Rozner: What will PGA look like at Medinah in two years?
The announcement probably flew under the radar in Chicago.
It was right after the baseball trade deadline and Bears GM Ryan Pace was likely talking about how excited he was with Mike Glennon's progress and all the impact players he's added to his growing list of superstars.
So it's unlikely most people noticed in early August that the PGA Tour and the PGA of America made a major move, shifting The Players Championship from May to March in 2019, allowing the PGA Championship to be relocated from August to May.
It was huge for so many reasons.
The Players is considered - by Tour players themselves - to be the fifth major, and it will now kick off the big events in March with the Masters in April, the PGA Championship in May, the U.S. Open in June and the Open Championship in July.
Five straight months with the five biggest tournaments of the year, but with four straight months of majors, clearing the decks in August for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Each year since the four-tournament playoffs began in 2007, at least two events and sometimes three conflicted with college and pro football, so the casual golf fan would end the season with the PGA Championship in August and move on without paying much attention to the postseason.
It defeated the purpose of the FedEx, which was to keep golf in the headlines and give the players a way to wrap up the season in style.
This matters in football cities like Chicago, New York, Boston, Atlanta and Indianapolis, where the playoff events typically occur, but now the plan is to have the playoffs wrap up at the Tour Championship in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend in 2019.
And it means the next time the BMW Championship comes to Chicago in two years, the FedEx won't be competing with the NFL.
It was always baffling to see the Tour come to town for an NBC event and have the Bears up against it on Sunday.
It made absolutely no sense.
NBC, which also has football, could have made certain the Bears were at night or on another day, but instead every year it was the same nonsense, especially for a tournament on the North Shore.
When Medinah hosts the BMW in August 2019, the Bears will still be sweating out the preseason.
It's equally unthinkable that Chicago doesn't have a PGA Tour stop every year, as it did for so many decades.
At least next time football will not cast a shadow over the top 70 players battling it out for the BMW here in town, and Medinah has always done a spectacular job setting up for huge crowds, as it's done several times for the U.S. Open, PGA Championship and Ryder Cup.
So what will we see when the PGA returns two years from now? There are some certainties.
Jordan Spieth will be somewhere near the top of the standings. He does it with brains, preparation and an impressive desire to win. He doesn't have a tenth the talent of Dustin Johnson, who should win every week and somehow fails to get the engine running half the time.
By 2019, the Tour might be dominated by the likes of Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama, Daniel Berger, Brooks Koepka, Ollie Schniederjans, Patrick Rodgers, Tony Finau, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Thomas Pieters and Emiliano Grillo, just a few of the several dozen players under 30 who are so talented and so driven.
The scary part is there are scores of players coming off the Web, from the European Tour and out of the NCAAs capable of winning immediately.
They are the Tiger Wave. They are fearless. And they are numerous.
Will Rickie Fowler ever figure out how to play on Sunday the way he does the rest of the week? Will Jason Day and Rory McIlroy get healthy enough to dominate again? Will Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley, the Ryder Cup team that thrilled Chicagoans at Medinah in 2012, still be top 70 guys by then?
It's a shame you have to wait two years to find out.
brozner@dailyherald.com
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