The Players Championship field will be reduced from 144 players to 120 if it’s among a series of proposals from the PGA Tour that will be voted on by the Policy Board Nov. 18 at the Sea Island Club, where the RSM Classic will be played later that week.
Golfweek first reported the proposal, which woud reduce the maximum size of fields for Tour events to 120 players before Daylight Savings Time and 132 players after that. While the first round of The Players will March 13, four days after DST begins, the Board will still vote on whether to reduce the field.
The Tour has been having difficulty completing the second round of events and making the cut on Fridays because of suspensions due to darkness.
Under the proposal, full fields would be 120 players until after the Masters in April. Last year, The Players was unable to complete the first and second rounds at the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course because of darkness.
The Tour also is proposing a change to its pace of play policy, with fines for “Excessive Average Stroke Time.”
Under the proposal, a player with an average stroke time of 12 or more seconds over the field average (who made the cut and played in all four rounds) will receive two warnings, then fined $5,000 for a third violation and $10,000 for each violation after that.
Other proposals:
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Changing exempt status from the top 125 on the FedEx Cup points list to the top 100, with an additional exempt category for players between Nos. 101-125.
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Reduce the number of PGA Tour cards for Korn Ferry Tour graduates to an unspecified number.
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Eliminating Monday qualifying for some events or reducing Monday qualifiers from four to two.
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Adjusting the FedEx Cup points distribution table with a slight increase to second-place points for majors and the Players and a slight decrease to points in positions 11 and beyond, and a slight decrease to Signature event points in positions seven and beyond.
Grant Thornton teams finalized
The teams are set.
Who ya got?
The 16 mixed pairs for the Grant Thornton Invitational Dec. 13-15 at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples were finalized on Tuesday, and it’s a powerful lineup with 25 of the 32 players ranked among the top 50 on either the World Golf Ranking or the Women’s World Golf Ranking.
The field is led by women’s No. 1-ranked Nelly Korda, who will play with Tony Finau (No. 26 on the WGC), No. 2 Lilia Vu (playing with No. 101 Luke List) and No. 4 Lydia Ko (with No. 33 Jason Day).
Ko and Day are the defending champions and also have the most combined career victories in the field with 35. Ko has won 22 times, including three this season, and Day has won 13, highlighted by the PGA and The Players Championship in 2015.
Two other WWGR top-10 players are in the field, No. 7 Jeeno Thitikul (playing with No. 25 Tom Kim) and No. 8 Céline Boutier (with No. 29 Matthieu Pavon in an all-France duo.
Two teams include First Coast players: Billy Horschel of Ponte Vedra Beach is paired with Andrea Lee and Mel Reid of Atlantic Beach is with Cameron Champ.
Other teams in the field include Rickie Fowler-Lexi Thompson, Corey Conners-Brooke Henderson, Saith Theegala-Rose Zhang, Matt Kuchar-Megan Khang and Nick Dunlap-Gabriela Ruffels.
The tournament will be aired on Golf Channel. The formats each day will be a scramble in the first round, alternate shot in the second round and modified alternate shot in the third round.
PGA Tour, Champions off this week
The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Fall schedule gets a break this week, as does the PGA Tour Champions Schwab Cup Playoffs.
The Tour resumes next week with the Worldwide Technology Championship in Los Cabos, Mexico. The road show goes to Bermuda Nov. 14-17 and then concludes Nov. 21-24 with the RSM Classic.
The Champions Tour’s Schwab Cup Championship is next week at the Phoenix Country Club.
LPGA Tour: Japan caps Asian tour
Event: TOTO Japan Classic, Wednesday/Thursday-Saturday/Sunday, Seta Golf Course, Otsu-shi, Shiba, Japan.
What’s the purse? $2 million ($300,000 to the winner).
Who won last year? Mone Inami, an LPGA of Japan veteran, won her first LPGA Tour title by two shots over Seanowoo Bae and Shiko Kuwaki.
How to watch on TV: Golf Channel (Wednesday/Thursday-Saturday/Sunday, 10 p.m.-2 a.m.).
Area players entered: None.
Notable: The tournament is jointly sanctioned by the Japanese LPGA and the LPGA Tour. … Inami won her 13th LPGA Japan title. She shot 64 in the first round. … The Tour returns to the U.S. with the LOTTE Championship next week in Oahu, Hawaii.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: PGA Tour Policy Board to consider reduced fields, with Players down to 120
