CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The P.G.A. Championship will move from August to May, starting in 2019, the P.G.A. of America announced on Tuesday.

Instead of being the final major of the year, the P.G.A. Championship will become the second, after the Masters in April. The United States Open is held in June, followed by the British Open in July.

The reintroduction of golf at the Olympics was a major reason for moving the P.G.A. Championship, said Pete Bevacqua, the chief executive of the P.G.A. of America.

Bevacqua, speaking at a joint news conference with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan at Quail Hollow Club, said it was important for his organization to seize the moment.</s>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The PGA Championship moving to May in 2019 will cause the biggest change to the golf schedule in more than a decade.

Still to be determined is just how much.

The PGA of America confirmed Tuesday that its major championship is leaving the mid-summer date it has had for some 50 years. It will be played a week after Mother’s Day, giving it a spot between the Masters and the U.S. Open.

Pete Bevacqua, the PGA of America’s chief executive, said the move would be good for the championship, the players and its association of club professionals.

“We feel May is a far more powerful date for us to contest our major championship,” Bevacqua said.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said The Players Championship would be returning to March, its traditional spot on the golf calendar, in 2019.

But that’s all he could say at the moment.

The Associated Press reported Monday that the tour wants to finish the FedEx Cup around Labor Day, before the NFL season begins. The PGA Championship shifting away from August allows that to happen, and the FedEx Cup playoffs are expected to have three events instead of four starting in 2019.

And while the changes give golf big events in every month from March through July, still to be determined is what PGA Tour events fall in around them.

“There are a number of dominos and there are a number of other decisions we need to make, and as you can imagine, there’s a fair amount of complexity within that and we have a number of constituents we have to work with,” Monahan said. “When we have more specifics, we’ll come back and make those announcements. We’re just not far enough along in our process to be able to say definitively where we are.”

The PGA Championship began its run of August dates in 1969, and so much has changed since then.

The Players Championship began in 1974, and it has become what PGA Tour players consider to be the fifth major. The PGA Tour added the Presidents Cup in 1994, giving Americans a team competition every year with the Ryder Cup. The World Golf Championships began in 1999 with three events featuring big prize money.

The biggest change was the FedEx Cup in 2007, which concluded with four playoff events just two weeks after the PGA Championship, offering a $10 million bonus to the winner. Following that was the PGA Tour’s move to a wraparound schedule (the new season starting in October), and then golf’s return to the Olympics in 2016.

Bevacqua said the PGA of America analyzed the move to May for some eight months.

“We come back to the unavoidable reality that the landscape in August is changing, and it’s changing because of the Olympics,” Bevacqua said. “It’s changing because of contemplated alterations to the FedEx Cup.”

Other changes were more immediate.

The European Tour’s flagship event — the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth — typically is played the last week in May. If it stayed there, that would mean one week after the PGA Championship and three weeks before the U.S. Open.

Just after a few hours before the PGA Tour and PGA of America signed their deals to move, the European Tour announced that it would move in 2019 to September, which tour chief Keith Pelley called a more favourable date.

“This is a new chapter for the event, but we expect similar interest in the autumn, as was shown historically by the World Match Play Championship when it was played at Wentworth Club at that time of the year,” Pelley said.

The 2019 PGA Championship is schedule for Bethpage Black on New York’s Long Island, with 2022 headed for Trump National in New Jersey and 2023 at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York. As for more northern sites, such as Hazeltine in Minnesota and Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, Bevacqua said, “We are taking nothing off the table at this point.”

The Senior PGA Championship will stay in May, played one week after the PGA Championship. He also said the Professional National Championship will move from June to April because the top 20 professionals qualify for the PGA Championship.</s>CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Players are allowed to wear shorts during practice rounds at the PGA Championship. That won’t be necessary in two years when it moves to May.

The PGA of America is moving its major championship to May for the first time in 70 years when it goes to Bethpage Black on New York’s Long Island in 2019 as part of a long-term plan that involves a major shift in the golf calendar, including The Players Championship going back to its March date, The Associated Press has learned.

