There’s nothing the internet loves to do more than create a conspiracy out of nothing. With Brooks Koepka winning the PGA Championship, of course something was going to be conjured out of thin air, and Twitter immediately jumped on a confusing exchange between Koepka and PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh. The two didn’t shake hands as they greeted each beside the Wanamaker Trophy and Waugh seemed to whisper something as he walked away, leaving Koepka to smirk and shake his head.

What’s going on with Seth Waugh here. Could he not bring himself to give Brooks a hand shake? Brooks is like “Wtf, man” ?@golfproryan pic.twitter.com/KgeooixOOH

— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) May 22, 2023

What did this all mean? Was there something sensational afoot? As it turns out, probably not.

In a conversation with Todd Lewis of the Golf Channel, Waugh broke down what actually happened and what he and the five-time major winner briefly discussed.

I spoke with PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh today. He told me he’s known Brooks since he was in the eighth grade. He’s always admired and liked Brooks and said he couldn’t be happier that he has his 3rd Wanamaker. As for the perceived awkward encounter: https://t.co/F6cBZgzIIY pic.twitter.com/xNI6v466u5

— Todd Lewis (@ToddLewisGC) May 24, 2023

“I literally said to him, ‘I think they have four million pictures of me. They must have 24 million pictures of you. I’ve never seen one of them and I don’t know if you ever have,’” Waugh explained. “He cracked up, he laughed and we kind of turned around and smiled at each other. That was it.

“Somebody chose to think that was a diss and I hadn’t shaken his hand. I already talked to him five times since he won. I certainly shook his hand and told him how proud I was of him. It couldn’t be sillier or further from the truth and everybody is trying to make it into this LIV thing which it’s got nothing to do with.”

???? PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh says Brooks Koepka will be welcome on the @RyderCupUSA team if he auto qualifies as a top 6 points earner: “If he plays his way on the team, we will welcome him.” (Via: @ToddLewisGC) pic.twitter.com/GVs8cOdP0E

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) May 24, 2023

So, there you go. It’s all fine between the PGA CEO and the reigning PGA champ. Glad we got that settled.

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Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America, has made his feelings known for a while now about LIV Golf and the disruption the league has brought to the professional game. Two years ago during the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, when the circuit was still only in the “talking” stages, Waugh asked players to be mindful of the decisions they make.

“Money is money, right, and so money needs to have a return and have all those things that are associated with it. But some money is better than other money,” Waugh said at the time. “I’ve talked to a bunch of them [players]. As you can imagine, you look them in the eye and you just say: ‘Be careful what you wish for, because short-term gain feels good for a little while, but long-term gain is what makes lives.’”

And last year at Southern Hills, with the first LIV tournament to be announced just days after Justin Thomas claimed the Wanamaker Trophy, Waugh again displayed pessimism about the venture, referring to it as “flawed”.

“We’re a fan of the current ecosystem and world golf ranking system and everything else that goes into creating the best field in golf,” Waugh said, when asked if the PGA of America will embrace those who go to play in the LIV series. “Right now we really, I don’t know what it’ll look like next year. We don’t think this is good for the game and we are supportive of that ecosystem.”

Not surprisingly, then, Waugh once more offered a skeptical opinion about LIV in a recent interview with The Times after the tour spent in excess of $750 million in its inaugural 2022 season.

“They can fund it for as long as they want to,” Waugh said, “but no matter how much money you have, at some point burning it doesn’t feel very good. I don’t see they are accomplishing much.”

Despite Waugh’s ongoing personal feelings, the PGA of America was open to allowing LIV golfers who met the qualification criteria for the PGA Championship at Oak Hill entry into the championship. Eighteen players originally were announced as part of the field, with 2010 PGA winner Martin Kaymer having withdrawn late last week. The exemptions included special invitations to all LIV players who were inside the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Paul Casey, ranked No. 131 in the OWGR, also earned an invite, in part because he was in last year’s field at Southern Hills but had to pull out due to an injury.

