PGA Tour
This week’s tournament
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Shriners Children’s Open 2022
Fresh off his impressive Presidents Cup performance, Sungjae Im looks to defend his title at the Shriners Children’s Open as the PGA Tour heads west for its annual stop in Las Vegas.
Tournaments Archive
Sanderson Farms Championship
After a great first PGA season for FormGolfer, our first preview of the 2022/3 season is here, as the Country Club of Jackson hosts the Sanderson Farms Championship. Sam Burns returns to defend his title and is a strong favourite to successfully do so.
The Tour Championship 2022
The 2021-22 PGA Tour season concludes this week with the Tour Championship, which will see the FedEx Cup champion crowned. Can Patrick Cantlay secure back-to-back FedEx Cups? Can Scottie Scheffler make the most of the two-shot lead he starts with? FormGolfer has identified the value in both the outright and “without starting shots” markets.
BMW Championship 2022
It’s the second of the three FedEx playoffs this week and we have five value selections for you to get your teeth into at prices up to 150/1.
FedEx St Jude Championship 2022
The FedEx Cup playoffs start this week with only the top 70 in the standings after this event making their way on to the BMW Championship. FormGolfer has highlighted the value, with two of our picks available at huge prices!
Wyndham Championship 2022
It’s the final opportunity to bag some points before the FedEx Cup playoffs start, and Sungjae Im, Shane Lowry and Will Zalatoris are the headline acts at Sedgefield country Club
Rocket Mortgage Classic 2022
The PGA Tour moves on to Detroit this week and FormGolfer have uncovered six value bets in the outright market at odds of up to 100/1!
3M Open 2022
Cameron Champ returns to defend his title at the 3M Open as the PGA Tour’s 2021-22 season inches closer to an exciting conclusion. FormGolfer has identified four value selections in the outright market, all at odds of 30/1 or bigger!
The Open Championship 2022
The Open Championship will be contested for the 150th time and what a venue to do it at. Tiger is back in action and the excitement is high as the golf world returns to the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Barbasol Championship (and Scottish Open)
The Barbasol Championship gets underway this week in Kentucky and will sport a field comprised of players from both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. Meanwhile, the Scottish Open takes place at the Renaissance Club, where many of the world’s top players will be completing their preparation for The Open. We’ll be providing pointers towards both events.
John Deere Classic
A relatively weak field this week for the John Deere classic as many of the big names make the trip to Ireland, take some rest ahead of the big UK events, or sell their souls to LIV.
Travelers Championship 2022
After a thrilling US Open, the tour moves to TPC River Highlands this week for the Travelers Championship, where Harris English defends his title having suffered with injury for a good part of the season. This is a course that requires some plotting your way around, with accuracy off the tee and a sure touch on the greens key attributes we will be looking to.
US Open 2022
It feels as though the dust has barely settled on Justin Thomas’ incredible win at Southern Hills, and already the third major of the year is upon us. I’m not sure I’m a fan of having all four majors over such a short period in the season, but it certainly makes for a feast of top class golfing action between April and July.
RBC Canadian Open 2022
After the high of Billy Horschel’s victory, it feels like a good week to ease off, with the Canadian Open looking like a tricky puzzle to solve and the US Open just a week away. After a couple of years where this event was cancelled due to Covid, it returns to St. George’s Golf and Country Club, which has not hosted a PGA Tour event since 2010. Whilst it would seem like the data from that event is a logical place to start, the course has undergone substantial changes since then, so in reality there is little-to-no worthwhile course form to make use of.
The Memorial Tournament 2022
As always a strong field has been assembled for the Memorial, with most of the world’s top ten keen to take part in the event hosted by Jack Nicklaus. Muirfield Village is a course where all aspects of your tee-to-green game need to be in fine working order.
Charles Schwab Challenge 2022
On to the Charles Schwab Challenge this week; as ever in the week after the majors it feels like a good opportunity for lesser-heralded players to take advantage of the post-major hangovers that will no doubt be impacting many of those who took on the Southern Hills test last week.
US PGA Championship 2022
Major weeks always feel a little special. On this occasion, with my other half being away on holiday, going into the week knowing that I have full control of the remote for the duration has put a spring in my step and made me more determined than ever to find some picks that will keep me glued to the TV over the weekend.
AT&T Byron Nelson 2022
With just one week to go until the second major of the year, we have the usual pre-major dilemma of trying to work out who will be focused on this tournament in its own right as opposed to largely trying to get their game in tip-top order for the big prize at Southern Hills next week. It’s a slightly deeper field than the last few weeks as several of the bigger guns show up for a warm up.
