McIlroy joins Tiger at Japan’s first PGA event

Former world number one Rory McIlroy will join 15-time major-winner Tiger Woods at Japan’s first PGA Tour tournament later this year, organisers announced yesterday. Woods had already confirmed his participation, but McIlroy’s addition considerably brightens the star power at the $9.75mn Zozo Championship in October. “It is wonderful we have the opportunity to compete in Japan this year and I’m truly excited to be heading” to the tournament, the 30-year-old Northern Ireland star said in a press release. McIlroy’s commitment is “a fantastic addition,” organisers of the Zozo Championship said.“I know golf fans in Japan are very supportive and knowledgeable of the game and it’ll be really cool and fun for the PGA Tour players to perform in front of them for the first time,” McIlroy said. “In my career, I’ve won all around the world and it’ll be an achievement if I can register my first title in Japan.”McIlroy, the world number three, is currently ranked second on the FedExCup points list. The four-time major-winner was world number one for 95 weeks between 2012 to 2015. A total of 78 players, including the leading 60 players from the FedExCup points list, will compete at the Zozo Championship in Chiba, near Tokyo, from October 24-27.US PGA Tour to reduce number of players who make the cut: reportFewer players will make the cut at US PGA Tour events in the 2019-2020 season, US media reported on Tuesday. Golf Digest reported the tour’s policy board approved changes that will reduce the number of players making the 36-hole cut from the top 70 players and those tied to the top 65.The new rules will also eliminate the secondary 54-hole cut, which were used to reduce the field for the final round in tournaments in which 78 or more players made the 36-hole cut. England’s Paul Casey, a member of the tour’s Player Advisory Council, told Golf Digest he’s in favour of the system, even though it will see prize money going to fewer players.“As long as we’re not taking away opportunities to get into events — and I don’t think this is taking away earnings or opportunities for players — this is the right thing to do,” Casey said. Having fewer players on the weekend will reduce instances of having to play in threesomes rather than pairs and use split tees in order to get the final rounds completed on schedule. “We have to protect the product,” Casey said. “We have too many three-balls and two-tee starts on the weekend.”Meanwhile, new events in Japan and Bermuda plus a return for the Greenbrier and Houston Open were named on Tuesday as part of an expanded 2019-20 US PGA schedule. The next campaign will include 49 events, three more than the current season, with additions to the early events and some shifts late in the schedule near the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.The new season begins September 12-15 at the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia followed by four more US events, including the Houston Open, which like the Greenbrier took a one-year hiatus after a major PGA schedule revamp for this season. A three-week Asian swing follows with the CJ Cup in South Korea, the new Zozo Championship in Japan replacing a previous stop in Malaysia and the WGC HSBC Championship in Shanghai the same week as the new Bermuda Championship at Port Royal in Southampton.The 2019 portion of the season concludes with November stops in Mexico and at the RSM Classic.The tour resumes in January and the nearly the first five months are unchanged before the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit moves from late June to the end of May, adding an event between the PGA Championship and the US Open. The WGC St. Jude Invitational and the PGA’s Barracuda Championship, played just last week in the current calendar, shift to July 2-5 while the 3M Open in Minnesota shifts to July 20-26, the week before the Olympic tournament, which ends August 2, and the week after the British Open.After the Olympics comes the PGA Tour season finale August 6-9 at the Wyndham Championship followed by the tour’s three season-ending playoff events, culminating with the Tour Championship on August 27-30.