In The Times article, Waugh said he hopes the tone at Oak Hill this coming week between PGA Tour and LIV players — and the reception from fans — will mirror what was seen at the Masters last month, where there seemed to be little in the way of animosity between the two sides.

“The good news is the Masters went first and set the stage for, frankly, civility,” he said. “That’s the tone we want — nobody died, right? I lived in a world of disruption my whole business career and disruption is generally healthy. It makes you better, and the game is better.”

However, Waugh also noted that the tension LIV Golf’s emergence has brought to the game is not without its drawbacks. “I don’t think division is good for the game,” he says. “Hopefully, it’s good for those individuals that have made whatever decisions they have, but the game has moved on. It’s amplified those who have stayed and the ones who have left have largely disappeared from the landscape — in terms of an exposure perspective.”

Waugh, who is scheduled to speak to the media on Tuesday at Oak Hill, also has questioned the format that LIV has adopted, specifically the importance of the team aspect of the competition.

“Their logic about the team play being something significant that people can get behind I think is flawed,” Waugh said. “I don’t think people really care about it. And I don’t see how it’s a survivable business model.”

It also appears to be a stumbling block, at least in Waugh’s mind, regarding LIV’s hopes of being able to offer World Ranking points at some point in the future. LIV applied for OWGR accreditation last July, and their application is currently under review. The four heads of the men’s majors — Waugh, USGA CEO Mike Whan, R&A CEO Martin Slumbers and Augusta National’s Will Jones — who are all on the OWGR board, will ultimately make a final decision on the matter, with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and DP World Tour’s Keith Pelley and Keith Waters having recused themselves from the decision-making process.

“There are certain parts of their structure that can be solved by math, but there may be some pretty fundamental things that are harder,” Waugh said. “There’s the potential conflict with the team aspect and then access — how do you get relegated and promoted?”

Waugh said OWGR officials sent questions to LIV earlier this year seeking clarification on a few matters but has yet to hear back. “They have made a bad assumption that this will be a quick process. It never has been. Every application has taken a year-plus as far as I’m aware.”

After Waugh’s comments were published, LIV officials told Sports Illustrated that they disputed Waugh’s assertion that LIV had not responded to the OWGR questions.

“At the end of April, we received a letter from OWGR which asked for us to further clarify some points that we have already addressed, as well as some additional queries they have pertaining to the financials of our business model. We have asked them to clarify why they need that information and they haven’t responded that email or our queries.

“We have also been categorical that we are willing to make adjustments, but to this point, they have not provided any direction. The last letter we received states they are still in ‘further deliberations’ regarding our application, with no clear path forward.”

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By Joel Beall
The USGA announced Tuesday that it will allow those who are competing in this week’s LIV Golf Invitational to play in next week’s U.S. Open.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has long promised that any tour member who competes in an event on the rival league would face suspension from the PGA Tour and possibly a lifetime ban, and the tour denied conflicting-event releases to all tour members who requested to compete in LIV Golf’s inaugural event in London. Likewise, the PGA of America has stood in solidarity with the tour, with PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh stating multiple times that those who lose their PGA Tour or DP World Tour memberships would be unable to compete at the PGA Championship or Ryder Cup.

Meanwhile, the USGA had been relatively quiet on the matter, issuing a statement last week to Golf Digest that it reserved the right “to review any competitor’s situation on a case-by-case basis” regarding possible action against LIV Golf associates. However, on Tuesday, the governing body said LIV Golf players can show up to the USGA’s flagship event at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

MORE: Tiger Woods decides not to play in the U.S. Open at Brookline

“We pride ourselves in being the most open championship in the world and the players who have earned the right to compete in this year’s championship, both via exemption and qualifying, will have the opportunity to do so,” read a statement. “Our field criteria were set prior to entries opening earlier this year and it’s not appropriate, nor fair to competitors, to change criteria once established.

