PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - For almost 50 years, the golf season has been defined by four major championships that start in April with the Masters Tournament and end in August with the PGA Championship.
What the PGA Tour wants is a World Series, its own version of a Fall Classic.
Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is pulling together the final pieces of a radical shift in the schedule, featuring a shorter season and a points race that intensifies after the majors. The plan is for three blockbuster events to qualify for the Tour Championship, with perhaps a $10 million payoff to the winner.
Multiple sources involved in the discussion, all speaking on condition of anonymity because the changes have not been announced, say the three tournaments will be the Barclays Classic in New York, the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston and the Western Open in Chicago.
Still undecided is a title sponsor for the Western Open, with Chrysler in negotiations over the weekend.
Finchem will give his "State of the Tour" on Wednesday at the Tour Championship, although he might only be able to provide an outline of the proposed changes.
A PGA Tour source said Finchem might be in position to announce The Players Championship moving from the end of March to the beginning of May, which would give golf a major event every month from April to August.
The changes are designed to put some sizzle into the end of the year, when TV ratings plummet as golf struggles to compete against football.
Finchem believes golf can hold its own in September, when football is just getting started. He was inspired by higher ratings the past two months at the Presidents Cup, which came down to the final match, and the American Express Championship, where Tiger Woods beat John Daly in a playoff.
"Good tournaments can compete and perform very nicely," Finchem said.
This isn't the first time the tour has tried to revamp the end of the year. It created the Vantage Championship in 1986, which offered a $1 million purse - enormous in those days. The event then became the Nabisco Championship - the precursor to the Tour Championship.
The Tour Championship has lost some of its buzz in recent years. Plus, the Tour Champion-ship has not decided player of the year seven out of the past 10 years.
One source said under the new model, points would be adjusted after the PGA Championship so that up to 70 players would still have a chance to qualify for the Tour Championship and win the points chase.
The source said the latest proposal is for the points race to start at the season-opening Mercedes Championships and run through the PGA Championship. Then, points would be staggered for the final month of the season, much like NASCAR's Chase for the championship.
Woods has met with Finchem at least four times this year, and presumably has signed off on the changes.
It's all part of a plan to make golf compelling beyond the four majors.
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