( another in the long a** series of posts )
Besides managing to look good in white on the golf course, and winning TPC last weekend, here is another interesting fact about Henrik Stenson. He is not a PGA Tour Member.
And does this matter?
Obviously not much to Mr. Stenson or he would be a PGA Tour Member.
At this point I think it would be helpful to go over the Golf Organizations organization chart. I would imagine there are a lot of you reading this who just rolled your eyes and thought ‘Oh please. Not another organization chart’. I understand. Really truly I do. I too am a member of corporate America. Where a new organization chart shows up weekly, and merely involves the re-arranging of some Chiefs, and all us Indians end up doing the same thing, with perhaps a different dotted line here or there.
But with all the money and TV time involved I really think it helps to understand how all the Golf organizations relate to each other.
In the beginning there was The Royal and Ancient. As noted in the previous post the Royal and Ancient established the first 13 official rules of the game. The Royal and Ancient basically ruled over golf, until it came to America. In 1894 ( more or less, some history here not worth going into ) the United States Golf Association (USGA) was formed as the ruling body over golf in America. In 2004 the Royal And Ancient broke into The Royal And Ancient, and The R&A, with The R&A taking over the governance ( ruling ) authority of The Royal and Ancient. So at the moment there are 2 ruling bodies in golf. The USGA over the U.S. and Mexico, and The R&A over most of the rest of the world. Needless to say they tend to consult and collaborate quite a bit. The thing to note about these two groups is that, while you can belong to either ( and most Golfers to one or the other ) they are really governing bodies, not player associations. The USGA stages the U.S. Open each year, which is the 2nd of the 4 majors played ( the first being The Masters ). The R&A administers The Open ( The British Open to non-Golfers ) which is the 3rd major played each year.
Next up is the Professional Golfers Association ( PGA ) which was founded in 1916. PGA members are golf professionals, as opposed to professional golfers. These are the golf pros, assistant pros, and golf instructors at your local golf course. There are various criteria for belonging to the PGA. These involve things like hours spent teaching and time running a pro-shop. Nothing about tournaments or money won. These are the people who make a living at the business of golf. The PGA hosts the PGA Championship, which is the 4th major played each year.
There are actually many PGA’s around the world. The most notable for our purposes being the British PGA.
So to reacap: R&A-ruling body outside of US and Mexico. Administers The Open. USGA-ruling body in US and Mexico. Administers U.S Open. PGA-association of golf professionals in the U.S. Administers the PGA Championship.
And now we move on to The Tours. The PGA Tour is a separate entity from the PGA. A little more history we won’t get into here, but basically in 1968 profession golfers broke away from the PGA and formed their own association. So golf professionals belong to the PGA. Professional golfers belong to the PGA Tour. Got it? The PGA Tour organizes the majority of the week to week tournaments that make up the golf season. It does NOT have anything to do with the 4 majors, or the 4 World Golf Championship ( which we will get to ) tournaments. The PGA Tour is responsible for TPC ( which they would like to be a major, but no one else will go along. Which was discussed in a previous TPC post ), and The FedEx Cup ( the ongoing saga of which has also been discussed in previous posts ).
The PGA Tour is the organization to which Mr. Stenson does NOT belong. He does belong to The PGA European Tour. Which has a history similar to that of the PGA Tour. In the 1970’s the British professional golfers broke from the British PGA and formed their own tour organization, which became the independent PGA European Tour in 1984. The European Tour has similar tournament responsibilities to the PGA Tour. However their responsibilities are world wide. The Dubai and Thailand tournaments that Tiger plays in every year? Part of the European tour. There is also a Japan Golf Tour, the PGA Tour of Australasia, and the Southern Africa Tour.
You can only belong to one Tour. So you can belong to either the PGA Tour or the European Tour. You can’t belong to both. Being a Swede, Mr. Stenson began his career as a member of the European Tour, and has elected to stay a member of that tour.
And why do you even need to belong to a Tour in the first place? Basically you can’t play in any Tour administered event unless you are a member of that Tour. And most tournaments, here or in Europe/The rest of the World, are administered by one of the two big Tours – the PGA and the European. The glaring exceptions to that of course being all 4 majors. None of those are administered by a Tour. Assuming you qualify for any of the majors, you can play in them without being a member of any Tour.
How did Mr. Stenson end up playing in TPC, which is the flagship event of the PGA Tour? He met other qualifying requirements. In particular, when you have a big tournament you want the big players. So TPC invites the top 50 players in the world, and Mr. Stenson happens to be part of that group.
There is a way you can play in a Tour administered event without being a member of the Tour, and that is through a sponsors exemption. Each player can use up to 6 sponsors exemptions to play in tournaments on the PGA Tour. There is a little catch to that. You have to receive permission from your Tour to play in a non-Tour event during a week when there is a Tour event. Which is basically every week except for the weeks of the 4 majors. Considering that America is where the money is, players on the European Tour generally don’t have a problem getting permission to play in PGA Tour events. However PGA Tour players had a heck of a time getting permission to play in non-PGA Tour events. The PGA, somewhat understandably, wanted to keep it’s players in America to boost it’s TV ratings. Then along came Tiger. Who wanted to play in Dubai, and Thailand, and a few other places on the European Tour. And of course Tiger got what Tiger wanted, and in the process made it much easier for everyone else to get permission to play in non-PGA Tour events.
As an aside here, as was noted in a previous post, John Daly has been playing quite a lot on the European Tour. John can do this because he was suspended from the PGA Tour for 50 days. Which means for 50 days he is not bound by their rules, and can play in as many tournaments as he wants ( or qualifies for ) without getting permission.
Now, about the World Golf Championship. This was started in 1999 by the International Federation of PGA Tours. It was initially an attempt to create a sort of World Tour. Which, at least so far, hasn’t materialized. The WGC currently consists of 4 tournaments ( the 4th having been added just this year. ). Any player on any of the Tours that are part of the Federation can play in any of the 4 WGC events.
So to get back to Mr. Stenson. And, incidentally, Sergio Garcia, who is also a member of the European Tour. He can play in all 4 majors, all 4 WGC events, and up to 6 PGA events on sponsors exemptions. And as long as he keeps playing well and stays in the top 50 players world wide, he can play in TPC. That’s 15 tournaments. He can also play in any European Tour event of course. Which makes for a pretty full season of golf. All of which he accomplishes quite nicely without being a member of the PGA Tour.
Why would he maybe want to switch allegiances and join the PGA Tour? Money and fame. There is more money on the PGA, and the PGA is the prestige Tour. There is also the whole FedEx thing. You only get FedEx points if you are a member of the PGA Tour. But realistically speaking, Mr. Stenson and Sergio, have managed to get quite a lot of money and fame without being PGA Tour members. And they can play close to home in European Tour events without having to get permission. And as for the FedEx points, well, the jury is still out on relevance of the whole FedEx thing anyway.
‘Okay’ ( I can hear you say) ‘TGW, but what about the LPGA, the Nationwide Tour, the Futures Tour and, above all of course, the Hooters Tour? Huh? What about those?’
To which I reply, ‘Later. This post is already long a** enough.’