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Fedexcup 101: how does the pga tour’s postseason work.

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With the PGA Tour having dramatically overhauled the FedExCup Playoffs in 2019 – and more changes for this year – here’s a helpful primer on the postseason:

You may ask yourself, “These are not my usual playoffs. This is not my normal Tour Championship. How did I get here?”

The PGA Tour first staged the FedExCup Playoffs in 2007. The postseason has undergone a series of tweaks in the intervening years. This is the 16th edition of the playoffs and the fourth in which there will can only be one champion crowned at East Lake. We’ll get to that in a moment.

How many events are there and where are they played?

There are currently three playoff events:

• Aug. 11-14: FedEx St. Jude Championship, TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee
• Aug. 18-21: BMW Championship, Wilmington Country Club, Wilmington, Delaware
• Aug. 25-28: Tour Championship, East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia

The FedEx St. Jude event takes over for The Northern Trust as the playoff opener. The top 125 finishers on the Tour’s season-long eligibility points list are able to compete. The top 70 in FedExCup points after St. Jude will move on to the BMW, and the top 30 thereafter will qualify for the Tour Championship.

OK, so how does the Tour Championship work now?

Where prior to 2019 you could have separate Tour Championship and FedExCup winners, there is now only one. Whoever wins at East Lake, with its weighted scoring system, is also crowned FedExCup champion.

What do you mean weighted?

Right, this might sound a little odd, but the Tour Championship doesn’t work like any other PGA Tour event. Players are going to start with an advantage (or disadvantage) based on their season-long performance. This will be reflected in the number of strokes they are spotted prior to the tournament.

How does that work?

The No. 1 player on the FedExCup points list after the BMW Championship is going to start the Tour Championship at 10 under par. Nos. 2-5 will start at 8 under, 7 under, 6 under and 5 under, respectively. From there, Nos. 6-10 will start a 4 under, Nos. 11-15 at 3 under, Nos. 16-20 at 2 under, Nos. 21-25 at 1 under and Nos. 26-30 at even par.

So what would that look like?

Just like this:

10 under: Scottie Scheffler

8 under: Cam Smith

7 under: Sam Burns

6 under: Xander Schauffele

5 under: Patrick Cantlay

4 under: Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau, Justin Thomas, Cameron Young, Sungjae Im

3 under: Hideki Matsuyama, Will Zalatoris, Max Homa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jordan Spieth

2 under: Jon Rahm, Tom Hoge, Billy Horschel, Viktor Hovland, Joaquin Niemann

1 under: J.T. Poston, Collin Morikawa, Davis Riley, Seamus Power, J.J. Spaun

Even par: Cameron Tringale, Aaron Wise, Shane Lowry, Luke List, Corey Conners

Alrighty, then. They still playing for a lot of money?

They are. The FedExCup payout pool has been raised from a total of $60 million to $75 million, with the winner now in line for a $18 million windfall. Here’s how the money will be doled out to those who make the Tour Championship:

1. $18,000,000 2. $6,500,000 3. $5,000,000 4. $4,000,000 5. $3,000,000 6. $2,500,000 7. $2,000,000 8. $1,500,000 9. $1,250,000 10. $1,000,000 11. $950,000 12. $900,000 13. $850,000 14. $800,000 15. $760,000 16. $720,000 17. $700,000 18. $680,000 19. $660,000 20. $640,000 21. $620,000 22. $600,000 23. $580,000 24. $565,000 25. $550,000 26. $540,000 27. $530,000 28. $520,000 29. $510,000 30. $500,000

FedEx Cup 2022: Everything you need to know ahead of the Tour Championship

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ATLANTA -- The winner of this week's season-ending Tour Championship, which starts Thursday at East Lake Golf Club, will take home an $18 million bonus.

The top 29 players in the FedEx Cup Playoffs points standings will compete for the top prize, after Will Zalatoris , who was third in the standings, had to withdraw on Tuesday because of a back injury.

But the week's biggest news could come Wednesday when PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan addresses the media. Details have started to leak from a players-only meeting that was organized by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy at last week's BMW Championship in Wilmington, Delaware.

The 22 players at the meeting were presented with a proposal that would include converting as many as 15 events to tournaments with smaller fields and bigger purses to entice top players to remain with the PGA Tour. More than two dozen PGA Tour members have left to join the rival LIV Golf series that is being financed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, including past major champions Brooks Koepka , Bryson DeChambeau , Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed .

The players have presented their proposal to Monahan. A player familiar with the discussions told ESPN that the plan is still in its infancy, and he wasn't sure how quickly the tour could implement the changes if it moves forward.

A source told ESPN on Tuesday that Monahan is expected to reveal significant changes during his news conference at East Lake.

"Change for an organization that has such a long history as the PGA Tour does, I think it's slow to change in general, and so if you're making potentially big changes, they can't happen necessarily overnight," defending FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay said on Tuesday.

Cantlay declined to talk about what was discussed in Delaware last week. He did say he would support changes that strengthened the PGA Tour's position in its ongoing battle with LIV Golf.

"I think anything that's better for viewers and trying to attract the most amount of viewers to bring them into the fold of golf and get them excited about golf, I think that would be a good thing," Cantlay said.

Cantlay's FedEx Cup defense

Cantlay, who successfully defended his BMW Championship title last week, is trying to become the first player to win the FedEx Cup in back-to-back seasons. Not even Tiger Woods did it.

Cantlay started the 2021 Tour Championship 2 strokes ahead of Tony Finau . He'll start this week's tournament 2 strokes behind world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler .

"I'm excited, coming back to a golf course that I like and obviously have some recent success on," Cantlay said. "It's nice to come into this tournament with a chance to win, being up near the top of the staggered start, although this year should be a different challenge than last year considering I'm 2 behind as opposed to 2 ahead."

Cantlay, who is ranked third in the world, called this season a "grind." He had 11 top-10 finishes in 19 tour starts, but didn't pick up his first individual victory until last week at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware. He teamed up with good friend Xander Schauffele to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in late April.

"It's the most golf I've probably ever played in a two-month stretch the last couple months," Cantlay said. "I think it's either six of eight or seven of nine [tournaments] for me, which is a lot of golf. I'm excited about the opportunity I have this week, starting this event only two shots back. But I'll be happy when the season is over and I get a couple-week break before the Presidents Cup."

Players not a fan of format

The Tour Championship is the only PGA Tour event that uses a strokes-based system, which is determined by a player's position in the FedEx Cup points standings after the BMW Championship.

Points leader Scheffler will start at 10-under par on Thursday, and the three players behind him, Cantlay, Schauffele and Sam Burns , will start at 8 under, 6 under and 5 under, respectively. The next five players will start the tournament at 4 under, regressing by one stroke every five players until those ranked Nos. 26-30 are at even par.

Zalatoris, who picked up his first win at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first leg of the playoffs, was third in points and would have started at 7 under. Zalatoris pulled out of last week's BMW Championship in the third round and has two herniated discs in his back.

