PGA Tour’s response to LIV Golf lands blow to Fort Worth’s Charles Schwab Challenge
The collateral effects of the biggest fight professional golf has ever experienced has hit Fort Worth’s annual PGA Tour event.
According to sources, the PGA Tour has informed the Charles Schwab Challenge tournament that it will not be one of the four remaining “elevated” tournaments on the 2023 calendar.
The PGA Tour did not respond for comment.
In August, the PGA Tour announced scheduling changes for 2023, which featured 13 “elevated” events. There were four left that were, at the time, to be determined.
These elevated events will most likely draw the top players in the rankings because of purses of more than $20 million.
According to a report by the Associated Press, the AT&T Byron Nelson at Craig Ranch in McKinney is not included in this new foursome. The four additional elevated tournaments in 2023 will be the WM Phoenix Open, the RBC Heritage in South Carolina, the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, and the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.
The announcement and changes to the schedule were made by the PGA Tour in response to the new Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which has been a 9-iron to the world of professional golf and caused a split between those who defected for buckets of cash and those who did not.
The PGA Tour has effectively suspended any PGA Tour member who went to the rival league, which includes former Colonial champion Phil Mickelson.
The PGA Tour created these “elevated” tournaments in response to LIV Golf’s enormous purses that lured away some of the PGA Tour’s biggest names to join that organization; at the time of the announcement, the Tour said there were four more remaining events that would receive “elevated” status.
Tournaments such as the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth crossed their fingers and hoped they would be one of the four. Its total purse in 2022 was $8.4 million.
CS Challenge organizers all hoped that the PGA Tour’s personal relationship with Charles Schwab himself would help sway the Tour’s decision.
Didn’t happen.
The elevated events that were previously announced for 2023 include the three FedEx Cup playoff tournaments (St. Jude Championship, BMW Championship and Tour Championship); the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles; Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando; Memorial Tournament in Columbus, Ohio; WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin; Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui; and The Players and TPC Sawgrass in Florida.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan intimated that the remaining four elevated tournaments could be rotated in the future, meaning the CS Challenge will likely enjoy that status at some point.
With established pros from DFW such as Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth and Will Zalatoris, the Charles Schwab Challenge could still feature a decent field, but without that elevated distinction, and $20 million purse, it’s hard to envision any tournament will be as strong without it.
None of this happens without the creation of LIV Golf, which will certainly benefit the players’ bank accounts while it has created a messy distraction for the sport, and a clear dividing line on the PGA Tour schedule.
The CS Challenge at Colonial Country Club is scheduled for May 25-28, 2023.
This story was originally published October 19, 2022 at 6:35 PM.