Two officials involved in the discussions say the PGA of America and PGA Tour will discuss details of the move as early as Tuesday at Quail Hollow Club, site of this year’s PGA Championship. They spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the move has not been announced.

The change has been in the works for four years, one official said. The catalyst behind the movement was golf’s return to the Olympics, along with the PGA Tour’s desire to wrap up its FedEx Cup before the NFL begins.

The move to May also puts the PGA Championship in the middle of the major championship season — after the Masters, before the U.S. Open — instead of being stuck at the end in August when courses typically are softer because of the summer heat and sports fans have one eye turned toward football.

Still to be determined is the how the rest of the PGA Tour schedule is constricted to finish around Labor Day. One official said the playoff event in Boston is likely to go away after 2018. Another official said one plan is for the Greenbrier Classic, typically held in July, to move to the fall.

The PGA Championship has been in August since 1969 with two exceptions. Jack Nicklaus won in February 1971 when it was held at PGA National in South Florida, and last year it was held the final weekend in July at Baltusrol ahead of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The PGA is scheduled for Harding Park in San Francisco in 2020, so there was always the possibility of moving to May during the next Olympic year. However, that would mean the PGA gets bounced around the calendar every four years.

The PGA of America was interested in building continuity, and a move to May could energize what has been looked upon as the last of the four majors. That also would allow it to go to some areas that were deemed too hot for August, such as Texas, Florida and parts of the Southeast. It already has said the PGA Championship would return to Southern Hills in Tulsa before 2030. The last time it was held at Southern Hills, in 2007, temperatures topped 100 degrees.

The move also could serve as a boost to golf courses around the country — the PGA of America has some 27,000 golf professionals — going into the heart of the season.

 But it also eliminates other parts of the country from hosting the PGA.

One official said two traditional sites — Whistling Straits in Wisconsin and Hazeltine in Minnesota — would not be able to host the PGA Championship in May. Officials feel comfortable with the weather and agronomy for Bethpage Black, and they are hopeful for good weather in 2023 for Oak Hill in Rochester, New York.

The Players Championship, traditionally held in March two weeks before the Masters, moved to May in 2007 to get away from the biggest major of the year and create a sequence of big events through the summer.

By going back to March, and creating space for the PGA Championship in May, it allows the tour to end its season around Labor Day instead of late September when the NFL is in full swing, and it keeps a strong sequence of events leading into the FedEx Cup playoffs.

The PGA Championship celebrates its 100th anniversary next year, and it has a long history of moving around the calendar. The first one was played in October in New York. Since then, it has been held in every month except for January, March and April.

The last time it was played in May was 1949, when Sam Snead won at Hermitage Country Club in Virginia.</s>The PGA of America will announce this week that its flagship event, the PGA Championship, will move to May starting in 2019, according to a Monday report from the Associated Press.

This move was expected and allows the majors to stretch their legs a bit with the PGA Championship as the second major each season instead of the fourth. Rather than the last three majors be bunched up in a seven-week span, they will be spaced out more with the Masters in April, PGA Championship in May, U.S. Open in June and Open Championship in July.

It will also allow The Players Championship, which is currently held in May, to move back to March, giving the PGA Tour five straight months of huge tournaments preceding the FedEx Cup Playoffs. It also gives the PGA Tour a little bit of flexibility to shorten the season and have everything end before football stars around Labor Day.

It's a win-win all the way around, though the PGA of America does lose some of its ability to go to more northern courses that would potentially be too cold to host a tournament in May. Now, perhaps host locations can expand to California or even Texas.

This will be tested in Year 1 of the move as the PGA Championship will be held at Bethpage Black in New York, although that didn't seem to be much of an issue for Golf Digest's Ron Whitten, who tested the track in May of this year.