Despite Cantlay's success in the Tour Championship, he still doesn't like the format, which is in its fourth season of existence.

"I've talked before about it," Cantlay said. "I'm not a fan. I think there's got to be a better system, although frankly I don't know what that better system is."

Schauffele, who has carded scores in the 60s in 18 of his 20 career rounds at East Lake, doesn't particularly favor the format, either. He won the Tour Championship as a rookie in 2017 and was runner-up in 2019 and 2020.

"If we had it like it was before, Scottie would have won the FedExCup months ago," Schauffele said. "I'm sure Scottie would like it in the old system, and it would be hard to argue that he doesn't deserve it.

"But from a playoff standpoint and shaking it up and giving the viewers what they need, at the end of the day we play golf and we're entertainers, so we need to create an entertaining space," Schauffele said. "I think having some sort of alternative outcome where someone else has a chance to win is what everyone would want. Like I said, I don't know what that looks like, but I'm sure it could be improved."

So, what's the best way to change it? U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick suggested that a match-play format in the three playoff events might be a better option. That change might give everyone in the field a chance to win.

"Golf is just so different to the other sports," Fitzpatrick said. "That's why I think looking at match play would probably be more of an answer because you've got a team that makes the playoffs in last place or whatever and you don't think they're going to go anywhere, and then they end up going all the way. And then you could have a guy, say in 90th [place], get all the way to the final."

Pass out the name tags

One of the byproducts of more than two dozen players leaving the PGA Tour for LIV Golf is an abundance of golfers making their Tour Championship debuts. In fact, there are nine first-timers playing this week at East Lake: Fitzpatrick, Sepp Straka , Scott Stallings , Cameron Young , Max Homa , Tom Hoge , K.H. Lee , J.T. Poston and Sahith Theegala .

"Yeah, I was speaking to someone last week about the average age of players now has dropped dramatically and guys are winning younger," Fitzpatrick said. "I think that kind of says it all with like nine first-timers. Obviously, everyone is much younger of those first-timers. I think golf is obviously in a decent place on that front."

Zalatoris would have been the 10th first-timer. He'll finish 30th in the FedEx Cup standings and will receive a $500,000 bonus. Schauffele didn't like the way that worked out for Zalatoris, who finished tied for sixth or better in three of the four majors. He lost to Justin Thomas in a playoff at the PGA Championship and tied for second at the U.S. Open.

"You know, I think unfortunately I saw on the news of Will not being able to play this week, and after a season that he had to sort of just to go to last place, I think it's a bit harsh," Schauffele said. "I think it could be sorted out a little bit better."

East Lake is pure

East Lake, which was the home of golf legend Bobby Jones, has hosted the Tour Championship since 1998. It has thick and long Bermuda rough, which is extra juicy this week because of the recent wet weather in Atlanta. Players might get a reprieve from the typically hot August weather in Georgia; forecasts call for temperatures from 80 to 86 degrees. There's a decent chance for thunderstorms on Thursday and Friday.

"I'd say obviously this course is one of the best-conditioned golf courses we come to all year," Cantlay said. "Seems like every year it's in perfect shape. Seems like it's a lot wetter this year. The fairways are long, and I don't think they've been cut just due to the softness. But if the weather holds off and doesn't rain too much, I'm sure it'll firm up every day."

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2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans format, cut rules and day-by-day games

The 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans format is unique for this PGA Tour event, the only event on the FedEx Cup schedule to be played as a two-man team competition.

The Zurich Classic field is 160 players as 80 teams of two . The top 80 players in the PGA Tour's priority ranking that committed to the field got to pick their partner, so long as they had some kind of PGA Tour status or garnered a sponsor exemption.

Zurich Classic of New Orleans format

The Zurich Classic format is still a 72-hole event. The first and third rounds will be played as best ball (fourballs) at TPC Louisiana. The second and final rounds will play under alternate shot (foursomes) rules. A 36-hole cut will be made down to the top 33 teams and ties (down from the top 35 and ties in 2019).

The players on the winning team will each get a two-year PGA Tour exemption and spots in the PGA Championship, The Players, the Tournament of Champions and other invitational events. The team members will split the FedEx Cup points normally distributed for individual events, meaning the winning team will split the 500 points for first place and 300 points for second place -- or 400 points per player.

In the case of a winning player who has no status on the PGA Tour, a win would mean that player earns PGA Tour membership. A win in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans goes in the record book as an official PGA Tour win.

Zurich Classic of New Orleans playoff format

A playoff to settle any ties after 72 holes will be played under PGA Tour rules. The Zurich Classic playoff format is a sudden-death format, with playoff holes being 18 played by any qualifying team.

A sudden-death playoff to settle any ties after 72 holes will be played under rules with format alternating on each hole (fourball to start, foursomes next, and so forth). This format changed from 2017, where fourballs were played in the second and fourth rounds, while alternate shot was the game for the first and third rounds.

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans playoff competitors compete hole-by-hole until a winner is determined by a player scoring the lowest among the remaining players.

About the author

Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is founder and editor of Golf News Net. He has been writing and broadcasting about golf for nearly 20 years. Ballengee lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. He is currently a +2.6 USGA handicap, and he has covered dozens of major championships and professional golf tournaments. He likes writing about golf and making it more accessible by answering the complex questions fans have about the pro game or who want to understand how to play golf better.

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Zurich Classic of New Orleans

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The curious life of a PGA Tour rules official

As a trio of recognizable rules officials head to retirement, we talked to them about what they've seen—and heard—in their lengthy careers.

ORLANDO, FL - MARCH 10: Matthew Fitzpatrick of England speaks to Rules Official Mark Russell before putting on the 15th hole during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard at Bay Hill Club and Lodge on March 10, 2019 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR)

Keyur Khamar

Editor's Note: You can listen to this story as a podcast.

Suppose for a minute you’re a PGA Tour pro in contention on Sunday. Things are going smoothly until one loose shot causes your golf ball to wind up on a cart path. You know you get relief, but where you’re going to drop now possibly brings a grandstand into play. And wait, shouldn’t that be considered ground under repair?

Suddenly, you’re thinking about a lot more than winning a golf tournament. You’re worried about incurring a penalty. An embarrassing, possibly reputation damaging penalty. And at the very least, a very, very costly penalty.

With stakes that high, a player would like to be able to count on someone they can trust. Think of it as one of those phone-a-friend lifelines that can deliver the correct answer. And if you’ve played on the PGA Tour at all over the past four decades, it’s usually one of two people who will pick up the call.

Mark Russell and Slugger White haven’t always provided players with the news they want to hear, but as PGA Tour rules officials for a combined 80 years they’ve been the final answer to countless rulings over their lengthy careers.

Watch enough golf and you likely know them as the guys on the walkie talkies who come in when a rules dispute arises. Or as the guys who give players the ground rules at the start of a playoff. They’re also the guys who have to make the tough calls when it’s been raining for 12 straight hours and you’re wondering when they’ll start playing golf again.

In some ways, they are the equivalent of a referee in basketball or an umpire in baseball, but in other ways, their job is completely different. After all, a ref or an umpire doesn’t have to set up the court or the field since those dimensions are fixed. And while those guys chase around athletes with a whistle in their mouths, rules officials like Slugger White spend most of the time sitting on golf carts waiting to be summoned.

“I’ve had so many players, I’ll see them the first part of the week and I’ll say, ‘Have a great week!’ and they’ll say, ‘I hope I don’t see you!’" White says. "That would be great."

So what’s it like to be a rules official at the game’s highest level? How does it feel to hold a tour pro’s fate in the palm of your hand?

We examined the role of the rules official on golf’s biggest stage by talking with Russell and White, who have served as co-vice presidents of competition for the PGA Tour. We also spoke with one of their European Tour counterparts, John Paramor , to get a sense of what goes into this fun—but stressful—job and to hear some of their most memorable tour tales.

Coincidentally, all three, along with the European Tour’s Andy McFee, have decided to end their careers at around the same time, taking some 160 years of experience with them. Those men are all stepping aside, but their roles have by no means lost their importance. As long as there’s golf, there will be questions about the game’s rules. Plenty of questions.

Slugger White has been a familiar face at PGA Tour events the past four decades.

Sam Greenwood

If the PGA Tour’s old slogan is “These guys are good,” Mark Russell and Slugger Whites could be, “These guys are everywhere.” Slugger, with his trademark panama hat, is particularly noticeable on the golf course. But most of the time they’re relatively out of sight. Here’s how Paramor, who retired as the European Tour’s chief referee in 2020, puts it.

“It’s a bit like you’re an emergency doctor. You’re just sitting there with a radio, you have no idea what’s going to be called next. And when that radio does go off, there’s a little bit of anxiety. You think, ‘Oh my god, is this going to be the one I don’t know? Is this going to be the one that finishes my career?” said Paramour, who thought about playing professionally before caddying for a year on the European Tour and then becoming a rules official. “It can be a terrifying thing. Somebody said it’s hours and hours of boredom interspersed with complete panic.”

Also like a doctor, a good rules official needs a good bedside manner. The decisions being handed down throughout a tournament, even one made early in the week, can often be worth thousands, if not millions, of dollars.

RELATED: Meet John Paramor, ruler of the rules

All three acknowledge having some testy run-ins with players throughout their careers. It would be impossible not to even if those situations are rare. Respect of the players has to be earned for sure, but they say for the overwhelming majority of time, tour pros are a pleasure to deal with.

“You know, that’s the great thing about golf," said Russell, a former director of at Walt Disney World before taking a job with the PGA Tour in 1980. "It attracts the finest people. It’s a ladies and gentlemen’s game and it’s different than any other game. Less is better. That sets it apart right there. Four beats a five, and a three beats a four. All other games, how many points can I score? How many runs can I score? What can I do? But golf is such a game of honor because it would be so easy to fudge things and cheat if you wanted to.”

And that respect goes both ways. Most golf fans think of rules officials as ancillary characters, but when you’ve been around as long as these guys, you become part of the main cast.

“When I was 20 and I got on the European Tour, part of the mystique of getting on the European Tour was like, 'John Paramor is going to be one of the referees. I’m going to have a ruling off him at some point.'” And they actually are a massive part of the tour," Tommy Fleetwood said. “I think everybody has a pretty good relationship with them. And I think those guys who have put so much time into the game, they’re going to be missed.”

No matter how much time you put into the game, though, the rules of golf are tricky. Even for the people whose jobs revolve around them. Slugger White also spent four years on the PGA Tour as a player—back then he went by Carlton—and he says he's still learning.

"You think you know them until you get into them and then you find out you really didn’t know them," White said. "You kind of know the basics, but then you get into the decision book, and back then we had a decision book with 1,200 decisions. And you think, ‘1,200 decisions? And I have to know all these things?!’ So you think of situations and go through the book and kind of learn what you can when you can as fast as you can.”

You can prepare all you want, though. Golf will still present situations you’ve never seen before. Jon Paramor says he saw something for the first time while working his final European Tour event in August.

“We probably get two or three a year that we’ve never come across before," Paramor said. "Nor has anyone else. But that’s the beauty of the game.”

It’s also one of its quirks. At the 2020 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Bryson DeChambeau made an unusual claim when he said his golf ball was resting near a hill of fire ants. PGA Tour rules official Ken Tackett showed up for a conversation that lasted more than three minutes, but ended with him not granting DeChambeau relief.

Paramor fondly recalls a similar situation involving Seve Ballesteros on the final hole of the 1994 Volvo Masters. Ballesteros was tied with Bernhard Langer, but in trouble after a wayward drive. With his ball up against a tree, Ballesteros claimed he should be granted relief from the sandy area he felt had been dug by an animal. Paramor disagreed and held firm against the golf legend.

“Well, during this sort of 20-minute ruling that I had with him, the hole itself had a smaller hole and I started probing it with my finger just to see if I could get any evidence from it," Paramor says. "And he put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Be careful, it might bite.' Classic. Absolutely classic. Thankfully, it didn’t. But I was kind of giggling underneath it and trying not to burst out laughing.”

Rickie Fowler takes a penalty drop as Rules Official Slugger White watches on.

As a general rule for an official, the less interaction there has to be with players on the course, the smoother the golf tournament. But as much as these guys would like to sit still watching golf while working on their tans, that’s becoming more difficult to do.

Russell, White, and Paramor all agree they’ve become busier throughout tournament rounds in recent years. For two reasons, really. The younger generation of players seems to know less about the rules, even while playing for much more.

“These guys are playing for a lot of money," White says, "and the last thing they want to do is make a mistake that could be avoided for just a call that would take maybe a minute and a half out of their day to avoid that mistake.”

RELATED: Golf Digest's "My Shot" interview with Slugger White

It’s helped that the process has picked up in recent years. If a PGA Tour pro has a question, he tells the walking scorer, who radios the rules committee, which then sends in the closest rules official.There’s also a rules official always assigned to watching coverage of the event to monitor other issues that can surface.

To help players get a better grasp on the rules, Paramor says the European Tour started giving out tests to its players beginning in 2019. Those who fail twice get a 30-minute private tutorial with an official. The PGA Tour hasn’t implemented anything quite as official yet—but there was at least one effort to better educate the players. One failed attempt, that is.

“The players screamed they wanted a rules seminar so we put a rules seminar together and I think two players showed up," Russell said. "They’re all for that, until it happens. And then they’re not that interested. ‘Well, I was going to that rules seminar, but hell, I’m going to dinner tonight.’”

Russell says the recent rules changes have "dumbed things down" for the players. Still, there’s a lot that tour pros get wrong—especially because there’s a lot more they have to deal with compared to weekend hackers.

For instance, one situation that pops up often is around temporary immovable objects or TIOs. These are usually related to tournament-based structures such as grandstands or scoreboards.

Often, players will call on a rules official just to confirm they’re taking proper relief. Just don’t expect Justin Thomas to be one of those guys. It helps that Thomas grew up as the son of a PGA professional, but whatever the reason, Slugger has been impressed by both JT’s rules knowledge—and curiosity.

“Justin is the only one that really kind of, I mean, he talks about it during a playoff!" White said. "That’s when Jimmy Johnson (Thomas' caddie) says, ‘I have to put up with this all the time.’ It’s kind of funny. I even have to say, ‘Justin, you need to go ahead and think about what you’re doing here.’ And I have to walk away from him.”

Much as the recent rules changes have been well received, they’ve still been an adjustment—for both players and veteran officials like Russell.

“But it still short-circuits me to see people move loose impediments in bunkers and penalty areas and tap down things on their line," Russell said. "When you’ve been doing something for so long and you’re so dialed into that, next thing you know people are doing that and you’re like, ‘Woah, woah, woah. That’s right you can do that.’ But I think a lot of the rules changes were very good.”

Of course, one of the big differences between tour players and average golfers is they have officials nearby to help clear up any confusion about a rule. It’s a security blanket only to an extent, though, because the phone-a-friend doesn't always guarantee the correct answer. And Russell, White, and Paramor are all quick to admit the players aren’t the only ones who make mistakes.

When that does happen, the rules official must seek out the player to prevent it from happening again. That can lead to some uncomfortable exchanges, although Paramor couldn’t help but laugh about making a mistake in his final event.

“I can tell you that my last ever ruling was wrong," Paramor says with a chuckle. "I spent the entire week saying, ‘you’ve just got one week left, just don’t mess up,’ and I mess up on the last day. I can’t believe it. Anyway, I saw the player and he laughed about it. He could see the funny side. You know, my last day and I absolutely get it wrong.”

Ian Poulter gets a ride from European Tour chief referee John Paramor during a practice round.

Richard Heathcote

They say you never forget your first kiss, but Slugger White will never forget his first ruling. It doesn’t hurt that it happened to involve arguably the greatest golfer in history. Coincidentally, Jack Nicklaus had run into Slugger earlier in the week and had heard he had switched from being a player to a rules official. Now just a couple days later, they met face to face to determine whether Nicklaus was entitled to free relief from a spotty lie.

“So I get in the cart and these carts are old, you can hear me coming from four miles away," White recalls. "Jack is standing there and I said, ‘Can I help you, Jack?’ And he said, ‘yes, what is this?’ And it was a French drain, which we treat like ground under repair. And I always say he looked at me with those steely blue eyes and he said, ‘Are you sure?’ And I said, ‘I’m positive.’ He said, ‘OK, where do you drop it?” So he was comfortable and I was comfortable so I drove away and I thought that was an easy one, let’s worry about the hard ones later.”

Not surprisingly, Slugger has faced plenty of hard ones since. One that stands out for him involved Kevin Stadler in 2005. Stadler was among the leaders in Las Vegas to start the third round when he approached Slugger about a damaged club he discovered in his bag on the first hole.

"It was the most gut-wrenching one I ever had, yes it was," White said. "I knew what the end result was, and I let it play out, and. . . Kevin didn’t do anything. The rule has since changed to just a penalty situation and not a disqualification, but it made me ill.”

In a strange twist, one of Russell’s most memorable moments involved Kevin’s dad, 1982 Masters champ Craig Stadler, at Torrey Pines in 1987. Most golf fans have probably seen the clip of the Walrus kneeling on a towel to hit a shot from under a tree in the third round. Russell, who wasn’t notified of the possible infraction until after a TV viewer called in during the final round, had no choice but to rule Stadler had illegally built a stance. And since he had signed an incorrect scorecard the prior day, he had to be DQ’d.

“We really went to all lengths to see if we could get him out of that, but the way the rules are written there’s no way," Russell said. "He violated the rule. It still to this day amazes me that somebody didn’t say, ‘Woah, man, you need to call somebody before you do that!’ But Craig did it anyway, he didn’t want his pants to get dirty. Thus he was disqualified. I think he finished second or third in the tournament. But, yeah, that was a long afternoon too.”

RELATED: 13 rules of golf you should be taking advantage of

It doesn’t always end that way, though. In fact, all three are adamant they are not out to get the players. Here’s how Jon Paramor describes how he approaches a rules issue.

“I’ve often crossed swords with young referees coming along and saying, ‘I’m going out there to penalize someone,'" Paramor says. "And I’ve said, ‘No, you’re going out there to save someone from penalty.’ That’s what our job is.”

Which is why Slugger begins every on-course player interaction with the same five words: “How can I help you.” And contrary to how some tour pros may feel, officials work hard to make sure all players get treated the same when it comes to rulings.

“I always look at a situation where the ball doesn’t have a face on it," White said. "It’s just a ball and a situation and you just go with what’s in front of you. And I think most of these guys know when a guy like myself or Mark Russell or some of the older guys, when we walk in there, they know we’ve been around enough that the respect is still there. They might know the name and they know they’re going to get a fair shake.”

And as Russell is well aware of, sometimes rulings have nothing to do with the ball. With just a few holes to go in the 2011 Players Championship, Russell was alerted that K.J. Choi’s caddie, Andy Prodger, had been using something to test the wind. So when Choi finished his round tied for the lead with David Toms, Russell arrived on the scene. After learning Prodger had just been tossing a handkerchief in the air to test the breeze, the playoff went on and Choi wound up claiming the biggest title of his career.

“So it was a huge relief to me that it was not a rules infraction and we could continue the playoff," Russell said. "We had how many millions watching that all over the world, a huge, huge crowd there at Sawgrass and everyone was waiting on that playoff. And I’m going to go in there and disqualify this guy? That was an intense time.”

Golf fans weren’t even aware that happened, but such is the nature of the gig. Here’s PGA Tour senior VP and chief of operations Tyler Dennis, himself a former rules official, on the harsh reality of the job.

“If everything goes right, and well, and there’s no problems, you’ve done your job and nobody thanks you," Dennis said. "They just kind of go, ‘great tournament.’ It’s only when things go wrong when you’re suddenly in the limelight.”

Russell, White, and Paramor are certainly familiar with such situations, but perhaps none more so than Paramor, who came under scrutiny for handing out a rare slow play penalty during the 2014 Masters. Making the situation even more explosive was the fact it was A 14-year-old named Tianlang Guan who was docked a stroke during the second round.

Paramor took plenty of heat for the ruling, even getting an earful from one of Guan’s playing partners, two-time Masters champ Ben Crenshaw. But he stands by the decision he made that day with the help of Fred Ridley, who was then chairman of the competition committee at Augusta National. If anything, in fact, Paramor says he was lenient with Guan.

So why was a teenager slapped with a slow play penalty at the world’s biggest tournament while older players avoid the same fate? According to Paramor, it’s because they know how to work the system.

“They’re not getting the penalties because basically by the time they’ve had their first bad time, they know exactly what they have to do," Paramor said. "They just take it to the edge all the time, which I feel is very dangerous because there’s always going to be a point in time where you want a few more seconds on a shot, and if you’re going to take it to the brink all the time, then you’ve lost that chance.”

All are happy with the new penalty and fine structures that have been set up on both the PGA Tour and European Tour and believe slow play will get better. But it will remain an uncomfortable conversation with any sluggish player, no matter their age.

“Well, it’s no fun, but it’s what we do," Russell said. "I didn’t get a bad time, you did. I didn’t get out of position, you did. I’ve told guys, ‘Listen, I don’t want to hear it. All we hear about is pace of play, pace of play, and if we do something about it, you guys get angry! You guys are on the clock, alright.’”

--------------------

Being on call to settle rules disputes and speed up play is only part of the job of a rules official. Setting up a golf course for a PGA Tour event falls under the rules committee as well and is a process that takes months and involves various staff members working with the venue. Along with one of the tour’s agronomists, a rules official will get to a tournament site a week in advance to begin final preparations before more rules officials arrive to finish the process.

That’s when potential tees and pin positions are mapped out, while possible problem areas such as ground-under-repair get marked. If the rules committee has done its job well, it’s anticipated a host of problems before they even arise.

Weather, of course, plays an important role as well. In addition to causing delay in play, a decision that falls under the purview of the rules committee, the forecast is also a factor in determining tees and pin positions.

“Our meteorologist keeps us totally dialed in," Russell said. "If we’re going to have a stiff wind and a long hole with forced carry, we’re probably going to move those tees up so that players can carry it the distance they need to. We want to set it up as difficult as it can possibly play, but fair. Golf is hard enough to play as is without adding a lot of things in there. I mean, you can put the hole in the middle of the green and some guys are going to still make bogey. It’s hard, you know?”

Some processes aren’t quite as sophisticated. Take when there’s a playoff. A rules official will simply write numbers on pieces of paper, fold them up, and place them in a hat to be drawn in the order of which player posted his 72-hole score first. According to Russell, there’s never been a mishap but he’s gotten some pushback through the years.

“I remember Ken Thompson who years ago was the CEO of Wachovia and on our board at one time, he was amazed because he was with me running the playoff at the Wachovia tournament and he said, ‘This is the way you do this? Are you kidding me?! You guys need like a coin or something like that to make it a little more official," Russell said. "But we found out over the years we just fold those things up and put them in a hat, let people draw. And Daniel Berger told me one time, ‘I saw which numbers were.’ And I said, ‘There’s no way you saw which numbers. I folded it four times, I don’t want to hear that.’”

The rules crew makes tee times for the field, makes sure each group has a walking scorer, makes sure all bunkers are properly raked, and even makes snacks for the players. OK, so not that last part, but you get the point. There’s a LOT of work that goes into putting on and running a professional golf tournament.

“Those two gentlemen, Mark Russell and Slugger White, have really been the bedrock of the PGA Tour to be honest for more than 40 years," Dennis said. "In Slugger’s case, he played on the tour before that so he’s been part of the heart and soul of what we do. Fans know them, but in a lot of ways, they’re also the unsung heroes behind the scenes, and they have done a remarkable job.”

You can tell how much these guys love their jobs, because, well, they can’t let them go. Despite being retired, all three are staying involved with their respective tours in some way. When I spoke to Slugger, he was already preparing to be on site at the American Express, his first of a handful of PGA Tour stops in 2021. And no matter how many tournaments he’s worked, there’s always some brushing up to do.

“I’m going to Palm Springs a week from Monday and I’ll spend probably the next 10 or 12 days just leafing through going rule by rule so my mind doesn’t go soft on me," White said. "You kind of go to mush if you’re not careful and I want to be sharp when I get out there.”

None will miss the constant travel, or those days when the rain won’t stop, or even the pressure of making an important, perhaps unpopular, call with the cameras rolling. Still, the gig has its perks.

“Why did I stay so long? I don’t know," Paramor said. "Probably because I’m absolutely useless at doing anything else. And actually, it’s the best job in the world. So why would you give up the best job in the world?”

They’re also continuing to stick around to ensure a smooth transition to a new guard of rules guardians. The PGA Tour is losing the retiring Dillard Pruitt and John Lillvis as well, but Russell and White know the operation has been left in good hands—because they had a hand in finding their replacements.

Gary Young will lead the PGA Tour’s Rules and Competition department with Steve Rintoul, John Mutch, Stephen Cox and Ken Tackett moving into the roles of senior tournament director under him. They may not be household names yet—but in this job, notoriety isn’t necessarily a good thing.

It’ll be nice for Russell, White and Paramor to not have to enforce things like TIOs or pace of play anymore, but don’t expect them to stop thinking about how to address such problems—even as they transition from a golf cart inside the ropes to the living room couch.

“You know, listen," Russell said. "When we’ve got 156 players in summertime, I mean, we’ve got 26 groups on 18 holes. If anyone can figure out a way on how that’s going to play fast, please call me.”

He's serious. Because retirement or not, the game goes on. And as long as these guys are paying attention, they’ll want to make it better.

Of course, now they’ll be on the clock more with more free time to play the sport they love. Although, funny enough, Slugger says he’s a lot looser with the rules in his regular game.

“Well I have to," Slugger said. "They might not invite me back to play!”

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Zurich Classic of New Orleans 2024: Format, rules for PGA Tour team event

The PGA Tour returns to Louisiana for the lone team event on the schedule. Here is a look at the rules and format for the 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

By Josh Chandler | Apr 23, 2024

With the WGC-Match Play no longer a part of the PGA Tour schedule, this week's Zurich Classic of New Orleans represents the lone event of the season with a unique format. As the tour returns to the 'Pelican State' this week, PGA golf takes a break from its usual 72-hole stroke play format.

80 two-man teams will take on the challenge at TPC Louisiana this week and with five of the world's Top 15 players set to tee it up this week, including World No. 2 Rory McIlroy, this year's Zurich Classic of New Orleans will feature one of its strongest fields in recent memory.

With a unique format in play this week and a break from the norm, golf fans may be wondering exactly how this week's action at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans is set to play out. Here is a look at the format and rules for the lone team event on the PGA schedule this season.

Zurich Classic of New Orleans format and rules for 2024

The 80 two-man teams in this year's field of 160 players at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans will play two different formats of team golf this week, Four-balls (best ball) in rounds one and three, and Foursomes (alternate shot) in rounds two and four. After the first two days of Four-balls and Foursomes action, the Top 33 teams and ties on the leaderboard will make the cut and compete in the final two rounds at TPC Louisiana.

Should a playoff be required following the completion of 72 holes with two or more teams tied at the top of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans leaderboard, teams will compete in a sudden-death hole-by-hole playoff rotating between Foursomes and Four-balls.

What is Foursomes (alternate shot) format?

The vastly more difficult format of the two that will be implemented at this week's Zurich Classic, Foursomes (alternate shot) consists of each two-man team playing one golf ball throughout 18 holes. Both players on each team rotate between shots with one player hitting the tee shot on the even-numbered holes and the other on the odd-numbered holes. From there, the duo takes turns rotating between shots until the golf ball is holed. Typically, with the difficulty of this team format, anything under par is considered a good score, especially in comparison to the easier Four-ball (best ball) format.

