The 2019–20 PGA Tour was the 105th season of the PGA Tour, the main professional golf tour in the United States. It was also the 52nd season since separating from the PGA of America, and the 14th edition of the FedEx Cup.
Changes for 2019–20 Rule changes The number of players making a 36-hole cut was reduced from top 70 and ties to top 65 and ties. The 54-hole secondary cut, previously in effect when more than 78 players made a 36-hole cut, was eliminated.
Tournament changes Date changes: in order to accommodate the 2020 Summer Olympics, the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and the alternate Barracuda Championship were both scheduled for early July, two weeks earlier than the previous season, with the 3M Open moving the other way, to late July. Several other tournaments also had new dates: the Rocket Mortgage Classic (from late June to late May); the Sanderson Farms Championship (from late October to mid September); the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (from early November to early October). Returning tournaments: the Greenbrier Classic and the Houston Open returned having been missing in 2018–19 due to scheduling changes; the Greenbrier, having moved from July to September, became the new season opening event, and the Houston Open was in mid-October having been held in April, the week prior to the Masters Tournament, since 2007. New tournaments: Zozo Championship (Japan), Bermuda Championship (created as a new alternate event to the WGC-HSBC Champions). The Workday Charity Open was also created as a new, one-off event in response to scheduling changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Status changes: the Sanderson Farms Championship was upgraded from an alternate event to a full FedEx Cup point event; the Genesis Open gained invitational status and was renamed the Genesis Invitational with Tiger Woods as the tournament host. No longer on the schedule: CIMB Classic (Malaysia).
COVID-19 pandemic impact
The season was effectively suspended on March 12 with the cancellation of The Players Championship after the first round due to growing concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Several more tournaments were later canceled or postponed, including all four major championships, the two remaining World Golf Championships and the Tokyo Summer Olympics. The tour resumed on June 11 with the Charles Schwab Challenge, with measures in place to mitigate the risk of virus transmission. The following week at the RBC Heritage, Nick Watney became to first player to test positive for coronavirus.
The tournament schedule was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The tour played the first round of the 2020 Players Championship on March 12, and stated that subsequent rounds and tournaments would continue behind closed doors. However, the PGA Tour later announced that, "based on the rapidly changing situation", the rest of the tournament had been cancelled, as well as the next three events on the schedule (the Valspar Championship, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, and Valero Texas Open). On March 13, Augusta National Golf Club announced that it would postpone the Masters Tournament; the first men's major of the golf season; the tournament was to begin April 9. On March 17, the tour announced the cancellation of all scheduled tournaments through May 10 (the RBC Heritage, Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Wells Fargo Championship and AT&T Byron Nelson) and confirmed the postponement of the PGA Championship, scheduled to begin May 14, by the PGA of America.
On April 16, the tour announced several changes to the remaining schedule, with the intention of restarting with the Charles Schwab Challenge, which was moved from May 18–24 to June 11–14. Several tournaments were also rescheduled, including the RBC Heritage (which had earlier been canceled) the Memorial Tournament and the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, and others were canceled, including the RBC Canadian Open. Furthermore, the tour also announced that three invitationals (Colonial, Heritage, Memorial) would be expanded from the usual 120-player field to become full-field (144 golfer) events.
During the hiatus, two charity exhibition matches were held. The first was a skins game, titled as the "TaylorMade Driving Relief", held at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida on May 17, featuring Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff. The second was a better ball pro-celebrity match play, titled as The Match: Champions for Charity, featuring Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady.
The tour resumed without spectators in mid-June with the Charles Schwab Challenge. The Memorial Tournament in mid-July was planned to be the first event to welcome back fans, but those plans were canceled the week before the tournament. On July 13, the tour announced that the remainder of the season would be played behind closed doors.
Schedule The following table lists official events during the 2019–20 season.
