I realized that, while I gave you some tips on how to watch tournaments, I have neglected something. An explanation of tournaments themselves. The more you understand something the less bored you will get watching it. So here is TGW Tournament Primer. This is hardly the last word on the subject. There are many more rules and permutations than I have time for on this blog( or, quite frankly, care about ). You could have a blog on the intricacies of tournament rules and play, and never run out of something to say. But no one would read it. Not even Golfers. Anyway. Here are the basics.
First off I will mention the LPGA and the Senio.....uh, Champions tour, but most of this applies to the PGA ( Professional Golfers Association ) tour. This is because that is where the money and the TV time is. Here in the Golfing Household attention is paid to all of them, but even here most of the time is devoted to the PGA.
Tournament season begins the first full week of January and ends the last full week of October. There are tournaments played in November and December, but they are not part of the official 'tour'. November and December are called The Silly Season.
Obviously you can't play golf in Ohio in January. So the tour starts in Hawaii. It moves from there to California, then Florida. It stays in the South through the Masters, which is always the first full week of April. From there it moves through Texas. By then the rest of the country has warmed up, so it goes pretty much everywhere.
The LPGA and the Champions tours start a few weeks later. They basically go where ever the weather is warm and there is someone willing to put up the money to host a tournament.
The PGA will have a tournament every weekend January through October. There will be weeks where there is no tournament for the LPGA or the Champions tour.
There are 4 tournaments on the PGA and the LPGA which are referred to as 'The Majors'. For the PGA these are: The Masters, The Open( which is the British Open unless you live with A Golfer. For Golfers it is just The Open ), The US Open, and the PGA. There is also The Players Championship, which is sometimes referred to as the 5th Major. For the LPGA the majors are: The Nabisco( which every Golfer knows is really the Dinah Shore), the woman's US Open, the woman's British Open ( for the past 4 years anyway. There is some history here. It used to be the Du Maurier which is played in Canada. We won't go into all that here.), and the LPGA.
Most tournaments are played on the same course every year. But the Opens ( both ours and the Brit's ) and the PGA's ( men's and women's ) play on a rotating series of courses.
Golfers have to qualify in order to play on the tour. When you qualify you get your tour 'card'. Only those with a tour card can play in a tournament. Except for the Masters and the Opens. The Masters is invitational. Also all past winners can play. This means the field contains players who can't break 80, let alone have a chance of winning. But it is the Masters, so it has it's own set of rules. The Opens have their own set of qualifying tournaments. This is why they are called Opens. Theoretically any average Joe ( or Jane ) can play through the qualifying tournaments, get to the Open, play in the Open and win. And this has actually happened.
The PGA and LPGA control who plays in tournaments. There are many other rules and regulations about who can play in a tournament. Just because you have your card doesn't mean you get to play. But without your card you can't play. Unless you get an exemption.
The sponsor of each tournament is allowed exemptions. Meaning they can ask a certain number of players who may or may not have their card, or may not meet other qualifications, to play in the tournament. Before Tiger Woods got his card he played his first 7 PGA tournaments on sponsor exemptions. By the end of the 7th he had qualified for his card. Michelle Wie and Annika Sorenstam played in PGA ( men's ) tournaments on sponsor exemptions.
Tournaments generally start on Mondays. The players are allowed to play practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday. There is a pro/am ( professional/amateur. Meaning amateurs who know the right people, or pay a lot of money, get to play a round with one of the pros. ) on Wednesdays. PGA players are required to play in the pro/am in order to play in the tournament. Even Tiger Woods plays in the pro/am.
The official tournament rounds start on Thursday. The players have a round on Thursday and a round on Friday. They play in 3-somes. The organizers draw names to determine who plays with who. If your group has a Thursday morning tee time, they will have a Friday afternoon tee time. And vice versa.
After Friday's rounds are done there is a cut. The usual cut is the 70 lowest scores, plus ties ( this has changed slightly starting in 2008. Big controversy. 'Nother post). Everyone who doesn't make the cut is done for the weekend. You really want to make the cut, because only those players who make the cut get paid. The tournament purse is divided, on a percentage system based on the finish order, between all players who make the cut. Don't make the cut, don't get paid.
After the cut, the remaining players are paired off and given tee times according to their total scores from the two rounds. So the worst two scorers are paired together and they get the first tee time on Saturday. All the way up to the two players with the best total scores, who are given the last tee time. After Saturday's round the players are re-ranked based on total scores for all 3 rounds and re-paired. So on Sunday the two players with the worst overall scores have the first tee time. And the players with the best overall scores ( and, theoretically the best chance of winning the tournament ) have the final tee time.
There are a couple of tournaments that are 5 rounds, and the Masters determines it's cut a little differently, and there is one tournament that goes from Friday to Monday. But they are the odd men out. The majority of tournaments follow the above format.
And there you have it. Hopefully this helps cut down on the amount of caffeine it takes you to actually make it through one of these.
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