PGA Tour Cuts Fall Series From Seven To Five Events

The U.S. PGA Tour has lost at least one tournament from its Fall Series because of the economy, USA Today reports, and the final part of its 2009 schedule released on Tuesday had another tournament still up in the air.

The tour announced five tournaments — down from seven this year — that will be played after the FedEx Cup ends and give players a chance to finish in the top 125 on the money list to retain their cards.

Gone from the Fall Series schedule is the Ginn sur Mer Classic, which was held in the penultimate week of the season and was not expected to return because of the real estate crisis. Also missing from the autumn is the Valero Texas Open, which moved to the spring to replace the defunct Atlanta tournament.

The Fall Series starts at Turning Stone in upstate New York the week after the FedEx Cup finale, then takes a week off because of the Presidents Cup, which will be held from Oct. 8-11 in San Francisco. The series resumes in Las Vegas and Phoenix, then moves to Mississippi and Florida, ending on Nov. 15 at Disney World, as it did this year.

The tour still is trying to create a tournament the week before Disney that would be played on Sea Island, Georgia. Those negotiations were one reason the autumn schedule was not released until two days before Christmas.

If the ’09 schedule stays the way it is, there will be 46 tournaments (down from 48) with a $100,000 increase in total prize money. That doesn’t include the majors, which have not released their purses for 2009.