PGA

Olympics create major changes in PGA Tour schedule next season

Open, PGA only two weeks apart; Players Championshp date unchanged

Garry Smits
Jordan Spieth lines up a putt on the 11th hole during the first round of the Colonial golf tournament, Thursday, May 21, 2015, in Fort Worth, Texas.

The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games will have a significant effect on the PGA Tour schedule for 2015-16, moving the last two majors of the season closer together and moving the World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational up by a month.

Nine tournaments in all will be changing weeks from their usual spots on the Tour calendar.

The golf competition at Rio will be Aug. 11-14, at the Olympic Golf Course. That falls during the traditional week for the PGA Championship, which will be played, on a one-year basis, on July 28-31 at Baltusrol in New Jersey - only two weeks after the British Open July 14-17 at Royal Troon.

The Bridgestone Invitational, usually the week before the PGA, will be June 30-July 3. Other tournaments to make changes will be the John Deere Classic and the Travelers Championship going to August and this week's Quicken Loans National moving to June.

The WGC Dell Match Play in Austin, Texas, which was the week before The Players Championship this season, will be in March, the week after the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando.

The Players remains in its usual spot, May 12-15. The Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C., goes back to its previous position the week before The Players.

Another area event, the McGladrey Classic at the Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga., will be later in the year on Nov. 19-22. It will be the last of seven fall tournaments before the Tour season takes a one-month break.

The Masters will be April 7-10 and the U.S. Open June 16-19 at Oakmont. The FedEx Cup playoff events will be at Bethpage State Park in New York (Aug. 25-28), the TPC Boston (Sept. 2-5) and Crooked Stick in Indiana (Sept. 8-11). After a one-week break, the season concludes in Atlanta for the Tour Championship at East Lake on Sept. 22-25.

Some of the participants in the Tour Championship will then have to hop a plane to get to Hazeltine National in Chaska, Minn., for the Ryder Cup, Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

Garry Smits: (904) 359-4362