Another busy finish on PGA Tour

[October 30, 2012]  PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- The PGA Tour released its 2013 schedule on Monday, with only 40 events as it prepares for a wraparound season that will start next fall.

The 2013 season begins with the Tournament of Champions at Kapalua on Jan. 4-7, which again features a Monday finish. The FedEx Cup concludes with the Tour Championship on Sept. 19-22, and then the 2013-14 season will start a few weeks later in October.

For the last six years, at least four tournaments -- part of the Fall Series -- were held after the FedEx Cup ended. That gave players a chance to earn enough money to keep their cards by finishing in the top 125 on the PGA Tour money list. Next year, most of those Fall Series event will be considered the start of a new season.

For the most part, there were no surprises and very little movement.

The Masters traditionally ends on the second Sunday in April, which in 2013 is April 14. That created an extra week between the Florida Swing and the Masters. The tour will go from Bay Hill to the Houston Open and then the Texas Open leading up to Augusta National.

The Greenbrier Classic again will be held the first full week in July, which leads to a busy end of the season. This year, several players with ties to the Canadian Open wound up playing eight out of the last 10 tournaments, including four playoff events, a major championship and a World Golf Championship.

The one-week break during the FedEx Cup playoffs will be between the Labor Day finish of the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston and the BMW Championship, the third playoff event that moves to Conway Farms north of Chicago.

There also will be a one-week break between the Tour Championship and the Presidents Cup, which will be played at Muirfield Village on Oct. 3-6.

The tour said it would award slightly more FedEx Cup points to the three opposite-field events, held the same week as World Golf Championships and the British Open. The winner of those events will get 300 points, up from 250 points.

The U.S. Open returns to Merion outside Philadelphia for the first time since 1981, while the PGA Championship will be played at Oak Hill, which last hosted a major in 2003 when Shaun Micheel won the PGA. The British Open will be at Muirfield, were Ernie Els won in 2002. The only other golf course changes are at the Canadian Open (Glen Abbey) and The Barclays (Liberty National)

Still on the schedule is the Tampa Bay Championship at Innisbrook on March 14-17, which is still looking for a title sponsor.

The Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico previously was held the same week in late February as the Match Play Championship. It will be moving to the fall, likely as the anchor of the fall start to the 2013-14 season. The fall schedule has not been released.

[Associated Press]

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