The fall series of five more PGA Tour events to close out the 2009 year started off at The Turning Stone Resort Championship in Verona, New York this past week. The big and I mean really big game, that gets the year long hype and build up, The FedEx Cup ended two weeks ago. Many of the media and golf fans feel as though the 09 PGA Tour is over as that is the impression most of the PR has hyped it to be. Yes, it is pretty much over for Tiger and Phil and most of the guys who got to play in the Tour Championship and a shot at winning the FedEx Cup. But for the majority of card carrying PGA Tour members, the 09 season is not over. In fact it is crunch time, and the heat is turned up on the pressure cooker that is The Fall Series.
The issue creating the pressure for the PGA Tour Pros is keeping their fully exempt Tour status which goes to all players who finish on the PGA Tour Official Money list at 125 and lower. The next best deal is 126 to 150 gets what is called conditional status. They normally will get to play in around 20 events in 2010. This is OK, but with fewer tournaments to play in next year they will really have to rise and shine. So The Fall Series is the 'Battle for Survival,' to keep their Tour playing status and avoid going to the marathon that sometimes feels like the Roman Gladiators fighting to the death, Q School. Many in the sports world have called PGA Tour Q School one of the most pressure packed of all sports events.
The fall series will have a lot of players well inside the magic 125 safe number still playing because they need more MONEY. The need it because they want to get inside the magic number 70 on the 09 Official Money List or lower, which gets them automatic entry into all the Invitational tournaments that are prestigious and usually high dollar events. These include Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Classic, The Heritage at Harbour Town, The Colonial, and The Memorial.
Then there are the big prizes of getting into the top 50 to get a Master's Invite, and then lower to get a US Open and British open invite. Then there is always climbing up the world ranking. Climbing the ladder to inside the top 70 gets you into all the World Championships (match play is top 64), all of which have awesome purses with show up and finish guaranteed money.
Lastly, the big prize is there are 5 tournament that will have winners who will get really big winners checks and a trip to the SBS Championship (this all winners tournament used to be the Mercedes) to kick the 2010 season, and this also has guaranteed money for finishing. But the best prize for winning a fall series event is the 2 year exemption to keep your Tour card. That is, as they say in the commercial, 'Priceless.'
The point is simple. The Fall Series is still an important segment of the PGA Tour schedule. There will be great golf played under excruciating pressure, especially in the last event at Disney World where players will be trying to stay inside or get inside the magic 125 position. For many, it is literally do or die, because the only option left to play next year as an exempt player is to go back to Gladiator status for Q School.
The Surge!