PGA Tour takes big step toward qualifying change

The manager spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.

But such prosperity prompted several players _ including Brandt Snedeker during a Q&A portion of the meeting _ to ask: “If everything is so good, why risk change?”

One reason for change is to make the development tour attractive to a title sponsor _ Nationwide’s sponsorship ends after this year.

When the FedEx Cup began, the regular PGA Tour season ended with the Tour Championship in late September. Then, there were as many as six “Fall Series” events, which gave players a chance to earn their cards by being in the top 125 on the money list.

Those fall events have smaller purses, and are not part of the FedEx Cup.

There are indications, however, that at least two title sponsors of the Fall Series might not be willing to renew contracts unless they are part of the FedEx Cup. That would lead the tour to starting the new season in October, and why it would no longer work to have Q-school in December for players to earn their way onto the big tour.

“It looks likes to me they’re wanting to have a non-calendar year, which means you’ve got to change Q-school,” Phil Mickelson said. “You always have to have change to have growth.”

Finchem has said he not looking to add tournaments in Asia. What he presented to the players was a start of the season that included the Frys.com Open, Las Vegas, the McGladrey Classic, the Asia Pacific Classic in Malaysia, the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, with the year (but not the season) ending at Disney.

There also was a tournament “to be announced,” which might not be on American soil, but not far away.

One of the arguments against the plan is that it eliminates the long shot that plays six great rounds at Q-school and fulfills a dream by reaching the PGA Tour. Now, such a player would only get to the Nationwide Tour, where he would have a year to prove himself.

Another is that it would hamper a young college player from going straight to the PGA Tour. Johnson and J.B. Holmes are among those who recently have gone from Q-school to winning in one year, while Rickie Fowler went from Q-school to playing in the Ryder Cup.

Among the biggest issues still to sort out is how to seed the 75 PGA Tour players who finish out of the top 125 on the money list with the top 75 from the Nationwide Tour money list.

Currently, the top 25 on the Nationwide Tour automatically get PGA Tour cards.

The original plan was for players to be alternately seeded from each tour _ No. 1 on the Nationwide and No. 126 from the PGA Tour would be jointly seeded No. 1, for example. Feedback over the last month, however, indicated that because the top 25 players from the Nationwide Tour got cards, they should be given preferred status.

Now under discussion is how to seed them. One idea was to take the top 25 seeds off the Nationwide Tour, and then alternate between the two tours. Another was to put the top 15 from the Nationwide Tour atop the rankings for the three-tournament series.

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