Ultimately, I think this will be seen as a great move by the PGA of America for the sport. The golf season (especially on the PGA Tour) is far too long and any tightening that can be accomplished should be done. It also provides some leniency in Olympic years so we don't get a situation like we did last year where the final three majors are played in a span of seven weeks.

A formal announcement of the move is expected by the PGA of America later this week at Quail Hollow.</s>CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - A much anticipated shift of the major golf calendar that would move the PGA Championship from its August slot to May is a done deal according to media reports but PGA officials were staying mum on the subject on Monday.

"We have no comment on that," a PGA of America spokesman told Reuters at Quail Hollow, site of the PGA Championship starting on Thursday. "We won't have anything to say on that before our news conference on Tuesday."

Pete Bevacqua, CEO of the PGA of America, and PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan will meet with reporters on Tuesday in an addition to the interview room schedule announced on Monday.

The Associated Press reported on Monday that two officials involved in the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the PGA of America and PGA Tour will discuss details of the 2019 move as early as Tuesday at Quail Hollow.

Under a proposed revised schedule, The Players Championship would move back to March, with the U.S. Masters leading off the series of majors in April followed by the PGA in May, the U.S. Open in June and the British Open in July.

Last month, on the eve of the British Open at Royal Birkdale, R&A CEO Martin Slumbers told reporters it made no difference to him if the British Open remained the third major of the year or became the fourth and last.

"I don't think the final decision has been taken yet on that," Slumbers said at the time. "I think from our perspective I don't really mind whether we're the third major or the fourth major. We try to do our very best with The Open Championship to make it as good as we possibly can do.

"I can absolutely understand some of the logic, and if it ends up as resulting in more people watching our game, then that's a great outcome."

Prior to last week's World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational, Sean McManus, Chairman of CBS Sports, said in a conference call that such a shift in the golf calendar would be welcomed by the U.S. TV networks.

McManus said it would complete the major golf season, including the FedExCup playoffs, before the start of the NFL.

"We love the PGA Championship in August, but we would certainly love the PGA Championship in May," McManus said.

The move could also ease scheduling conflicts around the Olympics, now that golf has joined the Games programme.</s>The PGA Championship will move from August to May, starting in 2019, the PGA of America announced on Tuesday.

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina: The PGA Championship will move from August to May, starting in 2019, the PGA of America announced on Tuesday.

PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua confirmed the news at a joint press conference with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan at Quail Hollow.

"The landscape of golf is changing," Bevacqua said, citing the reinclusion of golf in the Olympics as a major reason for the switch.

"We felt it was important as an organisation to seize this opportunity."

The switch will bring about a reshuffling of the order in which the four men's majors are held.

Instead of being the final major of the year, the PGA Championship will become the second of the season, after the April Masters.

The U.S. Open in June will be the third major, with the British Open in July concluding the majors schedule.

The PGA Championship has been held in August since 1972, except for last year, when it was played in July to accommodate golf's return to the Olympics.

Monahan also announced that the Players Championship would move from May to March.</s>CHARLOTTE: The PGA Championship will move from its typical August date on golf's global calendar to May starting in 2019 at Bethpage Black, PGA of America chief executive Pete Bevacqua announced on Tuesday (Aug 8).

The move comes after years of discussion about a switch, pushed by golf's return to the Olympics in 2016 that forced last year's event to be played only two weeks after the British Open and two weeks before the Olympic tournament in Rio.

In a related move, the US PGA Players Championship played at the TPC Sawgrass layout in Florida, will return to its March date after being played in May since 2007.

The announcement came two days before the start of the 99th PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

Bevacqua said the PGA of America had three major reasons to make the move, saying it was best for the event, the players and the sport.

"Our analysis began in 2013 and included an extensive list of factors, including having to shift the date every four years to accommodate the Olympic Games," Bevacqua said.

"In the end, we determined that playing the PGA Championship the week prior to Memorial Day in May, making it the second major championship of the golf calendar, will achieve those three objectives."

July's British Open will now become the final major championship of every season, with the Masters in early April, the PGA in late May, the US Open in June and then the British Open.

