The PGA Tour released its 2014-15 schedule on Wednesday, and the slate includes 47 tournaments.
The group of events that formally made up the Fall Series will again kick off the season. The 2014-15 season will start with the Frys.com Open and that sequence of tournaments concludes with the OHL Classic at Mayakoba.
In the sequence of tournaments will be the Sanderson Farms Championship, which returns to the schedule after a 1-year absence. That event will be played opposite the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. The Sanderson Farms was last played in 2013, and it was played opposite the Open Championship.
"After the successful debut of our wraparound schedule this season, we have another very strong schedule for 2014-2015 that will provide excitement for our fans and additional playing opportunities for our members," said PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem. "We look forward to the return of the Sanderson Farms Championship and are very pleased to welcome the Barbasol Championship to the PGA Tour. We are also excited about the Match Play Championship being played at TPC Harding Park before the passionate golf fans in the San Francisco area."
Once the calendar flips to 2015, the tour will be in Hawaii for the annual stops at Kapalua and Waialae. The west coast swing will have four events in California and the annual stop in Phoenix.
The first big change in the schedule is the WGC-Match Play Championship moving from the west coast swing to April 29-May 3. After the west coast swing, the tour heads to Florida.
Among that group of events is the WGC-Cadillac Championship. The Puerto Rico Open once again will be played opposite the season's second WGC event.
After a pair of events in Texas, the tour will relocate to Augusta for the Masters. Bubba Watson will defend his title at the seasons first major, while Rory McIlroy will look to complete the career grand slam, and win his third consecutive major championships.
After the Masters, the tour will be in Hilton Head and New Orleans, before returning to the west coast to the WGC-Match Play. The tour returns to Florida for the Players Championship, then moves to North Carolina for the Wells Fargo Championship, which was moved back two weeks. It had been played before the Players the last few years.
Two more events in Texas precede the Memorial, which is two weeks before the U.S. Open, which heads to Chambers Bay in Washington for the first time. Martin Kaymer will defend his title there.
The Quicken Loans, which had been played between the U.S. Open and Open Championship, moves to the end of July. After three events between the majors, McIlroy will defend his Open Championship title at St. Andrews.
A new event, the Barbasol Championship, will be contested opposite the Open Championship. There will be four more events, including the final WGC event, before the PGA Championship. McIlroy will again defend his title, this time at Whistling Straits.
The Wyndham Championship will again be played between the PGA Championship and the first playoff event, The Barclays, which rotates back to Plainfield Country Club next year.
During the playoffs, the BMW Championship returns to Conway Farms near Chicago, Illinois.
[SportsNetwork.com]