“Regarding players who may choose to play in London this week, we simply asked ourselves this question—should a player who had earned his way into the 2022 U.S. Open, via our published field criteria, be pulled out of the field as a result of his decision to play in another event? And we ultimately decided that they should not.

“Our decision regarding our field for the 2022 U.S. Open should not be construed as the USGA supporting an alternative organizing entity, nor supportive of any individual player actions or comments. Rather, it is simply a response to whether or not the USGA views playing in an alternative event, without the consent of their home tour, an offense that should disqualify them for the U.S. Open.”

A number of LIV Golf players are eligible for next week’s event, including Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Martin Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace and Talor Gooch. In a statement announcing his return to golf with the LIV Golf series Monday, Mickelson said he still intends to play the majors, while Johnson said on Tuesday that he also plans to compete in the sport’s four biggest events.

The U.S. Open begins June 16. Jon Rahm is the defending champ.

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By Tod Leonard
Phil Mickelson has been out of the public eye since early February after his controversial comments about the Saudi-backed golf league were published. That doesn’t mean that he’s been isolated and out of touch.

Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America, said on the “5 Clubs Conversation” podcast this week that he’s had a “number” of talks with Mickelson over the last several weeks and that they will continue to do so as Mickelson’s possible defence of the PGA Championship title approaches in less than two weeks at Southern Hills in Tulsa. Mickelson is registered to play in the PGA, but has not yet said if he’s going to compete.

“I think he’s trying to figure out when the right time for him is,” Waugh told podcast host Gary Williams. “I think the game is trying to figure out the right time for him, too. How long is long enough? And is he ready mentally and physically to do it?”

It’s been often speculated of late about what Mickelson’s return to golf might look like from a media standpoint. If he decides to play in the PGA, would he conduct an interview with a handpicked entity away from the tournament, or simply face what figures to be a charged atmosphere in a press conference early in the week? He and Waugh have clearly talked about that.

“I hope what we can do is have that before the flag goes up,” Waugh said. “The idea is, if he does play, and if he’s able to and allowed to … he would certainly have to face the media. But I hope it’s Monday or Tuesday, and then once the flag goes up, it’s about the golf. … What we’re trying to do is deliver a major championship, not a circus. And so I would hope that he can avoid that, and everybody can avoid that. And we’re talking about golf shots instead of verbal gaffes once we get going.

“But there’s certainly, I think, part of his thinking is, ‘Am I ready to face that glare and have that conversation and have all the answers that everybody is going to be looking for? And if I do it that week, am I then able to compete on a major championship venue under that kind of pressure with everything going on?’ But we would do everything we could to make it happen either before our week or very early in the week.

.@Garywilliams1Up & @PGA CEO Seth Waugh discussed a lot of topics this week, including if their defending champ, @PhilMickelson, will be at Southern Hills and how to they hope the focus can be on the golf.

Watch Full: https://t.co/nhuMxsyPaM
Listen: https://t.co/XRs88ZRU6u pic.twitter.com/il53cauW1j

— 5 Clubs (@5ClubsGolf) May 4, 2022

“I’ve known Phil for 20-something years, and he’s a complicated guy with complicated thoughts and in a complicated situation,” Waugh said. “And so we’re all trying to figure out what’s best for him and frankly what’s best for the game and we’re going to keep having those conversations.”

On a personal level, Waugh expressed his sadness at the situation. Mickelson has admitted to working with the Saudis and Greg Norman to get the LIV Golf Invitational Series off the ground as a competitor to the PGA Tour. But he then complicated the situation with his incendiary comments about the Saudi government’s human rights history. Mickelson followed up with a statement that called the comments “reckless,” while saying he would be stepping away from the game. “I offended people, and I am deeply sorry for my choice of words,” Mickelson wrote. “I’m beyond disappointed and will make every effort to self-reflect and learn from this.”