The PGA has been played in nine different months since its 1916 inception and has been the last major of the season from 1959 through this year except for a one-off move in 1971.

The 100th PGA Championship will be staged next August at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis as planned.

Bethpage Black will host the 101st edition from May 16-19 in 2019, the first PGA to be played in May since Sam Snead's triumph in 1949 at Richmond, Virginia.

"The golf calendar is dramatically different, especially in the latter portions of the schedule, than it was in the 1970s when our PGA Championship took up residence in August," Bevacqua said.

"We are excited about this move to May. It provides our PGA Championship a strong landing spot on the calendar and a consistent major-championship rhythm that golf fans can embrace."

The Players move back to mid-March as a prime tuneup for the Masters was welcomed by US PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.

"The changes we're unveiling today give significant flexibility to create a schedule including the FedExCup Playoffs that is in the best interests of players, fans, tournaments, communities and our partners, from start to finish," Monahan said.

The move will allow the US PGA to conclude its playoffs before the popular NFL and collegiate American football telecasts dominate US sports viewership in September.</s>The PGA Championship will officially move to May beginning with the 2019 tournament at Bethpage Black in New York, according to an Associated Press report.

The date switch has been rumored for months, and reportedly could be discussed by PGA of America officials this week at Quail Hollow. A move to May would also include The Players Championship shifting back to March, when the tournament was played prior to 2007. It could also impact the European Tour, which traditionally holds its flagship event, the BMW Championship, in mid-May.

PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua explained in June that the organization's analysis of a possible date change accelerated last year amid discussions with the PGA Tour.

"The world is changing around us with the Olympics, with the possible changes to the FedExCup. And then you start to think about a PGA Championship conducted in May," Bevacqua said. "What other parts of the country could that open up? Following the Masters and now being the second of the four majors instead of the fourth. A stronger television market."

Future PGA Championship venues include Bellerive (2018), Bethpage Black (2019), TPC Harding Park (2020), Kiawah Island (2021), Trump National Bedminster (2022) and Oak Hill (2023). Southern Hills, which last hosted the PGA in 2007, has also been promised as a host site sometime before 2030.</s>You could argue, and some will, that the news delivered this afternoon in the media center at Quail Hollow by two of the biggest bosses in golf is good for the game. Here, straight from the mouths of Pete Bevacqua of the PGA of America and Jay Monahan of the PGA Tour, is your new and improved golf schedule: March, the Players at TPC Sawgrass; April, the Masters; May, the PGA Championship; June, the U.S. Open; July, the British Open; August, the FedEx Cup events; September, the Ryder Cup in even-numbered years and the Presidents Cup in the odd ones.

You know — well, the whole world knows — what happens next, after some lucky soul hoists a FedEx check for $10 million, plus, plus. Hank Jr., heck, he's got a whole song about it: Are you ready for some football? Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday night. You know what September through the Super Bowl is like in your house? Multiply that by 100 million. The PGA Tour marketing department, counting eyeballs and every platform you ever heard of and some you haven't, got tired of competing with that juggernaut a long time ago.

This new schedule is good for the Players, back to March, when the wind is up and players and fans are eager for some meaningful golf. It's always good to go first — unless you're breaking bread with the wrong people — and now the PGA Tour's marquee event is back in the leadoff spot, on a course that is more interesting and alive in March than it ever was in May. It's good for the marketing people at FedEx, trying to get as much bang for their sponsorship money as possible. It's good for the British Open, now the last major of the year. When one of the R&A gents presents the new winner as the champion golfer of the year, there will be a certain finality to it. The claret jug becomes a fitting exclamation mark. Fewer August distractions for the (in all likelihood) three FedEx Cup series events. The Olympics, which over time could become the most meaningful event in all of golf — Olympic gold is worth a sum that cannot be calculated — is no longer a drag on the schedule for the game's bet players, or at least less of one. You can play the British Open in mid-July, take a long nap, then go play in the Olympics.