DateTournamentLocationPurse(US$)WinnerOWGRpointsOthertoursNotesA Military Tribute at The GreenbrierWest Virginia7,500,000 Joaquín Niemann (1)32Sanderson Farms ChampionshipMississippi6,600,000 Sebastián Muñoz (1)26Safeway OpenCalifornia6,600,000 Cameron Champ (2)48Shriners Hospitals for Children OpenNevada7,000,000 Kevin Na (4)54Houston OpenTexas7,500,000 Lanto Griffin (1)24CJ CupSouth Korea9,750,000 Justin Thomas (11)52Limited-field eventZozo ChampionshipJapan9,750,000 Tiger Woods (82)64JPNNew limited-field eventWGC-HSBC ChampionsChina10,250,000 Rory McIlroy (18)60World Golf ChampionshipBermuda ChampionshipBermuda3,000,000 Brendon Todd (2)24New tournamentAlternate eventMayakoba Golf ClassicMexico7,200,000 Brendon Todd (3)34RSM ClassicGeorgia6,600,000 Tyler Duncan (1)28Sentry Tournament of ChampionsHawaii6,700,000 Justin Thomas (12)48Winners-only eventSony Open in HawaiiHawaii6,600,000 Cameron Smith (2)46The American ExpressCalifornia6,700,000 Andrew Landry (2)40Pro-AmFarmers Insurance OpenCalifornia7,500,000 Marc Leishman (5)54Waste Management Phoenix OpenArizona7,300,000 Webb Simpson (6)54AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-AmCalifornia7,800,000 Nick Taylor (2)42Pro-AmGenesis InvitationalCalifornia9,300,000 Adam Scott (14)70InvitationalWGC-Mexico ChampionshipMexico10,500,000 Patrick Reed (8)70World Golf ChampionshipPuerto Rico OpenPuerto Rico3,000,000 Viktor Hovland (1)24Alternate eventThe Honda ClassicFlorida7,000,000 Im Sung-jae (1)46Arnold Palmer InvitationalFlorida9,300,000 Tyrrell Hatton (1)66InvitationalThe Players ChampionshipFlorida–Canceled after round one–Flagship eventValspar ChampionshipFlorida–Canceled–WGC-Dell Technologies Match PlayTexas–Canceled–World Golf ChampionshipCorales Puntacana Resort and Club ChampionshipDominican Republic–Postponed–Alternate eventValero Texas OpenTexas–Canceled–Masters TournamentGeorgia–Postponed–Major championshipZurich Classic of New OrleansLouisiana–Canceled–Team eventWells Fargo ChampionshipNorth Carolina–Canceled–AT&T Byron NelsonTexas–Canceled–RBC Canadian OpenCanada–Canceled–Charles Schwab ChallengeTexas7,500,000 Daniel Berger (3)72U.S. OpenNew York–Postponed–Major championshipRBC HeritageSouth Carolina7,100,000 Webb Simpson (7)72Travelers ChampionshipConnecticut7,400,000 Dustin Johnson (21)68Rocket Mortgage ClassicMichigan7,500,000 Bryson DeChambeau (6)48John Deere ClassicIllinois–Canceled–Workday Charity OpenOhio6,200,000 Collin Morikawa (2)62New tournamentThe Open ChampionshipEngland–Canceled–Major championshipBarbasol ChampionshipKentucky–Canceled–Alternate eventMemorial TournamentOhio9,300,000 Jon Rahm (4)763M OpenMinnesota6,600,000 Michael Thompson (2)38WGC-FedEx St. Jude InvitationalTennessee10,500,000 Justin Thomas (13)76World Golf ChampionshipBarracuda ChampionshipCalifornia3,500,000 Richy Werenski (1)24Alternate eventPGA ChampionshipCalifornia11,000,000 Collin Morikawa (3)100Major championshipWyndham ChampionshipNorth Carolina6,400,000 Jim Herman (3)50The Northern TrustMassachusetts9,500,000 Dustin Johnson (22)76FedEx Cup playoff eventBMW ChampionshipIllinois9,500,000 Jon Rahm (5)70FedEx Cup playoff eventTour ChampionshipGeorgian/a Dustin Johnson (23)58FedEx Cup playoff event
Unofficial events The following events were sanctioned by the PGA Tour, but did not carry FedEx Cup points or official money, nor were wins official.