“He’s been great for the game for a really long time and I do believe in redemption and I do believe that he can figure this out,” Waugh said. ”I think he’s got to decide what he wants to be. Does he want to be part of the ecosystem or change the ecosystem? And I think he’s kind of caught in between a little bit.”

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The post Phil Mickelson continues to discuss his PGA Championship options with game’s leadership appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
The 2020 PGA Championship will be held without fans, according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco city health officials approved plans to hold the PGA of America’s flagship event at TPC Harding Park, but due to California’s battle with the coronavirus pandemic, spectators will not be allowed on property.

PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh told Golf Digest in May that his organization was preparing for a tournament sans galleries.

“The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has been pretty vocal about his opinion on things,” Waugh told Golf Digest. “He’s basically saying no fans at any sporting event until phase four, which for them is where the vaccine is available, and the chances of that are, well, who knows. So we’re assuming no fans, but we’re still planning for both scenarios.

“They [Harding Park] want to have it, and so do we, but we only want to do something that’s in their best interest to be a good partner. And if for some reason something changes or they aren’t comfortable committing to doing it even without fans, then we’ll look to go somewhere else.”

Gov. Newsom has seesawed on the prospect of crowds at sporting events, expressing pessimism towards the idea in April but reversing course in late May. However, after initially containing the virus in spring, California has seen an uptick in positive COVID-19 cases since the state’s reopening phases. On Sunday the state reported +2,615 new cases … 700 more than Florida, second in the new-case category. Overall, only New York and New Jersey have more total reported cases than California.

The Chronicle reports an official announcement will come on Tuesday. As of writing, the PGA of America did not respond to a Golf Digest request for comment.

The 2020 PGA Championship is scheduled to begin Aug. 6. Brooks Koepka is the defending champ.

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By Dave Shedloski
Seth Waugh’s first thought when reached by telephone in Florida late last week was, reflexively, the hour of the day three time zones away. “Yeah, it’s around 8 o’clock out there, so we’d be on about our fifth tee time right about now. Kind of a shame to think about, but, obviously, nothing compared to the pain going on in the world,” the CEO of the PGA of America said.

“Out there” is San Francisco, where the 102nd PGA Championship was scheduled to begin Thursday at TPC Harding Park. Instead, the premier event of the PGA of America has been postponed to early August as part of a reconfigured 2020 professional golf calendar in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

August isn’t strange to the PGA Championship, having been contested in the eighth month of the calendar every year since 1972. At the behest of the PGA Tour, which wanted to realign its split-calendar season, the PGA agreed to push its major championship into May last year. Now it’s back to an Aug. 6 start date, and it’s set to be the first of three majors tentatively rescheduled for this year. (The Open Championship at Royal St. George’s has been cancelled.)

The PGA led off the majors season once before, in February 1971, at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., when a local boy named Jack Nicklaus won the second of his five PGA titles.

“We are excited to be the first major out, if things work out, but there is a lot of uncertainty,” Waugh said haltingly. “Obviously, a lot more important things going on. We can’t make any assumptions, really, so we are going about this looking at several different scenarios, and it probably won’t be until early summer until things become more clear.”

Amplifying the comments from earlier this week by Kerry Haigh, the chief championships officer for the PGA of America, who spoke to GolfChannel.com, Waugh said the PGA is considering four scenarios for the championship, with Plan B being a tournament without fans in attendance. Plan A, which was to proceed as normal with fans and corporate hospitality sales, already has been tossed out.

“The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has been pretty vocal about his opinion on things,” Waugh said. “He’s basically saying no fans at any sporting event until phase four, which for them is where the vaccine is available, and the chances of that are, well, who knows. So we’re assuming no fans, but we’re still planning for both scenarios.

“They [Harding Park] want to have it, and so do we, but we only want to do something that’s in their best interest to be a good partner. And if for some reason something changes or they aren’t comfortable committing to doing it even without fans, then we’ll look to go somewhere else.”

