For years, it wasn’t uncommon for players lower on the priority list to bounce back and forth between the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour.
To get an idea of how much has changed, consider Australia’s Harrison Endicott.
Endicott lost his PGA Tour card, but got it back with a win over Q School, which offered just five cards. He is currently scheduled to play two tours over four consecutive weeks, covering just 8,000 miles.
Spent two weeks in California on the PGA Tour. Spent two weeks in the Middle East on a European tour.
Endicott is one of the players taking advantage of a partnership with the European Tour that gives up to five spots to players who finish 126th to top 200 in the FedEx Cup.
Only 19 of the 30 Korn Ferry Tour alumni have qualified for the Sony Open, where normally all of them would. Endicott played at the American Express last week, but his spot in the 156-man field at the Farmers Insurance Open was not confirmed until the weekend.
“This is a very new system that the Tour has never faced before. Everything is up in the air,” Endicott said.
The new system is eight distinctive events with limited fields, primarily for the top 50 finishers in the FedEx Cup. What is uncertain is where else they will play and how much room is left for everyone else.
Based on several conversations with players and tour officials, Endicott said that because the top 50 is so important, these players should play more often on the West Coast to have the best chance of staying in the top 50. I think I’m playing a game.
“I think it bleeds as the season goes on,” Endicott said. “Once we get through the early stretch, I think you’ll see the field roster get deeper. I’m right on that line. So this year on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.”
Ryan Palmer, Matthias Schwab, Can Sung and Dylan Frittelli also competed in the Bahrain Championship. Frittelli has already used the exemption to play in a European Tour event in South Africa, while Schwab, Can and Frittelli will play in Ras Al Khaimah this week.
Traveling is nothing new to Endicott, a charming 27-year-old from Sydney. In his first year as a professional, he split his time between his PGA Tour of Australia, his European Tour, and his PGA Tour of Latin America.
“I had quite a frequent flyer account,” he said.
Endicott, on the other hand, is not one to panic. He will have the Mexican Open and the beginning of the Florida Swing. There will also be opposite field events, and he thinks there will be more room in the field for Korn Ferry and Q School alumni as the FedEx Cup ranks move up.
“Now that it’s been a year and I’m seeing how everything goes, the panic has subsided a lot. I’m not as worried as I was last year,” said Endicott, a 2023 PGA Tour rookie.
elevator rankin
Judy Rankin was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame for her play on the LPGA Tour. Her second career was in television, and Rankin received her PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in the Journalism category.
She is the 33rd recipient and the first woman to receive this award from the PGA of America.
Rankin, the first woman to earn more than $100,000 in LPGA earnings and a 26-time winner, began her career as a broadcaster in 1984.
“Judy has provided insightful commentary as a broadcaster for nearly 40 years following a remarkable playing career,” said PGA President John Lindert. “She paved the way for countless women to follow in her footsteps and had a lasting impact on the broadcasting industry.”
Rankin, who joined ABC Sports, became the first woman to broadcast full-time on a men’s event.
“There are so many women being accepted into golf and men’s golf today, and there’s a certain sense of satisfaction in how good they are,” Rankin said.
Rankin retired from full-time work in 2022, but returned for special occasions such as the Solheim Cup.
“Honestly, I’m a little overwhelmed that it’s for journalism,” Rankin said. “It feels great to feel like I did something a little more meaningful than just playing a game. It feels great to have people think that what I’ve been doing over the years has some journalistic value. I’m truly honored.”
She will be honored at the Golf Writers of America Annual Banquet on April 10 in Augusta, Georgia.
her putt training
Missed putts were one of the struggles Rose Chan had last summer after a great start to her professional career.
It turns out it’s not a metaphor.
“Physically I lost my putter,” Chan said at last week’s Tournament of Champions.
She was on a train in London on her way to the Women’s British Open when her father took her putter out of her golf bag and accidentally left it on the train.
“The specs were wrong, the putter was an inch shorter, the shaft was wrong, the weight was all wrong, so I couldn’t putt,” Zhang said. “So I had no idea where Pat was going to go.”
Now she has time to bag a new putter and is slowly starting to get used to it.
Zhang has no idea where her original putter is.
“If it’s not on eBay, it’s probably in someone else’s hands,” she said.
family problems
JT Poston has played in three consecutive tournaments since the start of the year and is currently taking one week off.
It’s not that long. His schedule calls for him to play nine of his first 11 weeks in order to work on golf as much as possible. His wife is expecting their first child in March, and the due date is the week of the Valspar Championship (one week after The Players).
“She was tested at the British Open, but the first thing I noticed was what week it was,” Poston said. “She knew it would be around Augusta week.”
The Masters is three weeks from the scheduled date.
Adam Schenk knows that feeling all too well. With his wife giving birth in April, he played 10 consecutive weeks until the start of the 2023 season. Schenck went on to have his best season, reaching his first Tour Championship.
Tournament overview
The JM Eagle LA Championship, to be held April 25-28 in Los Angeles, may have one perk in attracting a strong LPGA field. Tournament sponsors will provide free Hollywood hotel rooms for all 144 players, as well as VIP shuttle service to Wilshire’s Country Club.
Meanwhile, the World Champions Cup had such a strong debut in December that it has agreed to return to The Concession in Bradenton, Florida in 2024, 2025 and 2028. He has two years left to prepare for a unique try-match against the United States. , European and international teams playing nine-hole matches — would like to go overseas.
In other news, Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational changes name. The new name for the LPGA team event in Michigan will simply be the “Dow Championship.”
The good news for Asian golfers is that the R&A is offering 3 British Open spots to leading players for the Malaysian Open (February 15-18), 3 spots to players for the Mizuno Open (May 23-26), and The idea is to give two spots to the contestants. at the Korean Open (June 20-23).
The last word
“I’ve never played with him before. I think it probably would have been better in the first practice round.” — Justin Thomas on The American Express in the final round against Alabama sophomore Nick Dunlap Talk about play. Dunlap became the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour in 33 years.
Agency via Xinhua News Agency