DateTournamentLocationPurse($)Winner(s)OWGRpointsNotesOct 21MGM Resorts The Challenge: Japan SkinsJapan350,000 Jason Day n/aLimited-field eventDec 7Hero World ChallengeBahamas3,500,000 Henrik Stenson46Limited-field eventDec 15Presidents CupAustralian/a Team USAn/aTeam eventDec 15QBE ShootoutFlorida3,300,000 Rory Sabbatini and Kevin Twayn/aTeam eventAug 2Olympic GamesJapann/aPostponed–Limited-field event
Location of tournaments
The tournament locations below represent the original schedule, before any changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
FedEx Cup
Points distribution
The distribution of points for 2019–20 PGA Tour events were as follows: Finishing position1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th9th10th20th30th40th50th60thMajors & Players Championship60033021015012011010094888251321810655031520014011510595898378513218106Other PGA Tour events500300190135110100908580754528168.55Team event (each player)40016310588786859545046175200Alternate events3001651058065605550454028171053Playoff events1500900570405440330270255240225135844825.515
Tour Championship starting score (to par), based on position in the FedEx Cup rankings after the BMW Championship: Position1st2nd3rd4th5th6th–10th11th–15th16th–20th21st–25th26th–30th−10−8−7−6−5−4−3−2−1E
Final standings For full rankings, see 2020 FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Final FedEx Cup standings of the 30 qualifiers for the Tour Championship:
PlayerMajors & The PlayersWGCsTop 10s in other PGA Tour eventsRegularseasonpointsPlayoffsTotalpointsMoney ($m)Name1234567StartFinalBasicTop10FedExBonus1D. Johnson | rowspan="30"| CANCELED || rowspan="30"| POSTPONEDTO2020-21SEASON|| bgcolor="yellow" | T2 || rowspan="30"| POSTPONEDTO2020-21SEASON || rowspan="30"| CANCELED | style="background:white"|• || bgcolor="#afeeee" |T48 || rowspan="30"| CANCELED|| bgcolor="#afeeee" |T12 | bgcolor="yellow" |T7 || bgcolor="yellow" |T10 || bgcolor="lime" |1st || || || || ! 1,071 | bgcolor="lime" |1st || bgcolor="yellow"|2nd ! 3,471 |−10 !–21 | 13 | 5.84 || || 15.00T2Schauffele | bgcolor="yellow" |T10 | style="background:yellow"|2nd || bgcolor="#afeeee" |T14 || bgcolor="yellow" |T6 | bgcolor="yellow" |T10 || bgcolor="yellow" |T2 || bgcolor="yellow" |T3 || || || || ! 1,258 | bgcolor="#afeeee" |T25 || bgcolor="#afeeee" |T25 ! 1,449 |−3 !rowspan=2|–18 | 17 | 3.81 || || rowspan=2|4.50Thomas | bgcolor="#afeeee" |T37 | style="background:white"|• || bgcolor="yellow" |T6 || bgcolor="lime" |1st | bgcolor="yellow" |T4|| bgcolor="lime" |1st || bgcolor="lime" |1st || bgcolor="yellow" |T3 || bgcolor="yellow" |T10 || bgcolor="yellow" |T8 || bgcolor="yellow" |2nd ! 2,458 | bgcolor="#afeeee" |T49 || bgcolor="#afeeee" |T25 ! 2,570 |−7 | 17 | 7.34 || 2.004Rahm | bgcolor="#afeeee" |T13 | style="background:white"|• || style="background:yellow"|T3 || bgcolor="#afeeee" |T52 | bgcolor="yellow" |2nd || bgcolor="yellow" |T9 || bgcolor="lime" |1st || || || || ! 1,295 | bgcolor="yellow" |T6 || bgcolor="lime" |1st ! 3,080 |−8 !–17 | 14 | 5.96 || 0.50 || 3.005Scheffler | bgcolor="yellow" | T4 | style="background:white"|• || bgcolor="#afeeee" |T26 || bgcolor="#afeeee" |T15 | bgcolor="yellow" |T7 || bgcolor="yellow" |T3 || bgcolor="yellow" |T5 || bgcolor="yellow" |3rd || || || ! 900 | bgcolor="yellow" |T4 || bgcolor="#afeeee" |T20 ! 1,391 |−2 !–14 | 22 | 2.83 || || 2.506Morikawa | bgcolor="lime" |1st | style="background:white"|• || bgcolor="#afeeee" |T42 || bgcolor="#afeeee" |T12 | bgcolor="yellow" |T10 || bgcolor="yellow" |T7 || bgcolor="yellow" |T9 || bgcolor="yellow" |2nd|| bgcolor="lime" |1st || || ! 1,902 | bgcolor="pink" | CUT || bgcolor="#afeeee" |T20 ! 2,025 |−5 !–13 | 20 | 5.26 || 1.50 || 1.907 Hatton | bgcolor="pink" | CUT