Going somewhere else is Plan C, and it sounds as if moving the PGA Championship to another venue at least has been discussed in more detail in the halls of PGA headquarters in recent days. Waugh said that several courses have reached out to the PGA with the offer of hosting the championship. “The game of golf is an amazing community,” he said.

Ultimately, he said, the PGA, should it have to be moved, would likely migrate to a venue familiar to its broadcast partner, CBS Sports. “Because you can’t just plop them down without the camera sites and tower placements and all of those kind of pre-tournament decisions already familiar to them,” Waugh said. “It has to be a kind of a pre-existing venue that CBS effectively has done in the past. And, obviously, we do own one golf course, so there’s a list of possibilities.”

The course that the PGA of America owns is Valhalla Golf Club, near Louisville, Ky. Valhalla, designed by Nicklaus, has hosted three PGA Championships, in 1996, 2000 and 2014, as well as the 2008 Ryder Cup.

As for major-calibre layouts on the CBS schedule, once you eliminate California contenders Riviera Country Club and Torrey Pines, the leaders would be Muirfield Village Golf Club, in Dublin, Ohio, and Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. It’s doubtful Muirfield Village, which has held a Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, would get the nod when its annual Memorial Tournament, hosted by Nicklaus, is rescheduled for July 16-19. Quail Hollow was the site of the 2017 PGA, won by Justin Thomas, and was just announced Thursday that it was being awarded the 2025 PGA Championship. The course wouldn’t require much extra effort to get into shape, because the Wells Fargo Championship that Quail Hollow was slated to host through May 3 was among the nine tournaments the PGA Tour was forced to cancel during the pandemic.

The preference, though, is to keep the PGA at Harding Park. It’s where Waugh and his organization wanted to be on Thursday. But August works—like it has for many years before.

“You think of the air times [on television] and the event becomes even that much more important, right?” Waugh asks wistfully. “People are hungry for content, and for viewers to be able to sit back on the East Coast and watch it in prime time, you know, it would be great for the PGA Championship and great for the sporting world, if you will. So we remain excited about it, and we remain hopeful. We are truly hopeful.”

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“Everyone wants fans to be there, but the question is does sport need the Ryder Cup and should the Ryder Cup take one for the team?” Harrington, a three-time major champion, told The Times.

“Would it be for the greater good of sport? It wouldn’t be in the Ryder Cup’s best interests, but it could be in the best interests of enough people who want to see a big sporting occasion on TV.”

The Ryder Cup is scheduled for Sept. 25-27 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. Unlike the four major championships—three of which have been moved to later dates, while the Open Championship has been cancelled for this year—the Cup has remained in its originally scheduled date despite the coronavirus pandemic.

The comments represent something of a departure from Harrington’s stance just a few weeks ago, when he told BBC Radio that there was virtually no chance of a Cup without fans.

“There’s no doubt that [the crowd] makes the tournament so much better,” Harrington said at that time. “I think the common consensus now is the Ryder Cup will not be played unless the fans are there.”

In his more recent interview with The Times, Harrington also seemed to roll back his initial suggestion for allowing each captain to pick all 12 players for his team, given the truncated nature of this golf season and its effect on the qualification process. He told The Times there is “no scenario” in which that happens.

What, then, could explain his reversals? Perhaps it’s the plight of the European Tour, which co-hosts the Ryder Cup along with the PGA of America and relies on the biennial event for a great deal of revenue. The Tour has not announced a formal plan for re-starting its schedule, and CEO Keith Pelley has warmed to players that the coronavirus pandemic will have a “profound impact on the tour financially.” A delay in the Ryder Cup schedule, and the potential revenue it brings in, could make matters even worse.

Last week, PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh acknowledged the possibility of staging the event without fans.

