The Pebble Beach Pro-Am will become a “signature” event on the 2024 US PGA Tour schedule released despite their merger framework agreement with LIV Golf remaining unresolved.
For the first time since 2012, the PGA Tour announced a calendar-year schedule with 36 tournaments. In the just-ended 2023 regular season, there were eight “signature events,” which were called “designated events.”
Top players like Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm had to play in the special events or lose bonus money. This means that many of golf’s top-ranked stars will face off at events other than the major championships throughout the season.
Even though the controversial plan to merge was announced in June, there was no sign of LIV Golf events in next year’s schedule.
After Tiger Woods joined, the PGA Policy Board now has a majority of players. Any agreement must be approved by the end of the year or the deal with the Saudi-backed upstart circuit could fall through.
The Phoenix Open will be replaced by the Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the list of PGA signature events. These events have higher prize money and smaller fields than regular PGA events. There will be some changes. For example, some tournaments won’t have cuts, while others will do so after 36 holes.
The Sentry, which used to be called the Tournament of Champions, will be the first signature event in Hawaii in the first week of January. Pebble Beach will be the second signature event in early February.
In a change to the Pro-Am format, amateurs will play with pros for the first two rounds at Pebble Beach, but only pros will play in the last two rounds.
The Genesis Invitational at Riviera, which Woods hosts in February, the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in March, the Heritage the week after the Masters in April, the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow two weeks before the PGA Championship, the Memorial the week before the US Open in June, and the Travellers Championship the week after the US Open are also big events.
At the Genesis, Palmer, and Memorial events, the top 50 players and ties, or anyone within 10 strokes of the leader, will be eliminated after 36 holes. The winners will get 20% of the total prize money, up from 18% in other signature events.
The Masters will be held April 11–14, 2019, at Augusta National. The PGA Championship will be held May 16–19, 2019, at Valhalla. The US Open will be held June 13–16, 2019, at Pinehurst. The British Open will be held July 18–21, 2019, at Royal Troon.
The Paris Olympic Golf will be held in early August. The PGA Tour season will end on August 8–11 at the Wyndham Championship. This will set up the FedEx Cup playoffs at the St. Jude Championship in Memphis, the BMW Championship at Castle Pines in Colorado, and the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
The 125 players for the 2025 PGA season will be set after the Fall 2024 schedule comes out.
“We are excited about the roll-out of the PGA Tour’s reimagined schedule and what the season will offer to our fans: a January start with stars competing head-to-head more often, alongside the weekly drama of life-altering moments and the emergence of new stars,” said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
For signature events other than the first one of the season, the expected number of players is between 70 and 80. This includes the top 50 players from the previous season’s standings and 15 members who can play their way into the events.
