PGA Championship will be moving to May

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The PGA Championship moving to May in 2019 will cause the biggest change to the golf schedule in more than a decade.

Still to be determined is just how much.

The PGA of America confirmed Tuesday that its major championship is leaving the mid-summer date it has had for some 50 years. It will be played a week after Mother’s Day, giving it a spot between the Masters and the U.S. Open.

Pete Bevacqua, the PGA of America’s chief executive, said the move would be good for the championship, the players and its association of club professionals.

“We feel May is a far more powerful date for us to contest our major championship,” Bevacqua said.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said The Players Championship would be returning to March, its traditional spot on the golf calendar, in 2019.

But that’s all he could say at the moment.

The Associated Press reported Monday that the tour wants to finish the FedEx Cup around Labor Day, before the NFL season begins. The PGA Championship shifting away from August allows that to happen, and the FedEx Cup playoffs are expected to have three events instead of four starting in 2019.

And while the changes give golf big events in every month from March through July, still to be determined is what PGA Tour events fall in around them, including Orlando’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.