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David Taylor looks ahead to what should be a brilliant year

YOUR GOLFING GUIDE TO 2019 With a resurgent Tiger gunning for Majors, the Solheim Cup at Gleneagles and significant schedule changes, 2019 promises to be a cracker...

This year sees the biggest revamp of the golfing calendar for decades, with the most notable change being the USPGA, which moves from August to May for the first time in 70 years. The Players Championship is also being brought forward and will now be played in March. This has all been done to allow the Fedexcup Playoffs to switch to August to wrap things up before the American Football season starts.

These changes by the all-powerful PGA Tour have had major implications for the European Tour, which has had to have its own reshuffle in response. The biggest move has been the flagship BMW PGA Championship, which switches from May to September. The hope is that with the PGA Tour season done and dusted, a few more big names from both sides of the pond will be tempted.

This means the European Tour schedule from February to June looks a little bare, as chief executive Keith Pelley decided not to compete with the run of the Wgc-mexico Championship, the Players, the WGC-DELL Match Play, The Masters, the USPGA and the US Open.

The notable exceptions include the British Masters and the popular Made In Denmark, which will now take place in May. The Rolex Series will start with the Irish Open in July in the build-up to The Open.

All this should mean the top Europeans will be able to juggle their schedules a little better and hopefully attract more of them over for the high-profile end-of-season events. What this does highlight, however, is the continuing power the PGA Tour has over the game as a whole. Unfortunately for Pelley, it’s pretty clear who calls the shots.