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 unfortunately lost his PGA Tour card, but gamely got it back with a win over Q School, which only offered five cards. He currently has two tours scheduled for 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 200th 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 had 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. The uncertainty 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 more guys on the field list get even deeper. I’m on that line, so this year it’s going to be a mix of PGA Tour and DP World Tour. It will be a year.”
Ryan Palmer, Matthias Schwab, Sung Kang 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 participated in his PGA Tour of Australia, his Tour of Europe, 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 are field events on the other side. And he thinks there will be even more room for Korn Ferry and Q School graduates as the FedExCup standings 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.
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 be a full-time broadcaster for a men’s event.
“There are so many women being accepted into golf and men’s golf today and there’s a level 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 really good because I feel like I did something a little more meaningful than just playing a game. I’m glad they thought there was some journalistic value to what I’ve been doing for so many years. I’m truly honored.”
She will be honored at the Golf Writers of America Annual Banquet on April 10 in Augusta, Georgia.
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 then 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 the putter was going to go.”
Now she has time to bag her new putter and it’s slowly starting to roll.
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.
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.
___
AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf