The PGA Tour season ends on August 27. The Ryder Cup begins a month later. And then the top 50 FedEx Cup players won’t have to play again until early 2024, unless they want to add them to their trophy case or bank account.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan doesn’t see many top players staying at home.

«I don’t think it’s realistic for a player to finish the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup and not play golf until January,» Monahan said last week at the Wells Fargo Championship.

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Jay Monahan, the Commissioner of the PGA Tour, speaks to the media as he previews THE PLAYERS Championship at THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. (David Cannon/Getty Images)

The idea of ​​a real offseason sounds good on paper. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were among those who pushed for a shorter regular season. Woods in 2005 was pushing for a condensed schedule that would bring the best players together more often.

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The FedEx Cup came in 2007, and Woods was true to his word. He didn’t play for 10 weeks, returning to his Target World Challenge in December. He won, leading Colin Montgomerie to say, «If he took a fucking year off, he’d help, never mind 10 weeks.»

Mickelson played a post-Tour Championship stint in Singapore, China, and the California event his management company hosted. All were tied to corporate and business deals. Woods ended up going to Australia and Asia until back problems held him back.

Now the PGA Tour will have an idea of ​​how this generation of stars will react.

Jay Monahan with Scott Scheffler

PGA TOUR commissioner Jay Monahan speaks with winner Scottie Scheffler of the United States during the trophy ceremony during the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship at THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

FedEx Cup points continue through the seven-tournament fall schedule, though the top 50 are locked in for all $20 million events. The drop is for players to keep their full status by finishing in the top 125 or to improve their position to qualify for some of the big events.

So why play? As Monahan sees it, that’s exactly what they do.

«I still think players mean sharp. They’re going to be competing against players in the top 70. I think they’re going to see the same, if not more players playing at that time of year,» he said. «Listen, winning is always going to have an incredible consequence on your career.»

If that is the case, it remains to be determined where the best players will go. It was Ernie Els who said in 2007 that the latter part of the year is when «you’ve got the wheelbarrow out there. You want to cash in a little.»

The case of LIV Golf is also worth noting. Some of the best players, like Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, went three months without competing after the inaugural season ended. The time off did wonders for Koepka’s health, and he finished second in the Masters.

Johnson hasn’t competed anywhere since returning and is No. 20 in the LIV Golf rankings.

RICKIE’S GOLDEN TICKET

Before winning the PGA Tour, Rickie Fowler said in a 2011 interview that top 50 status in the world was just as valuable as winning a tournament.

So consider your tie for 14th in the Wells Fargo Championship a win.

That was enough to move Fowler to No. 50 in this week’s world golf rankings, a place he hadn’t been since late November 2020. Fowler missed the cut at Mayakoba and dropped to No. 52, and has been out ever since.

The nadir was late in the 2022 season when he dropped to No. 185. Fowler tied for sixth in the Fortinet Championship and has been climbing steadily ever since. He hasn’t missed a cut since October.

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Fowler would appear confident of remaining in the top 60 after the PGA Championship, which would leave him exempt for the US Open. He has to stay in the top 50 after the PGA to be exempt for the British Open.

The PGA Championship was the only major he played last year.

LIV FONDO TO THE SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

Sihwan Kim stands out at LIV Golf this year because his name always seems to be at the bottom of the 48-man courses.

Well, not always. He is coming off his best result of the season two weeks ago when he was 45th in Singapore. In five events, Kim finished ahead of a total of four players: Chase Koepka, Abraham Ancer and James Piot in Singapore, and Sam Horsfield in Australia when the Englishman withdrew due to injury.

The next step for Kim? The PGA Championship.

Jay Monahan public speaking

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan watches the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship on the field of THE PLAYERS Stadium at TPC Sawgrass. (Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

It doesn’t matter that the 34-year-old American is ranked 239th in the world. He has earned one of the three places in the new «International Federation Ranking». It was created this year to help tournaments identify players competing on the Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia and Sunshine Tour.

Kim achieved one of the top three places by winning the Asian Tour Order of Merit last year. He’s in a slump right now, but he doesn’t have to look too far back to find good golf. He won twice last year, including the International Series-Thailand, and three of his seven top-10 finishes have come in International Series events.

The other two places in the International Federation Rankings go to Kazuki Higa of Japan and Ockie Strydom of South Africa. Higa received an invite to the Masters last month.

Kim was Freshman of the Year at Stanford and won the 2008 US Junior Amateur at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. The PGA will be his second major. He missed the cut at the British Open at St. Andrews last summer.

EYE IN PEBBLE

The US Women’s Open is finally taking place on the most iconic US Open course, and there’s a long line to get in. The USGA has accepted a record 2,107 entries for the Women’s Open at Pebble Beach from July 6-9.

Pebble Beach has hosted the men’s US Open six times, and now the best women in the world have a chance. The US Women’s Open is already scheduled to return to Pebble three more times through 2048.

It was the first time that the number of entries exceeded 2,000. The previous record was 1,874 set last year for the Women’s Open at Pine Needles.

Qualifying began Tuesday and is taking place on 23 courses through June 7. Among those who signed up to qualify were previous champions Paula Creamer and Cristie Kerr, who received waivers two years ago.

Annika Sorenstam, a three-time Women’s Open champion, received a special exemption, as did 2011 champion So Yeon Ryu.

DIVOTES

The PGA Tour is enhancing its «PGA Tour University» program by offering the leading player coming out of college a card for the remainder of 2023 and all of 2024 (subject to reclassifications during 2024). Players finishing at numbers 2 through 5 have Korn Ferry status through 2024 and can play unlimited PGA Tour events with sponsor exemptions. … The Epson Tour is adding the Black Desert Resort Championship in Salt Lake City to its schedule. The record purse of $375,000 brings the prize pool for the season to more than $5 million. Five years ago, the prize money for the tour was just under $3 million. … Texas Tech’s Ludvig Aberg has the opportunity to join Jon Rahm as the only back-to-back winners of the Ben Hogan Award given to the nation’s top college golfer. Aberg was named a finalist along with Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent and Stanford’s Michael Thorbjornsen. … Six days after being named Presidents Cup captain, Jim Furyk was selected to be one of Zach Johnson’s Ryder Cup assistants. Furyk, the US captain to the 2018 loss in France, was an assistant to the winning teams at Hazeltine and Whistling Straits.

STATISTICS OF THE WEEK

Of the 11 LIV Golf players who filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour last August, only Bryson DeChambeau and Matt Jones remain as plaintiffs. Peter Uihlein was the most recent player to withdraw from the lawsuit.

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FINAL WORD

«Tiger was pretty clear when he captained the Presidents Cup in Australia that this was going to be his moment. He wants that moment to be shared with others. Once he tells you he’s going to do something a certain way, that’s the way it goes.» it will». do it.» — Jay Monahan on why Tiger Woods was not considered Presidents Cup captain again