PGA Championship moves to May instead of August in change of golf schedule
Event will now be the second golf major on the calendar instead of the last, with the British Open now the last of the year
The PGA Championship will move from its typical August date on golf’s global calendar to May starting in 2019 at Bethpage Black, PGA of America chief executive Pete Bevacqua announced on Tuesday.
The move comes after years of discussion about a switch, pushed by golf’s return to the Olympic Games in 2016 that forced last year’s event to be played only two weeks after the British Open and two weeks before the tournament in Rio de Janeiro.
In a related move, the US PGA Players Championship played at the TPC Sawgrass layout in Florida, will return to its March date after being played in May since 2007.
The announcement came two days before the start of the 99th PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.
“Our analysis began in 2013 and included an extensive list of factors, including having to shift the date every four years to accommodate the Olympic Games,” Bevacqua said.
“In the end, we determined that playing the PGA Championship the week prior to Memorial Day in May, making it the second major championship of the golf calendar, will achieve those three objectives.”