Wells Fargo 2022
So we move on to the Wells Fargo, which this year is held at TPC Potomac, rather than its usual home at Quail Hollow (currently being prepared for the Presidents Cup). Although not on the current tour rota, TPC Potomac has been a regular venue previously, and has hosted over 20 tour events. It’s likely to play pretty tough, with precision off the tee rather than brute force likely to be a key pre-requisite for success.
Mexico Open at Vidanta 2022
After the novelty of the pairs event last week (fairly uninteresting fare if you ask me), normal activity resumes this week in Mexico. Two key challenges quickly emerge: a course that’s not been used on tour before, with no statistical insight into what makes for success, and a field that can be described as moderate at best, with roughly ¾ of the field in negative strokes gained this season.
Zurich Classic of New Orleans 2022
The tour moves on to New Orleans for the Zurich Classic – a team event with two better ball and two alternate shot rounds. This format makes the usual data analysis rather more challenging, but what’s notable is that the field is formed of a small number of obviously strong pairings and a host of players in not particularly great form…
RBC Heritage 2022
This week’s event is different. Although the prices at the front of the market are comparable to last week, it’s not hard to imagine a more surprising outcome.
US Masters 2022
The Masters makes a great deal of appeal as a punting medium, with a restricted field (of which a bunch can be readily disregarded due to being over 100 years old) and enhanced place terms on offer with a number of firms.
Valero Texas Open 2022
With excitement building ahead of the first major of the year at Augusta next week, it’s TPC San Antonio that hosts the final warm up event. A key part of making our picks this week is trying to figure out who is burnt out after (up to) 7 rounds at the Matchplay and who is looking for a confidence-boosting week to set them up for a big performance at the Masters.
World Matchplay & Punta Cana Championship
A break from the norm this week with the only matchplay event on the PGA Tour. It’s undoubtedly a tricky one to evaluate, with no Shotlink (strokes gained) data available from past events and no real pattern to the winners we’ve seen over the years.
Valspar Championship
We move on from the craziness of the Players to a more routine event this week in the Valspar. I was expecting more withdrawals after the Monday finish and brutal conditions at Sawgrass; however at time of writing Casey is the one notable absentee from the original field.
The Players Championship 2022
This is it! Form Golfer’s first ever live tournament preview. We’re genuinely excited about sharing our insight and analysis and providing our followers with some enjoyable and profitable golf betting opportunities.
Bay Hill Invitational 2022
The tour rolls on to “Arnie’s place” this week for the Bay Hill Invitational. As has been the case in recent weeks, course form counts for plenty and there are several names who have repeatedly performed well here.
Honda Classic 2022
The tour moves to Florida for the Honda Classic. For many it’ll be a welcome change to be switching back to Bermuda from the vagaries of Poa greens in recent weeks. That change alone could easily result in a few different names emerging on the leaderboards compared to what we’ve been seeing recently.
Genesis Invitational 2022
a super-strong field has been assembled for the Genesis Invitational at Riviera, which should make for great viewing. As with last week, it’s a course specialist event with some clear patterns for us to focus on.
Phoenix Open 2022
After a short break in beautiful Arizona, we head back to California for the final swing of the West Coast before heading down to the swamp (Florida).
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-AM 2022
After last week’s fantastic result for followers of Form Golfer, it’s tempting to sit tight on our profit and tread very lightly at the AT&T.
Farmers Insurance Open 2022
On to Torrey Pines for the Farmers – a tournament that shapes up well for punting with some clear pointers to focus on and course form holding up well over the years, so we’ll be staking accordingly
The American Express 2022
After Cam Smith got us off to a great start to 2022, it was down to earth with a bump as the Sony Open was not so kind to us.
Sony Open In Hawaii 2022
Each January the Sony Open in Hawaii attracts 144 of the world’s greatest golf professionals to the Waialae Country Club on the island of Oahu. The event is the largest charity golf event in Hawaii.
The Sentry Tournament of Champions 2022
The first event of 2022 is upon us and the traditional curtain raiser featuring all PGA Tour (plus Olympic gold medal) winners from the previous season.
RSM Classic 2021
The RSM Classic is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour, played in the autumn in Georgia. It debuted in October 2010 on St. Simons Island, Georgia at the Sea Island Golf Club.
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About The PGA Tour
The Evolution Of The PGA Tour: From Sam Snead To Tiger Woods & Beyond
Before social media bonuses and plots for breakaway leagues came golf in its purest form, though money has long played a role in the who, what and why.
