MAKING SENSE OF NEW CANADIAN DATE

The reality of the new date for the RBC Canadian Open was also made clear with the release of the full schedule. While no doubt a better slot than right after the British, the tournament now falls in the middle of a five-week stretch — PGA Championship, Colonial, Memorial, Canadian Open, U.S. Open — that includes two majors. It will be less of a challenge to attract a top field to cross the border, but it will still be a challenge.

One of the reasons for all this upheaval is Tiger Woods. Or rather, the recent lack of Tiger Woods. In his long hiatus from relevance, the prominence that he gave to golf in the larger sporting landscape has waned, forcing the Tour to consider life without him. It’s a problem, as evidenced by the surge in television ratings this past spring when he suddenly played himself into contention. The FedEx Cup might have done well in September with Woods regularly competing in it, but the Tour honchos, wisely, are not taking that bet.

Instead, the whole of professional golf has been upended to try to find a way to make the title event of the sport’s single biggest corporate benefactor happy. No one particularly cared if golf had a playoff, but the Tour took a reported $35 million US from FedEx a decade ago and created one anyway. It didn’t take. There have been 11 FedEx champions since its inception, and only five of them have been awarded the PGA Tour Player of the Year. The players choose the winner of that award, and they care about major wins.

That isn’t about to change, no matter when the FedEx Cup is handed out.