PGA C’ship moves to May in 2019

MOVING the PGA Championship from its typical August date to May starting in 2019 will help players and boost the event and the sport, PGA of America chief executive Pete Bevacqua said.

The schedule change, unveiled two days before the 99th PGA event is contested at Quail Hollow, comes after years of discussion and was pushed by golf ’s return to the Olympics in 2016, which compacts the current schedule every four years.

“It’s in the best interests of the PGA Championship,” Bevacqua said.

“We feel it’s in the best interests of the players around the world.

“For an organisation whose strategic mission is to grow this game, we feel May is a far more powerful date for us.”

In a related move, the US PGA Players Championship staged at the TPC Sawgrass layout in Florida will return to its March date after being played in May since 2007.

Bevacqua said the PGA of America had been working on the issue for four years to help boost the event, sport and player schedules.

“We come back to the unavoidable reality that the landscape in August is changing, and it’s changing because of the Olympics,” Bevacqua said.

July’s British Open will now become the final Major championship of every season, with the Masters in early April, the PGA in late May, the US Open in June and then the British Open. — AFP