As far as the PGA Tour is concerned, its roots can be traced back to the late 1800s and the sprinkling of tournaments that began to pop up across the United States of America.
Just 10 professionals and one amateur gathered for the inaugural US Open at Newport in Rhode Island in 1895 and over the following decades golf’s popularity began to grow.
Perhaps the breakthrough in the US, and something that became front-page news, was amateur Francis Ouimet’s US Open triumph in 1913, with the 20-year-old defeating English stars Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in a play-off.
It was a victory that contrasted golf’s image of a sport for the wealthy, with Ouimet hailing from a working-class background – he did, however, grow up across the road from The Country Club in Brookline in the Boston suburbs and began caddying there at the age of 11. It was at this venue nine years later he claimed his only US Open crown.
Three years after Ouimet’s success the Professional Golfers’ Association of America, the PGA, was formed, and during the following decade a West Coast swing began to emerge.
Regular tournaments were held in Texas and Florida during the winter months making up part of a circuit that would work its way through a growing number of state opens tournaments.
In the 1930s, an annual schedule began to be formalised – with the legendary Gene Sarazen winning a Career Grand Slam – and following World War Two its popularity began to pick up momentum with the likes of Sam Snead and Ben Hogan coming to the fore.
But the sport’s first real superstars were forged in the 1950s and 60s at the same time as golf gripped the nation at an amateur level, with families starting to enjoy more financial freedom and leisure time than ever before.
It was driven by the nation’s president – a five-star general who played a key role in World War Two and the D-Day invasion of Normandy and sat in the Whitehouse office for nine years, but who called “the thrill of a lifetime” his first and only hole-in-one at the age of 77.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was so much of a golf addict he had a net constructed in the Whitehouse basement where he could nip down and practice, he would use the South Lawn as a practice range and even installed a putting green just outside the Oval Office to sharpen his flat stick game.
Eisenhower was a long-time member of Augusta National who would regularly shoot in the mid 80s and called Arnold Palmer a close friend, and with the president often enjoying rounds with golf pros and celebrities it increased the sport’s appeal to the wider public.
As did television coverage, which also brought with it increased revenue and perhaps inevitably disagreements over how and where that money should be divided up between players and officials.
It led to the Tournament Players Division splitting from the PGA of America in 1968 in what many see as the formal beginning of the PGA Tour. Joe Dey was appointed its first commissioner and was followed by former player Deane Beman in 1974.
The organisation’s name officially changed to the PGA Tour the following year – albeit having a brief stint as the TPA Tour (Tournament Players Association) because of a marketing dispute in 1981.
During Bernan’s 20-year tenure it enjoyed remarkable growth and also witnessed a huge rise in tournament purses.
It was a period that saw players such as Tom Watson, Greg Norman and Curtis Strange grace the circuit’s manicured fairways and carpet-like greens, as well as a fleeting membership for the enigmatic Seve Ballesteros, and by the time Bernan passed on the baton in 1994, the PGA Tour’s revenues had grown from $730,000 when he started to more than $200m.
Most on the golfing scene were aware of a talented young amateur coming through the ranks at that stage but few could have predicted just what an astounding impact he would have on the game.
Tiger Woods landed his first major at the 1997 Masters and would go on to dominate the sport for more than a decade – and the headlines for even longer.
Four Green Jackets have followed that opening victory at Augusta National 25 years ago – including an improbable and remarkable 2019 comeback triumph – contributing to 15 major wins, while the American has also racked up 82 victories on the PGA Tour to take him level with Sam Snead. No more player has ever won more.
Woods was, and still is, a player who transcends golf and was the face of the PGA Tour’s video game for 14 years, taking the sport into people’s living rooms through via a different platform and opening it to a new, younger audience.
He also top’s the PGA Tour’s career earnings list at more than $120m, above fellow American and recent wantaway star Phil Mickelson, though Woods’ profile has helped turn the game’s star players into supremely marketable assets.
On the sporting front, despite Woods’ brief comeback, the game appears to be in great health from a competitive standpoint and boasts a number of marquee names, from Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas to Europeans Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy.
In fact, the PGA Tour’s biggest recent challenge has come not from its popularity, but by the threat of a Saudi-funded super league reportedly offering stars astronomical sums of money to join.
That, however, seems to have crumbled with Northern Ireland’s McIlroy saying the breakaway project is “dead in the water” and the likes of Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau distancing themselves from the project.
It means, for now at the least, the PGA Tour lives on in its current guise, with the only big question remaining being who will win its lucrative Player Impact Program?