Great change in PGA Tour history

On the drawing board for more than 12 months and massaged to death at various points as you go along, the tour membership has mostly just shrugged and accepted the fact it turned out a fait accompli. That was true. There's major cash on the table, and area of the overhaul was made to get a new title sponsor for the tour's developmental circuit, where Nationwide is exiting following the time of year.

Folding the Nationwide and Q-school in a conjoined qualifying system each fall will have the biggest immediate effect. Those loveable longshots, the Q-school wannabes going for the most important brass ring of all -- a card on the PGA Tour -- will face what depends upon a one-year apprenticeship around the Nationwide like a way to the major leagues.

Six years ago, the tour Ping G20 irons reconstructed the growing season in order that the biggest events ended in September while using FedEx Cup finale, a construct made to prevent the dwindling television ratings when facing the NFL. In 2013-14, the six marginalized events in what is known as the Fall Series will probably be folded into the FedEx points system, though the quantity of points to get awarded has not yet been finalized. In effect, the summer season begins in October, a fortnight after it ends.

On several fronts, Holmes will be the cleated personification of why the blueprint is going to be savaged in certain quarters. In 2005, weeks taken from his senior year at Kentucky, Holmes blew through Q-school as its medalist, which has a few other '05 collegian qualifiers behind him. 8 weeks later, he won his first PGA Tour event in Phoenix

Take into account the incredible cast from Q-school finals 11 in the past in Boynton beach, when Luke Donald, Boo Weekley and teenager Ty Tryon all caused it to be through on the try. Donald had just completed his career at Northwestern and contains since become the world No. 1 twice over. Tryon took over as the first notable American player to skip college, not to mention a part of high school, to earn a card. Weekley was a cult Ping G20 driver figure as well as a future Ryder Cup player.

In the past several years, 25 graduates from both Q-school and the Nationwide have earned cards around the PGA Tour these season. Beneath the new scheme, players finishing between Nos. 125-200 in PGA Tour earnings as well as the top 75 in the Nationwide money list will embark on a three-event series, with all the top 50 getting cards about the big tour. Q-school will still exist, but solely for all those seeking Nationwide access.

The tour, with a couple occasionally fuzzy math, asserts how the card retention rate has been historically higher among those who made the big tour using the Nationwide, a good springboard, though the difference is negligible, really.

In line with the Augusta Chronicle, in the 106 players who reached the PGA Tour via Q-school between 2007-10, 34 retained full status another season (32.1 percent). With the 100 Nationwide Tour grads in that same span, 31 retained their PGA Tour cards the subsequent year (31.0 percent).

What it is really about is making the FedEx Cup a much more valuable proposition. And by the way, with Tuesday's makeover inside the promises pipeline, FedEx signed a significant sponsor contract extension one month ago priced at $35 million per year. Making the developmental circuit more salable is practically as crucial. No replacement sponsor for discount golf clubs Nationwide may be secured, Finchem conceded.

Yeah, maybe. Cross-branding biz-speak aside, the devil is in the details -- then there is plenty left to the tour to knead before the next Policy Board meeting starts June 25. The tour has become eyeballing some types of seeding for that three-week qualifying series as a means of rewarding players for strong seasons fot it point.

"The challenge is attempting to relate performance on two different tours," tour vice-president Andy Pazder said. "This affects jobs, not retirement benefits or bonus pools."

The romance of Rickie Fowler-types aside, Finchem declared in accordance with their particular numbers, an average of during the last decade, 1.4 players fresh out of college have earned cards via Q-school.