What is Four-ball (best ball) format?

Teams will be looking to take advantage of the easier of the two formats this week; Four-ball (best ball). In rounds one and three at this year's Zurich Classic of New Orleans, every player on each team will play their own golf ball on each hole with the best score on each team (between both players) being tallied up. For example, Player A makes par on a hole while Player B makes birdie, the team is then credited with a birdie since Player B recorded the best score on that hole for the duo. Hence the name, best ball. It will be vital for teams to take advantage of the Four-ball format this week to be in contention come Sunday.

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The 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans takes place Thursday, April 25th - Sunday, April 28th.

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PGA Tour Can Bar LIV Golfers From Playoff, Judge Rules

The narrow ruling came less than 48 hours before the start of the FedEx Cup playoffs in Memphis, but the broader turmoil could last for years.

By Alan Blinder

A federal judge on Tuesday rebuffed an effort by three LIV Golf players to compete in this week’s FedEx Cup playoffs, giving the PGA Tour interim support as it faces an uprising over the invitational series financed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

The decision was an early, if narrowly tailored, victory for the PGA Tour’s efforts to undercut LIV Golf, which has spent recent months draining the more established tour of some of the star power it relies on to draw fans, television money and sponsorships.

Although 11 players, including the major champions Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, sued the Tour last week over its decision to bar them from its competitions, only three — Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford — asked Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to order that they be allowed to compete in the playoffs, which will begin on Thursday at T.P.C. Southwind in Memphis.

Judge Freeman, near the end of a Tuesday afternoon hearing in San Jose, Calif., said that she did not believe the players would suffer “irreparable harm” if they were not allowed to play, a vital legal standard to secure a temporary restraining order.

The players’ guaranteed-pay contracts with LIV Golf, she said, made it likely that they would “be earning more than they have made and could reasonably have expected to make in a reasonable period of time” with the PGA Tour.

Moreover, she said, the arrangements between LIV Golf and the players had been negotiated with the potential loss of PGA Tour compensation in mind.

Gooch, Jones and Swafford have combined for more than $37 million in career earnings, according to PGA Tour data.

But the players, in a court filing last week and in San Jose on Tuesday, argued that the PGA Tour had defied its internal rules to exclude them from an event that leads to one of golf’s most lucrative paydays. The playoffs, scheduled to conclude late this month, can also clear the way for a player’s participation in men’s golf’s major tournaments: the British Open, the Masters Tournament, the U.S. Open and the P.G.A. Championship.

“Large bonuses, big purses, substantial retirement plan payments, sponsorship, branding, and important business opportunities are at stake,” lawyers for the players wrote in a motion. The PGA Tour’s suite of tactics against LIV Golf and its players, they asserted, “are obviously anticompetitive, as they serve no purpose but to thwart competition and maintain its monopsony.”

The PGA Tour, in a filing on Monday that condemned LIV as “a strategy by the Saudi government to use sports in an effort to improve its reputation for human rights abuses and other atrocities,” insisted that “antitrust laws do not allow plaintiffs to have their cake and eat it too.”

LIV golfers, the filing suggested, could not expect to cycle between LIV events and PGA Tour competitions and break “contracts without consequence.”

Besides, PGA Tour officials asserted, the players waited until the playoffs’ start was imminent to bring a legal challenge, effectively conjuring an emergency for Judge Freeman to consider.

“Their ineligibility for Tour events was foreseeable when they accepted millions from LIV to breach their agreements with the Tour, and they knew for a fact that they were suspended on June 9,” the PGA Tour wrote, adding that other players who qualified for the playoffs and joined the lawsuit had not challenged their exclusions. (A lawyer for the players, Robert C. Walters, told Judge Freeman on Tuesday that the nature of the suspensions became clear only last week.)

Tuesday’s ruling was an early one in the turmoil that could shadow golf for years, in part because the litigation could prove protracted. Away from the courthouse, LIV has announced plans to expand to 14 events in 2023, up from eight this year. It has also said it will offer $405 million in purses next year, compared with $255 million this year, for events expected to include such players as Dustin Johnson, Sergio García and Brooks Koepka.

The PGA Tour, determined to preserve its standing as the pre-eminent circuit for professional male golfers, has suspended defectors, and some organizers of the major tournaments have signaled that they could try to keep LIV players out of their 2023 fields. The PGA Tour’s efforts have led to scrutiny: The Justice Department has been exploring whether the strategies ran afoul of federal antitrust laws, a particularly sensitive subject for professional and collegiate sports organizers in the United States.

Even as LIV has attracted some of golf’s best-known figures, the PGA Tour has maintained a reservoir of support among elite players. Tiger Woods criticized LIV on the eve of last month’s British Open, where organizers made plain that Greg Norman, the LIV chief executive and a two-time Open champion, was unwelcome . Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas, who have a combined six major titles, have also been among the most forceful Tour loyalists.

Norman told Fox News Channel this summer that LIV had offered Woods “in the neighborhood” of $700 million to $800 million if he joined the series.

Gooch, Jones and Swafford command far less attention. Gooch, ranked 20th in the playoff standings, finished in a tie for 34th at the British Open in July, but his career-best showing in a major was a tie for 14th.

This year’s Masters marked the first time Swafford, 67th in the playoff standings, survived the cut at a major. Jones, 65th in the playoff rankings, missed weekend play at the only major he contested in 2022, the P.G.A. Championship.

The men have not qualified for next year’s majors. When the players asked Judge Freeman to intervene, their lawyers said that keeping them from the playoffs would likely doom their chances of competing in those tournaments, starting with the Masters in April.

In a statement on Tuesday, LIV Golf said it was “disappointed” by the judge’s ruling.

“No one gains by banning golfers from playing,” the statement said.

Alan Blinder covers college sports for The Times. Based in Atlanta, he travels the country to report on the athletes, coaches, colleges, conferences, corporations and donors behind some of America’s most popular passions. More about Alan Blinder

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Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy to receive massive loyalty payouts from PGA Tour after equity investment, per report

The two most popular players on the pga tour will be made whole this week after turning down overtures from liv golf.

The loyalty shown by Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and other star golfers to the PGA Tour will be officially rewarded on Wednesday. Woods is set to receive $100 million in equity as part of the newly created for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises with McIlroy obtaining about half as much equity,  according to the Telegraph , 

The stakes being awarded to Woods, McIlroy and other PGA Tour stars are part of a make-good by the league to thank players for sticking by its side rather than leave for big-money contracts from LIV Golf (as backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund).

Earlier this year, PGA Tour Enterprises received an investment of up to $3 billion from Strategic Sports Group, a high-profile assortment of billionaire sports owners. While it is unclear how that investment will be spent, this equity distribution will be backstopped by those funds.

Payouts are being handed to players based on a variety of factors, including career success and cultural popularity. Several hundred players will receive stakes, though the majority of that equity -- up to $750 million -- will go to the top 36 players as determined by an undisclosed formula that takes into consideration the aforementioned factors, among others.

While the figures are gaudy, this is not simply a cash payout, as explained by the  Telegraph .

After four years, 50 percent of their equity will be vested, with another 25 percent two years later and the remaining amount two years after that. They will also have to fall in line with the rules, which as well as not decamping, involve meeting the minimum requirements for Tour membership and, if not, providing services such as sponsors meets and media appearances.

How this plays out going forward will be interesting. There will reportedly be $100 million in equity handed out annually, which will add up quickly. Even with the $3 billion backing, that's a lot of equity going to current and future players.

Regardless, the intent is clear: The PGA Tour is rewarding players for their loyalty. It is also attempting to align incentives within the organization. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said as much at The Players Championship earlier in this year. 

"Historically, our structure has limited our ability to make transformative investments into the sport," he said. "With PGA Tour Enterprises, with our 13-member board of directors now in place and the partnership with Strategic Sports Group, we've changed that dynamic and unleashed our potential for future growth.

"With our player equity program, which is the first in professional sports, our interests and those of our players will be more deeply aligned. Our business thrives when together we're all laser focused on delivering for our fans. If we fail on that front, we fail on every front."

Players will reportedly begin receiving emails with the amount of equity they have been awarded this week. The equity numbers will be based on the $12 billion valuation from earlier this year when the SSG received 25% of PGA Tour Enterprises for its up to $3 billion investment. 

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Jon Rahm names PGA Tour events he’d still ‘love to play’ should rules change

Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy embrace at the 2023 DP World Tour Championship.

Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Nearly a year after the framework agreement between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the operators of LIV Golf, was announced , the golf world is still waiting for a final pact.

But Jon Rahm isn’t waiting to share his opinion on what he’d like for the future of pro golf.

Since joining LIV in January, and in contrast to many of his LIV counterparts, Rahm hasn’t shied away from sharing his honest takes on how the LIV circuit could improve , as well as his desire to see some kind of merger between the PGA Tour and LIV .

In fact, last year’s framework agreement, and the potential for a future merger, played a major influence in Rahm’s decision to leave the PGA Tour, as he revealed to GOLF’s Dylan Dethier earlier this year.

“What opened the door a little bit was that PGA Tour and LIV agreement,” Rahm said. “So when that happened, I was like, well, we are definitely coming together. There is something happening, so at least I owe it to myself to hear what they have to offer and what their vision is. I figured I owed it to myself to hear them out, which is what I did when the season was over.”

Ahead of this week’s LIV Adelaide event in Australia, Rahm sat down for a joint press conference with LIV CEO Greg Norman , and reporters questioned Rahm about how he envisions the future.

At first, he provided a common refrain heard from both sides since the initial agreement occurred: “I really don’t know.”

Jon Rahm calls on LIV Golf to drop controversial piece of its format

“There’s a lot of unknowns, I think, on everybody’s side. The people that are very smart and are behind this are trying to figure out what’s the best for golf,” Rahm explained during his press conference. “But I haven’t spoken to enough players on the PGA Tour to know what their position is, to be honest. I don’t know if it’s impatience or just lack of knowledge in general.”

But he also expressed confidence that some kind of agreement would result in the best “product” for golf fans.

“We all want to see this resolved,” Rahm said. “Like I’ve said many times, we have the opportunity to take golf to the next level in the global markets, and I think if done properly we can come up with a better product for anybody, and putting golf as a bigger product in general as a worldwide sport.”

When pressed further, Rahm revealed which PGA Tour events he’d still “love to play” should those starts become available to him again.

“Right now obviously it’s 14 LIV events that I want to play, so that, majors, Ryder Cup for sure, and then after that, yeah, there’s some PGA Tour events that if it’s not conflicting with my LIV schedule I’d love to go play,” Rahm said. “I’ve said numerous times and I’ll say it again, Palm Springs [the American Express], Torrey Pines [Farmers Insurance Open], Phoenix [WM Phoenix Open], LA [Genesis Invitational], if I’m allowed to be able to play, the Players [Players Championship]. Those are events that if I could, I would love to play.”

Jon Rahm’s been watching the PGA Tour — with complex mix of emotions

Rahm also is not worried about the increased workload should his wishes be granted, saying that his schedule would be no busier that it had been when he played the PGA Tour.

“I’m no stranger to playing 23, 24 events a year in the past, especially with my PGA Tour schedule and DP World Tour schedule. Yeah, I would be up to playing, and I’d still try to go play the Spanish Open and whatever I can in Spain, as well. That’s just what I want to do.”

Rahm, who is the captain of the LIV team Legion XIII, is currently ranked second in the individual LIV standings for 2024. At the 2024 Masters, the first major appearance since joining LIV, Rahm finished T45 in his title defense.

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As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience.

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PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund Have Yet to Meet Together

According to a report, the new CEO of the DP World Tour wants an agreement to move quickly, and he also believes European LIV golfers should be able to play in the Ryder Cup.

• Author: Bob Harig

Nearly a year after the shocking “framework agreement’’ was announced between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, all of the parties have yet to formally meet together.

That is according to Guy Kinnings, the new CEO of the DP World Tour, who officially took over from Keith Pelley this month.

Kinnings, in a media session with a small group UK and Irish golf writers in London, discussed his hopes for an agreement and also made clear that the European Ryder Cup rules do not need to be changed for players such as Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton to be part of the team next year at Bethpage Black.

“From my perspective, all I want to do is make sure we as quickly as possible get the right people around a table to talk about what can a future look like,’’ Kinnnings said in a report from the Scotsman newspaper . “I don’t expect them to go in knowing all the answers. There’s lots of things have to get worked at. What does the product look like, probably from 2026 and beyond? What’s the pathway? What does it mean for things?

“But, until you get into the room with the right people with the right intent to try and find a solution, you are never going to work out a deal and, at the end of the day, this is what is needed right now as quickly as we can. We’ve all seen—even with a great Masters—that TV figures are down. If we listen to the fans, there’s something that needs to get fixed and I see it as a huge opportunity because, if you can unite and go global, that’s exactly what we are all about.’’

The framework agreement was supposed to bring the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF—which backs LIV Golf—together by the end of 2023. That deadline was missed, and since then the PGA Tour has received private equity from a U.S. based consortium of investors called Strategic Sports Group that can be as much as $3 billion.

A plan has been unveiled for PGA Tour players to receive equity in the new PGA Tour Enterprises, a for-profit company. Kinnings said that the PIF’s governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, wants to be part of the group of investors.

“I was talking to the guys from the Strategic Sports Group  and I said ‘listen, we’ve got to get together, we’ve got to pull it all together, we’ve got to find the product that works—it probably won’t be until 2026 but beyond there—and is good for the game, something that fans like and works for everyone.’ But, at the end of the day, it has got to be something that is appealing to them. It’s got to work for all parties and everyone is going to have to do things they don’t necessarily want to, a compromise. But that’s what you do if you strike a deal, it won’t happen until we get everyone in a room together.”