The Masters is the Masters and the U.S. Open is the U.S. Open — no need to worry about those two events. The event you might worry about in this scenario is the PGA Championship, a great and grand tournament that had an overwhelming sense of identity in the Walter Hagen era and even in the Ben Hogan era but in more recent decades has looked sort of like a junior version of the U.S. Open. Will inserting the PGA Championship in the fast eight or nine weeks between the Masters and the U.S. Open serve the event well?

Bevacqua sees that as a positive and maybe it is. He argues that a late May date will give the PGA of America a chance to bring the event to courses in Texas and the Carolinas and some other states that seldom see major championships. But the majors become the majors because of how the players feel about those four events deep in their guts. Everything, including TV ratings, flow from that. When the players live and die by what happens on the course — as you saw with Matt Kuchar and Jordan Spieth at Royal Birkdale — fan involvement gets intense. When the player's attitude is, Well, I got another one coming right up , something is lost. That's the difference between your every week PGA Tour golf and the four majors. What I love about the four majors is the incredible intensity that surrounds them. The players supply that. A marketing department can help. Superior TV coverage can help. But it starts with the players. The players responding to the course and its demands, the spoils, the history, the status a victory or even a high finish might promise.

Viewed in the broadest way imaginable, there probably wasn't much in the way of choice for the PGA of America here. The PGA Tour is golf's 800-pound gorilla. The Tour pretty much sets the schedule, because it controls the players. The players control the Tour, yes, but the Tour over the years has become like a locomotive with the players following it wherever it goes. Only Augusta National can dictate to the Tour, just as it dictates to CBS.

There will be other shoes to drop here, in the months and years to come. Will CBS keep the PGA Championship? Or will it go to NBC Sports, which had the Players when it was played in May? NBC lost the USGA deal but it is positioning itself to be the American network most committed to world golf. It already has the British Open, the Ryder Cup and golf at the Olympics. The PGA, as a May event and bringing players from all over the world together, would be a natural fit for the network. Maybe CBS would want the August FedEx events.

This deal that sounds so simple and this new schedule that sounds so elegant was years in the making. There's a reason for that. Golf, and golf-on-TV, is big business, and everybody wants their hands in the till. Maybe that matters to you but more likely you're like Junior and millions of others, you're ready for some golf and if the golf is good, that's even better.

Michael Bamberger may be reached at mbamberger0224@aol.com.</s>Recent form and first round tee times (AEST) of the seven Australians teeing up at the 99th US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

World No.7 finished 24th at last week's WGC-Bridgestone and hasn't won this year but boasts a 2015 win and a 2016 runner-up as well as another two top-10s at the PGA Championship.

After a solid putting display during a tie for 13th at the WGC-Bridgestone, worled No.17 Scott is confident of bettering his US PGA Championship record of a third place in 2006 among two top-fives and four top-10s from 16 starts.

Has been the form Australian in 2017 with a win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational among 12 top-25s from 20 starts this season and feels the design changes to host course Quail Hollow suit his eye.

The Brisbane youngster bagged a maiden US PGA Tour win in April but has missed four cuts from five events since and will look to his tie for 25th on debut at the US PGA Championship in 2015.

The 47-year-old Queenslander won the US PGA Tour event in Las Vegas in November but arrives at Quail Hollow coming off a 74th place at the 76-man WGC-Bridgestone last week.

The big-hitting Townsville native shot himself into contention with a Saturday 63 at WGC-Bridgestone last week but faded when playing in the penultimate group with eventual champion Hideki Matsuyama.

The US-based teaching pro was one of 20 to win entry from the PGA of America's club professionals championship last month in Oregon. It's only his second PGA Championship appearance after debuting in 2014.
In golf, the PGA of America and the PGA Tour jointly announce that the PGA Championship, currently the last of the four men's major championships to be held each year, will move from its current August date to May effective in 2019. In the same year, The Players Championship will move from May to March.