“We have begun to talk about whether you could create some virtual fan experience, and we’re going to try to be as creative as we can,” Waugh told WFAN. “It’s [still] to be determined, frankly, whether you could hold it without fans or not.”

Should the Ryder Cup go forward without fans, it would do so despite multiple star players (and likely Ryder Cup participants) speaking out against the idea.

“A Ryder Cup without fans, it’s not a Ryder Cup,” said World No. 1 Rory McIlroy last week in an Instagram Live session with TaylorMade. “For me, I’d much rather they delay it until 2021 than play it at Whistling Straits without fans.

“That’s from a European, going to America, knowing that I’m going to get abuse. Obviously it would be better for Europeans to play without fans because we wouldn’t deal with some of the stuff that you have to put up with, but at the same time, it wouldn’t be a great spectacle. There would be no atmosphere. So if it came to whether they had to choose between not playing the Ryder Cup or playing it without fans, I would say just delay it a year.”

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By Daniel Rapaport
Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America, believes a PGA Championship without fans is still better than no PGA Championship at all.

Waugh appeared on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio Tuesday morning to discuss plans for the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, which was originally set for May but has been rescheduled to Aug. 6-9 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He remains optimistic that Harding Park will be able to host a “fairly normal” championship in August, but acknowledged the possibility that plans could change, noting that the association is working on contingencies if needed.

.@PGA CEO Seth Waugh currently has 3 plans for the @PGAChampionship scheduled August 6th-9th at @TPCHardingPark:

Plan A) Hold it as normal with fans
Plan B) Hold it as normal without fans
Plan C) Stage it at another site pic.twitter.com/uc6CeT5vPf

— SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) April 14, 2020

“If the safest and/or the only way to [hold the PGA] is to do it without fans, we’re fully prepared to do that,” Waugh said. “We believe that having it as a television event is worth doing regardless of whether there’s fans there or not.

“Obviously that’ll change the experience, but we think the world is starved for entertainment—particularly in sports—and we think golf has the unique ability to be first out among sports in that we’re played over a couple hundred acres.”

Hours after the Waugh interview, comments by California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday afternoon seemed to dampen the likelihood of fans being in attendance at Harding Park. Addressing a reporter’s question about when people in the state might be able to gather again in larger groups, Newsom said, “The prospects of mass gatherings is negligible at best until we get herd immunity, and until we get to a vaccine. Large-scale gatherings that bring in hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of strangers … is not in the cards based on our current guidelines and current expectations.”

The governor added that medical breakthroughs could change the situation, but, “When you suggest June, July and August, that is unlikely.”

Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home edict on March 19, and most golf courses in California remain closed.

After news broke that the NFL planned to play its season as scheduled, Newsom said he “doesn’t anticipate” that happening in California.

Understanding the changing nature of the pandemic and its impact on different communities, Waugh acknowledged the potential that the PGA Championship could need to change its date again, and even its location.

“If California or San Francisco does not believe they can hold it, we’d have to figure out a drop-dead date on that and figure out if there is somewhere in the country that could hold it,” Waugh said.

As to a fan-free, social-distancing-friendly championship at Harding Park, Waugh said discussions have begun as to what that could look like. He laid out a scenario in which 1,000 or so people are allowed on the property, and suggested testing those on the grounds to prevent the spread of the disease.

The PGA of America was one of seven governing bodies that released a joint statement last week outlining a potential new schedule for professional golf. Like the PGA Championship, both the U.S. Open (now set for Sept. 17-20) and the Masters (Nov. 6-9) have been moved to a later date. The Open Championship has been cancelled.

The PGA Tour is still determining when it will resume its season. Currently, the Charles Schwab Challenge is the first scheduled tournament, slotted in its original mid-May date, but sources tell Golf Digest the tour is likely to restart in mid-June.

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“Yeah, it is different,” Justin Rose said. “Different for sure.”

This year’s PGA Championship isn’t the first to be played in May. That happened more than 80 years ago, in 1937 when Denny Shute successfully defended his title by beating Jug McSpaden in 37 holes at Pittsburgh Field Club in the then match-play tournament.

Three more times the PGA would be held in the calendar’s fifth month, the last in 1949. It wasn’t until 1972 that the PGA of America eventually settled into an August date for the championship (won that year by Gary Player at Oakland Hills outside Detroit), where it remained until a larger revamping of the PGA Tour schedule this year, which included ending the season in August and returning the Players Championship to March and moving the PGA to the second major of the calendar year.

So what to make of the PGA’s move to May?

Let’s start with how it impacts the way players prepare for the tournament itself. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson both showed up a week early at Bethpage Black, if that’s any indication. Save for the odd trip to a unfamiliar venue, that kind of prep for the PGA Championship was previously rare for the game’s top players, especially with a World Golf Championship event scheduled the week prior for the last several years the PGA was in August along with a crush of other big tournaments after.

“It’s not like before, when the PGA just sort of happened to be after the Open,” Rickie Fowler said.

Indeed. The new schedule has caused several players to alter preparations for the championship.

Take Rose. Following a stretch that included two wins, two runners-up and two third-place finishes in a 10-tournament span to climb to No. 1 in the world, he took a five-week break early in 2019 to re-energize. He came out flat during the Florida swing, though, and ended up missing the cut at the Masters for the first time in his career.

“I think I got my preparation a little bit wrong,” he said. “I did something different this year, I went to Sage Valley and practiced there for three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Went and played nine holes at Augusta on Sunday evening. I think it all felt like it was a really long run-up.”

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Rose took a new approach to the major season entering the Masters, but his first career missed cut at Augusta National had him rethinking his plan.

Rose added that he initially looked at this year’s majors in 10-day blocks, with the plan of arriving a few days before tournament week began and working his way into the flow of the week. But when that didn’t pan out at the Masters, it was time to reconsider. His plan for Bethpage: Arrive in the middle of this week before returning home to the Bahamas and then back to New York once the tournament rolls into town, something he wouldn’t have been able to do a year ago when the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational took place the week prior.

“I think the flow of the run-up this year, the preparation didn’t really click,” Rose said. “Because of that, you know, ultimately kind of burned out a little bit too quick. … I think my preparation going into the PGA has changed because of the run-up into Augusta.”

He’s not the only one making adjustments because of the new schedule.

Absent from last week’s Wells Fargo Championship was Woods, who has rarely missed the event when healthy. But winning the Masters for his 15th career major and first in 11 years left the 43-year-old exhausted, physically and mentally. With just four weeks between majors, he didn’t have adequate time to reflect and rest. Skipping Quail Hollow means that he’ll arrive at the PGA having not teed it up between majors for just the seventh time in his career.

There are others following suit, too.

Justin Thomas, who won the PGA two years ago at Quail Hollow, also took a cue from Woods. He pulled out of the Wells Fargo as a precaution because of a wrist injury and isn’t teeing it up between majors, either. Ditto seventh-ranked Bryson DeChambeau.

World No. 1 Dustin Johnson hasn’t played since the week after the Masters, at the RBC Heritage, where he had a chance to win going into Sunday until shooting 77 in the final round. Same for Francesco Molinari and Xander Schauffele, neither of whom have played a tournament since that week in Hilton Head.

With a major every four weeks, instead of the two-month gap that previously existed between the Masters and the second major of the year (the U.S. Open), players are attempting to find the proper balance between recharging and playing.

Last year, Fowler was battling an oblique strain during the PGA, a product of a lot of wear and tear in a short time, he said. The right amount of rest, and reps, he said, is something he is cognizant of this year, which is why he has only played once since the Masters.

Not everyone has scaled back, though.

Defending PGA champion Brooks Koepka is playing the week before the PGA, and he played in New Orleans two weeks after the Masters. The 28-year-old prefers it this way.

