PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is a collective name for a series of professional golf events in the United States, as well as the name of the organization responsible for running these events. Its headquarters are in Ponte Vedra Beach, just outside Jacksonville, Florida. The organization's name is also often expressed as "PGA TOUR" in all caps.
History
Since 1968, the PGA Tour has spun off from the Professional Golf Association of America (referred to as PGA of America), which has become the organization for the club's professional players. The independent players formed a new organization called the Association of Professional Golfers (APG). But soon after, the professional players decided to dissolve the APG and set up a PGA Tour player division managed by 10 directors. The name of this organization officially became the current name in 1975 - "PGA Tour". In 1981, the PGA Tour and the USPGA had disputes over market development, and in late August of the same year, they decided to change the name to "TPA Tour", which is the abbreviation of "Tournament Players Association". But the dispute was resolved seven months later, and the Tour's name was changed back to "PGA Tour" in March 1982.
There are many confusing PGAs in the world of golf. The PGA Tour does not host the Big Four and the Ryder Cup. The USPGA hosts the PGA Championship, one of the four major championships, and the Senior PGA Championship, and the organization also hosts the Ryder Cup in conjunction with the PGA European Tour. Also, the PGA Tour does not involve the U.S. Women's Golf Tournament, which is run by the Women's Professional Golf Association (abbreviated "LPGA"). The PGA Tour is not the governing body of golf in the United States. On the contrary, the United States Golf Association ("USGA") is the official authority for golf in the United States, which is responsible for hosting another major golf tournament. The U.S. Open. Events organized by the PGA Tour include weekly tour events from January to November, as well as The Players Championship, the FedEx Cup and the biennial Presidents Cup.
Series of events
PGA Tour, the top event;
The Champions Tour, for golfers over the age of 50;
Nationwide Tour, an intermediate event.
The PGA Tour organizers also host a six-round qualifying tournament (often referred to as the "Q-School") each fall. The top 25 in this event (including ties) can be invited to the next year's PGA Tour. And all the top 75 players can participate in the next year's national tour.
The top 25 players on the National Tour's total money list each year can be invited to the next year's PGA Tour. In addition, if you win three championships on the tour in the same year, you can "fire line promotion" and be directly invited to participate in the remaining PGA tours of the year.
At the end of each season, the top 125 players on the PGA Tour's overall money list can get a qualifying card that directly advances to most of the next season's PGA Tour events, but there are several invitational tournaments that only offer qualifier-free treatment to the top 70 players from the previous year. Players from 126th to 150th in the total money list can get priority queuing cards, and if the top 125 players have a vacancy in a certain game, they can take priority to replace this spot.
Win a PGA Tour event and get a Qualifying Card to play all of the Tour for the next two years, with one more win, the Qualifying Card can be extended for another year, and so on, but capped at 5 year. Win the World Golf Championship or Tour Championship and get 3 years of qualifying exemptions. If you win any of the four major championships or the Players Championship, you will be exempt from qualifying for five years. In addition, there are some privileges exempted from qualifying tournaments, such as: those who have won more than 20 tour tournament championships can be exempted from qualifying tournaments for life; those who are listed in the top 50 of the career money list but do not meet other qualifying tournament exemption conditions can be eligible to participate in qualifying tournaments. One time-exemption privilege in a year; the top 25 players in the money list above can get two exemptions in a year; for some players who withdraw from the season due to injury, they can use the medical exemption privilege to regain Eligibility Card.
Similar to several other major sports, there are no rules that specifically prohibit women from playing on the PGA Tour. In 2003, Annika Sörenstam and Suzy Whaley represented women on the PGA Tour, and Wie continued on the tour from 2004 to 2008. But all three women failed to make the cut in the competition, with Wei Shengmei just one shot away from the cut in 2004. In contrast, the Ladies Professional Golf Association of America (LPGA), like other women's sports organizations, organizes events that are limited to female players.
The PGA Tour has a strong color of public welfare and charity, which often represents the degree of development of charity in the venue. With the exception of a few older events, most PGA Tour events are not-for-profit, and the PGA Tour organization itself is a non-profit organization. In 2005, the group launched a campaign to raise a billion dollars, and it finally reached that goal a week before the end of the season.
In golf, there is also a PGA European Tour that is not associated with the PGA Tour or the USPGA. It is mainly based on European courses, and also includes some events around the world except North America. Its scale is second only to the PGA Tour. In addition, there are some well-known professional golf tours in the world. Among them, the PGA Tour, the PGA European Tour and some other regional tours together make up the World Golf Championships. These events, along with the four majors, provide money list rankings and official world golf rankings for each year's players.