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PGA Tour begins 2022-23 season — and the end of its decade-long wraparound schedule

Garry Smits, Florida Times-Union
·5 min read
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Max Homa celebrates his birdie putt at the 17th hole of the Silverado Resort North Course in Napa, Calif., last year. He won the tournament and went on to finish fifth on the FedEx Cup points list.
Max Homa celebrates his birdie putt at the 17th hole of the Silverado Resort North Course in Napa, Calif., last year. He won the tournament and went on to finish fifth on the FedEx Cup points list.

It's the end of an era in Napa Valley.

The PGA Tour will begin its final wraparound season on Thursday with the Fortinet Championship, at the Silverado Resort in Napa, Calif. The Tour has begun in the fall every year since 2013 and an event in Napa has been the lid-lifter in nine of those 10 years.

After the end of the 2022-23 FedEx Cup season, the top-70 players on the points list will advance to the first playoff event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship. The top-50 after that will qualify for the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields near Chicago and the top-30 then make the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.

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The players who finish outside the top-70 will compete in a series of fall events for the chance to end up among the top-125 and retain their PGA Tour cards for 2024. The new season will then start with the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Kapalua.

Starting a season in September meant a long road to the FedEx Cup playoffs. But most of the winners at Napa used that victory as a springboard to East Lake.

Defending champion Max Homa went on to win the Wells Fargo Championship and finished fifth on the final FedEx Cup points list. He posted the highest finish on the FedEx Cup of any Fortinet Championship winner, bookending a seventh-place finish for Jimmy Walker after he won in 2013.

Four of the other seven winners from Napa made the Tour Championship: Sangmoon Bae in 2014 (26th on the final points standings), Emiliano Grillo in 2015 (11th), Cameron Champ in 2019 (24th) and Stewart Cink in 2020 (26th).

Rookies starting early

There are 28 players who have been defined as rookies for the upcoming season and 27 of them will be competing at Napa.

Among them is University of North Florida graduate Philip Knowles, who earned his PGA Tour card at the Korn Ferry Finals. He is the third player in UNF history to get his Tour card.

Other rookies playing this week include Tyson Alexander, a former University of Florida player and the son of former Gators coach Buddy Alexander, Air Force Academy graduate Kyle Westmoreland, the first from that service academy and the second overall in history to play on the Tour, Davis Thompson of St. Simons Island, Ga., who played at Georgia and another former Gator, Nicholas Echavarria.

Sorenstam to host LPGA event

World Golf Hall of Fame member Annika Sorenstam has hosted an American Junior Golf Association tournament at the Hall of Fame in St. Augustine — among other events worldwide.

She’s now going to host an LPGA event beginning next year.

The Pelican Women’s Championship, which has been played in the Tampa Bay area in November, will now be “The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.” It will be at the Pelican Golf Club in Belleair and will be the final event before the season-ending CME Group Championship in Naples.

World Golf Hall of Fame member Annika Sorenstam, teeing off in last year's Furyk & Friends Celebrity Challenge, will begin hosting her own LPGA event next year.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Annika Sorenstam, teeing off in last year's Furyk & Friends Celebrity Challenge, will begin hosting her own LPGA event next year.

Gainbridge will shift its sponsorship from the LPGA’s tournament at Lake Nona in Orlando.

Sorenstam will be the only LPGA player to serve as an official host of an official-money event. Lorena Ochoa hosted a tournament in Mexico for nine years, which ended in 2017.

Sorenstam has also hosted college events the currently co-hosts the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed with Henrik Stenson on the LET and DP World Tour.

In 2007 and 2008, she was involved in the LPGA’s Ginn Tribute hosted by Annika in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Sorenstam won 72 times on the LPGA, including 10 majors and remains the LPGA’s all-time money leader with over $22 million. She won the U.S. Senior Women’s Open earlier this summer at the Brooklawn Country Club.

Golfweek.com contributed to this report.

PGA TOUR

Event: Fortinet Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Silverado Resort, Napa, Calif.

At stake: $8 million purse ($1,440,000 and 500 FedEx Cup points to the winner.

Defending champion: Max Homa.

TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Sunday, 6-9 p.m.).

Area players entered: Harris English, Patton Kizzire, Philip Knowles, Russell Knox, David Lingmerth, Trey Mullinax, Doc Redman, Sam Ryder, Greyson Sigg, Davis Thompson, Michael Thompson, Carl Yuan.

Notable: The 2022-23 season opens in the California wine country, the last time the wraparound calendar format will be used. The 2024 season will begin in January. … Homa shot 65-65 on the weekend and beat Maverick McNealy by one shot. … Hideki Matsuyama, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day and Sahith Theegala lead the field. … Past PGA champion Jimmy Walker is using a one-time exemption for top-50 career earnings to play this season.

LPGA TOUR

Event: Portland Classic, Thursday-Sunday, Columbia Edgewater Country Club, Portland, Ore.

At stake: $1.5 million purse ($225,000 to the winner).

Defending champion: Jin Young Ko.

TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m.).

Area players entered: Chella Choi, Amelia Lewis.

Notable: Ko beat Jeongeun Lee and Su Oh by four shots. … Twenty players have won the 24 tournaments so far, with Jennifer Kupcho leading with three. The only other multiple winners are Brooke Henderson and Minjee Lee. … Players from 12 countries have won this season, led by the U.S. with six.

PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS

Event: Sanford Invitational, Friday-Sunday, Minnehaha Country Club, Sioux Falls, S.D.

At stake: $2 million purse ($300,000 to the winner).

Defending champion: Darren Clarke.

TV: Golf Channel (Friday-Sunday, 9:30-11:30 p.m.).

Area players entered: David Duval, Fred Funk, Davis Love III.

Notable: Clarke defeated K.J. Choi and Steve Flesch with a birdie on the second playoff hole. … Fred Couples, Ernie Els, John Daly, Bernhard Langer and last week’s winner, Padraig Harrington, lead the field. … There is only one more tournament, the Pure Insurance Championship Sept. 23-25 at Pebble Beach, before the Champions Tour comes to Jacksonville Oct. 7-9 for the Constellation Furyk & Friends at the Timuquana Country Club.

Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GSmitter

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: PGA Tour begins 2022-23 season -- and the end of wraparound schedules