are Washington, which arrived on tour with so much fanfare in 2007, and Boston, which has been the second of the four playoff events.
With the FedEx Playoffs now scheduled to start in early-August and end pre-Labour Day, Boston will go away, leaving three Playoff events with the Tour Championship still at East Lake in Atlanta.
One of the biggest movers - that most golf fans will care about - will be the US PGA Championship switching to the third week of May, and The Players falling a week after the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.
The Masters is to remain in April, and the Open Championship will remain in July.
The PGA Tour has already given the Valero Texas Open what has been Houston’s spot the week prior to the Masters in the new schedule.
One week remains open: the spot the week before the US Open abandoned by Memphis when the Tour gave FedEx the World Golf Championship slot that had been occupied by Akron.
If all the tournaments go to plan in the new PGA Tour schedule, the lead-up to the 2019 Masters will be the Honda Classic; Arnold Palmer Invitational; the Players; Tampa; Match Play and Texas Open.
The rest of the schedule will be official very soon, and it's fair to say it will look very different.