Kinnings also said that players, such as Rahm, who remain a DP World Tour member but pay fines and deal with suspensions for missing conflicting events can still be eligible for the Ryder Cup.

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Guide to betting on PGA TOUR golf responsibly

Golfbet News

The 2024 PGA TOUR season runs from January through early September. (Getty Images)

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Simply put, there’s nothing else like golf betting. With the ever-present potential for longshot victories, at times seemingly unpredictable variance of performances, and crazy swings from hole to hole that can turn sure-fire winning bets into heartbreaking losses, no other major U.S. sport provides the same level of weekly intrigue that golf betting does on the PGA TOUR.

As a comparison, to get +10000 odds or greater when betting on football, you’d likely have to place a longshot future or build a crazy multi-leg parlay ( not advisable). The futures bet would take many months to potentially cash, while the true chances of that parlay winning would be extremely small.

With golf, though, single wagers for triple-digit longshots win somewhat regularly and usually only take four days (or fewer) to play out. In fact, 2024 started with six of the first nine PGA TOUR events being won by longshots with +10000 odds or higher. In the words of Golfbet’s own Ben Everill , “No other sport gives you the chance to hit a lottery ticket so often.” However, that early trend has been countered sharply as of late, with Scottie Scheffler’s four wins this year – at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, THE PLAYERS, the Masters and RBC Heritage – all coming as the pre-tournament favorite.

It’s also worth noting that the longshot winners were very favorable results for sportsbooks. Sure, they had to pay out a handful of big winning bets those weeks, but the large majority of outright wagers were on other players, and therefore lost.

All of this helps illustrate the fact that betting on golf can be fun, but very difficult. Throwing darts on longshots can be exhilarating if they’re in the mix come Sunday, but a lot less enjoyable if the favorite ultimately comes through with the victory that week. Therefore, it’s critically important to learn and remember how to bet responsibly if you are going to be wagering on PGA TOUR events.

General Responsible Gaming tips and best practices

Whether you’re betting on golf or any other sport, understanding the basics of how to do so responsibly and sustainably is paramount. Every year, thousands of bettors lose more than they expected, which can have severe negative impacts on both financial and mental health. Take time to commit these tips to memory and ensure that they are always top of mind before placing a bet.

• Determine your bankroll, also known as a sports betting budget, for a specific timeframe. This should be an amount that you are comfortable with losing entirely without it impacting your overall financial wellbeing (ex: ability to pay bills). The timeframe for your bankroll should be long, as in multiple months or a year, not just one weekend of betting.
• Related to bankroll, it’s also important to choose and keep consistent with a unit size, which is your standard wager amount. Best practices are to have your unit size equal between 1-4 percent of your total bankroll. Keeping your unit size small will allow you to sustain funds during inevitable “cold streaks” and continue betting without the need to deposit again or increase your bankroll.
• Sports betting needs to be viewed as a type of paid entertainment. Since the odds are skewed notably in the sportsbooks’ favor, it’s very likely that you will not turn a profit from betting, especially in the long term if you are placing bets regularly. Therefore, it should be seen through a similar lens as paying to go see a movie, a show or a live sporting event. It’s entertainment that very likely comes at a cost, even if there is an off-chance that it could also result in winning money.
• Do not ever bet using funds that you don’t currently have. Betting with credit or borrowing funds from someone else to gamble can be extremely dangerous and result in losing amounts that you are unable to afford.
• Set limits on your deposit amounts and time spent betting. Most online sportsbooks now offer the ability for users to set these limits themselves, a critical feature that all bettors should use to ensure that they do not deposit more than their personal bankroll amount and don’t spend too much time focused on gambling.
• Never chase your losses. This is arguably the most common way by which bettors end up losing significant amounts, often more than they can afford to lose. Chasing losses involves placing more bets and/or wagering more than usual in hopes of winning back what was lost. This is a slippery slope where losses can compound quickly and possibly result in negative impacts on financial and mental well-being.
• Never bet while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, as those impair judgment and can potentially lead to placing larger or more bets than usual. If you are out at a sports bar with friends and have been drinking, do not bet. Wagering needs to be done with a clear mind to avoid potential unexpected losses or other issues.

Betting on PGA TOUR golf responsibly

As discussed earlier, betting on golf is different from betting on other sports. In many PGA TOUR events, there are sometimes 140 players or more in the field. That means picking a winner is much more difficult than in most other sports, but is also why some of the associated outright odds can be +10000 or higher. If you are new to golf betting, be sure to familiarize yourself with how to do so responsibly before placing your first wagers.

• Know the tournament format and rules. PGA TOUR events vary in field size, cut rules and playoff formats. This is particularly important in 2024 with “Signature Events.” This year there are eight limited-field Signature Events. The three player-hosted tournaments – The Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday – feature a 36-hole cut to the top 50 and ties, plus any player within 10 shots of the lead. The other five Signature Events do not have a cut.
• Withdrawals (WD): If a player withdraws from a tournament before teeing off, bets on that player are almost always voided. However, if he plays even just one hole and then withdraws (due to injury or illness, for example), wagers on that player are generally graded as losses.
• Limit your number of bets and overall exposure. With hundreds – if not thousands – of golf wagering options available just about every week, it’s important to self-restrict how many bets you place. A smart approach is to ask yourself, “If all of these bets lose, what will my total losses be?” It’s easy to think that at minimum some of your bets will win, but there is unfortunately always the chance that all of them will lose (even when diversifying with different bet types), so calculating your entire exposure is crucial. Always make sure that your total exposure – combined amount wagered – is not more than the bankroll that you’ve chosen.
• Don’t increase your exposure for big tournaments. The excitement of popular tournaments like THE PLAYERS, Signature Events and majors can lead many bettors to wagering more than usual. That increased risk can quickly lead to heavier losses than expected and potentially burning through an entire bankroll. Be sure to avoid getting caught up in the hoopla of a headline event by wagering more than normal.
• It’s a marathon, not a sprint. The golf calendar is unique in that it is close to never-ending. The 2024 PGA TOUR season runs from January through early September, but there are events in other months as well. If you plan to bet on golf every week throughout the season or year, it’s crucial to understand that you will likely have cold streaks spanning multiple tournaments. Therefore, your exposure for any one event should only be a portion of your total bankroll.

Gambling additiction help and treatment

Learning and following best practices for Responsible Gaming can help reduce the chances of sports betting potentially turning into a problem. However, it doesn’t eliminate that possibility completely. Plus, even if you are betting responsibly, it doesn’t mean that a friend or family member is doing so too. Therefore, having and spreading awareness of specialized Gambling Addiction resources is a key piece of the puzzle.

If you or someone you know may be struggling with a gambling problem, there are tailored care options available. Birches Health is a modern, digital treatment provider that has assembled a team of specially trained clinicians to help individuals dealing with gambling disorders and related problems. Birches Health provides a fully confidential experience with easy and quick intake, custom treatment plans and ongoing care.

If you or someone you know may benefit from talking with a Birches Health care specialist, call (833) 483-3838 or send an email to [email protected]