
Imago
Golfer silhouette swinging at sunset design background, Golfer silhouette swinging at sunset design background

Imago
Golfer silhouette swinging at sunset design background, Golfer silhouette swinging at sunset design background
No one is happy with the PGA Tour’s 16-week schedule, created by crunching major championships and signature events in congested windows. To make things worse, all four majors are expected to be completed in just four months: the Masters 4-11th April, 2027; the PGA 17-23rd May, 2027; the U.S. Open 13-20th June, 2027; and The Open July 11-20, 2027. Jack Nicklaus, Rory McIlroy, Fitzpatrick, and others have criticized the tight schedule. Now, Padraig Harrington has joined the list. Speaking to bunkered.co.uk at Gleneagles, ahead of the ISPS Handa Senior Open, he gave the Tour a piece of his mind, adding that the men’s calendar is “way too condensed.”
“It’s ridiculous that we’re waiting until April for the next major. The Open gets no benefit out of being the fourth major of the year. They don’t play the three major champions together; it’s not known as the last chance.
“I grew up and played in the PGA Championship at the end of August, when it was the last chance to win a major. You’ve got the three major champions playing together, sweltering hot. That’s what we think of the PGA. It’s a big gap, it’s too long, definitely too long between The Open and The Masters. And there’s no benefit for The Open, whereas there is for the PGA.”
Today’s 15-week major window is recent; until 2019, the PGA Championship anchored August. From 1969 to 2018, every PGA Championship was staged in August. There were a few exceptions, though. This created a slower build through the season, and it did help golfers.
The reason for this change was to avoid conflict with the NFL and summer Olympics. However, not everyone was a strong supporter of this change. For instance, speaking at The Open 2019, Justin Rose said that the new schedule was “too condensed.”
At the 2019 Omega European Masters, Rory McIlroy raised the same concern.
“If [golf’s majors] are spaced so closely together, will fans only care from the second week of April to the third week in July?”
Nicklaus also said that if a golfer is struggling with an injury, the next major is too close to get enough rest and be back.
Harrington’s solution: move the PGA Championship back to August. That’s the only solution he could think of to cope with the major schedule issue.
The Irishman’s major resume gives the criticism real authority. He is a three-time major champion, with back-to-back Open Championship titles in 2007 and 2008. Besides that, he won the 2008 PGA Championship and has posted strong Masters and U.S. Open finishes in his career.
However, earlier this month at The Open, he struggled. His two double bogeys and six bogeys in the opening round didn’t allow him to make the cut. After the first two rounds of 80 and 69, he finished nine over par and missed the cut by a huge margin. His story at the Genesis Scottish Open and the U.S. Open was the same this year.
But while he is struggling on the PGA Tour, things are the opposite on the senior circuit: 8 cuts made in 8 starts, a win at the U.S. Senior Open Championship, 2 runner-ups, and 7 top-25 finishes on the PGA Tour Champions this year.
This week, he will bid to defend his ISPS HANDA Senior Open title, which he won last year, carding rounds of 67-65-65-67. He admitted that he struggled a bit in the last two weeks playing on the PGA Tour. But he thinks that he has worked it through and is “in decent form now.”
Written by
Edited by

Abhimanyu Gupta


