The PGA Tour’s current season ends Aug. 27. The Ryder Cup starts a month later. And then the top 50 players in the FedEx Cup standings will not have to play again until the start of 2024 unless they want to add to their trophy case or bank account.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan doesn’t see many top players staying home all that time.
“I don’t think it’s realistic a player is going to the finish the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup and not play golf until January,” Monahan said last week at the Wells Fargo Championship.
The idea of a real offseason sounds good on paper. Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are among the golfers who have called for a shorter regular season over the years. In 2005, Woods was lobbying for a condensed schedule that would bring the best players together more often.
The FedEx Cup arrived in 2007, and Woods was true to his word. He didn’t play for 10 weeks, returning at his Target World Challenge in December. He won, prompting Scottish player Colin Montgomerie to say, “If he took a bloody year off, it would help — never mind 10 weeks.”