“I like the fact that everything is so congested, or feels that way, from the Players in March to basically when the Open is done in July,” he said. “You’ve seen guys get hot, and they go for four months where they just play some incredible golf, and hopefully I can set myself up to do that.”

Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
Koepka likes the tight schedule of majors, thinking that if you can get hot during that time you can walk away with some hardware.

Koepka’s off to a good start. He finished in a tie for second at Augusta National.

Similarly, Rose and Rory McIlroy have played just once between majors. Jason Day, on the other hand, played twice, in New Orleans and at Quail Hollow.

“It’s definitely not glory’s last shot anymore,” Day said, a reference to a former tagline when the PGA was the last of the year’s four majors. “But I like how kind of bunched they are because you’re not taking time off with regards to taking two or three weeks off, unless you’re Tiger, but I’m able to play a lot more and actually kind of hopefully play my way into [playing well].”

There are other differences, too. Notably, the weather and course conditions.

When Bethpage Black hosted the U.S. Open in 2002 and 2009, the rough was notoriously thick and long, a product of the USGA setting up the course but also the time of year. Cooler conditions in the northeast haven’t allowed for as much rough to grow in just yet.

“The PGA isn’t going to have as much control over how the course can play,” Fowler said. “We might not have warm temperatures. It could feel more like a British Open versus a typically hot PGA Championship.”

Then there’s what no one could have predicted when the PGA Championship announced two years ago that it was moving to May: Tiger winning the Masters the month before the PGA’s first year with the new date.

Instead of having to wait two months to see Woods try to win another major, fans only have to wait one. And the PGA is the beneficiary.

“Who could have ever forecast that the PGA Championship would walk into Year One of this coming on the heels of one of the greatest moments in the history of the sport?” said CBS’ Jim Nantz, who will call the event for the network. “So the PGA Championship definitely hit the lottery with the move in 2019.”

The new PGA of America CEO, Seth Waugh, couldn’t agree more.

“We were very excited about the May change before Tiger made his fireworks in Georgia in the sense that we think it’s just a better cadence for the whole season, as well as for ourselves,” Waugh said recently. “We really look forward to every year having the same momentum, or I don’t know if we could have the same momentum and count on him [Woods] forever, but that momentum from the Masters into the PGA is extraordinary.”

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By Joel Beall
Following months of speculation, the PGA of America officially announced its headquarters are relocating to Frisco, Texas. The organisation, currently based in Palm Beach Country, Florida, will anchor a 600-acre, mixed-use development.

“Our move to Frisco will be transcendent for the PGA of America,” Seth Waugh, CEO of the PGA of America, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Everything great starts with a dream. This is the beginning of a bold, new journey as we bring together world-class partners in a world-class location—to deliver innovative and differentiated experiences for our nearly 29,000 PGA Golf Professionals, golfers of all abilities and our staff.”

As outlined in the initial reports, the new headquarters will have two championship courses. Under the PGA of America’s agreement with the Frisco City Council, the PGA will bring two PGA Championships, two KPMG Women’s PGA Championships and, potentially, a Ryder Cup to the site. The golf course is expected to open in the summer of 2022.

Other parts of the development will feature a short course and practice area, a clubhouse, Class AA office space, a 500-room Omni resort and 127,000-square-foot conference center, a retail village, and a park.

The PGA of America estimates the project will have an initial public-private $520 million investment. The PGA of America will invest $30 million to build its 100,000-square-foot global headquarters and education facility. Omni Stillwater Woods, a joint venture led by Omni Hotels & Resorts with Stillwater Capital and Woods Capital, is expected to pour in $455 million for land, construction, retail space and the golf courses.

The initial 25-year agreement calls for the land and conference center to be publicly owned by the City of Frisco and operated by OSW, which will pay $100,000 a year in rent to the city. The golf courses, clubhouse, practice areas and associated public facilities will be owned by the city, with the golf facilities open to local high school golfers.

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