BRIEF TOUR HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY

It is not easy to pinpoint the exact beginning of the PGA TOUR...

Certainly, professionals have competed against each other from the earliest days of the game in the United States. In 1895, 10 professional golfers and one amateur played in the first U.S. Open in Newport, Rhode Island, Shortly thereafter, tournaments began to pop up across the country, including the Western Open in 1899. But this was not “tour” golf. The events lacked continuity. Interest in the game, however, continued to grow. American professionals were rapidly improving. When John McDermott became the first American-born player to win the U.S. Open in 1911, interest in the game blossomed. That interest became enthusiasm in 1913 when Englishmen Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, the world’s best players, came to the United States to play an exhibition tour and compete in the U.S. Open. When 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet defeated the pair in a playoff at Brookline, Massachusetts, golf became front-page news and a game for everyone. In the early 1920s, a series of tournaments was held on the West Coast, in Texas and Florida. These events were held in the winter, and the golfers played their way east and up to Pinehurst, North Carolina, in the spring. By the middle of the decade, the tour was doing relatively well—offering $77,000 in total prize money. The first “playing professionals” organization was formed in 1932. Two years earlier, Bob Harlow had been named manager of the PGA Tournament Bureau. The tour became more structured following World War II and grew rapidly in the late 1950s and early 1960s. When the combination of Arnold Palmer, televised golf and President Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived on the scene in the late 1950s, the eyes of the world were on golf. This exposure inspired millions to try the game and made superstars of golf’s greats like Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

Formal Beginning

Most golf historians trace the “formal” beginning of the PGA TOUR to late 1968, when the “Tournament Players Division” split from the PGA of America and hired Joe Dey as its first commissioner. That organization became the modern-day PGA TOUR. Dey served from early 1969 through February 28, 1974, and was succeeded by four-time PGA TOUR winner Deane R. Beman on March 1, 1974. During Beman’s administration, the value of tournament purses escalated at an unprecedented rate. PGA TOUR assets grew from $730,000 in 1974 to more than $200 million, and total revenues increased from $3.9 million to $229 million in 1993. The TOUR also moved its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where in 1980, it introduced the era of stadium golf with the opening of TPC Sawgrass, which would become the permanent home of THE PLAYERS Championship in 1982. Tim Finchem became the TOUR’s third commissioner, on June 1, 1994 and served through December 31, 2016. During his 22 years in office, Finchem was instrumental in expanding the TOUR’s international footprint, growing earnings opportunities for PGA TOUR members and introducing events such as the Presidents Cup (1994), the World Golf Championships (1999) and the season-long FedExCup race (2007). Charity was also a significant focus of Finchem’s tenure as commissioner. In January 2014, the TOUR and its tournaments reached the $2-billion milestone in charitable contributions, with $1 billion of that total raised since 2006. Jay Monahan took office as the fourth commissioner of the PGA TOUR on January 1, 2017. Monahan joined the PGA TOUR in 2008 as Executive Director of THE PLAYERS Championship, and prior to being appointed commissioner, ascended to the position of Deputy Commissioner on April 1, 2014, with Chief Operating Officer added to his title on April 1, 2016.

Today's PGA TOUR

The competitive scope of the PGA TOUR is also much broader today. The PGA TOUR schedule has continued to expand both domestically and internationally, and the season-long FedExCup competition enters its 15th season in 2020-21, having crowned golf’s top players including Tiger Woods (2007 and 2009), Jordan Spieth (2015), Rory McIlroy (2016, 2019), Justin Thomas (2017) and most recently, Dustin Johnson in 2020. For the first time since 1904, golf took part in the Summer Olympics Games with its return celebrated in Rio in 2016. And in addition to PGA TOUR Champions and the Korn Ferry Tour, the TOUR has increased playing opportunities across all levels globally with three international Tours – PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR Series-China – and in June 2020, the TOUR launched PGA TOUR University, a program designed to create a pathway for the top four-year NCAA golfers into the professional ranks. Like the rest of the world, the golf industry was thrown off its axis with the arrival of the COVID-19 global pandemic in the early months of 2020. Following a 12-week hiatus, with cancellations and postponements across all Tours, the PGA TOUR championed the Return to Golf, and on June 11, 2020, the TOUR became one of the first sports leagues to return to competition with the opening tee shots at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas. Working with leading golf organizations, and with its title sponsors, host organizations and media partners, the PGA TOUR announced a reimagined schedule, which saw the completion of the 2019-20 FedExCup Season, and set up the 2020-21 campaign, of which would become a super season of 50 events, with more significant events than ever before – including two playings of the U.S. Open and Masters Tournament, as well as the Olympic Games.