NAPA, Calif. -- If you missed the "season-opening" first Saturday of golf on the PGA Tour, even a golfer playing in the Frys.com Open would likely understand. A full slate of college football games sort of got in the way, as did baseball's league championship series.
And if you're so inclined, there was the Rugby World Cup. Ireland lost to Argentina on Sunday during a match played in Cardiff, Wales. Rory McIlroy said he would have been at Millennium Stadium had he not been playing golf in the Napa Valley.
McIlroy tried his best to get back into the tournament at the Silverado Resort, where the third round of the Frys.com Open took place in the first event of a golf season that really never ends. McIlroy, who shot 71 and trails Brendan Steele by 8 shots, is here because he has to be, as the result of a deal he made with the PGA Tour three years ago that allows him to play in a lucrative exhibition overseas.
Payback meant showing up in Northern California for the Frys, which missed him and seven other players in 2012 for an exhibition that conflicted with this tournament. McIlroy summed things up perfectly after his round Saturday, when describing how he nearly got hit in the head on the 17th hole by the tee shot of Emiliano Grillo.
"Missed me by a couple of inches," McIlroy said. "Would have put me out of my misery, to be honest with you."
The PGA Tour went to a "wraparound" schedule two years ago after always following the calendar. The truth is official golf existed during these weeks anyway, in an endless loop of tournament golf that endured through Thanksgiving in America and well into December in other parts of the world.
But having one season begin so soon after another ended has come with some interesting fallout. The six weeks of PGA Tour golf between now and Thanksgiving count in the FedEx Cup standings and offer an opportunity for those inclined to get a nice head start.
For a guy such as McIlroy and the other top players, who competed in and just three weeks ago completed the FedEx Cup playoffs, this schedule means juggling whether to take time off or try to keep in touch with peers.
"It seems like any time I come back to the PGA Tour in February, a lot of guys have played eight, 10 events already, and I am sort of trying to play catch-up," McIlroy said. "So hopefully I get my PGA Tour [season] off to a good start here."
McIlroy noted he is also playing in China next month, a World Golf Championship event that counts not only on the European Tour but also on the PGA Tour. That will give him two tournaments of FedEx Cup points, which at least means his expected return at the Honda Classic in late February won't seem him so far down the points list.
But McIlroy, who is playing four of the next six weeks with the completion of the European Tour's schedule ahead, lamented the lack of time to work on his game.
Golfers are often chided because they don't play a contact sport. They make a living playing a game millions play for leisure, which makes it difficult to evoke sympathy. Yet the demands of worldwide travel, practice, pro-ams and walking mile after mile do have a way of taking their toll.
While having all these playing opportunities is clearly the PGA Tour's No. 1 mandate, it is a shame there is no worldwide golf czar to decree a mandatory break from any professional golf for six to eight weeks.
"It would be ideal to have a true offseason and come out better the following season," said Justin Rose, who, like McIlroy, is here because of the exhibition he played three years ago. "That's all part of the job. Now you need to figure out different ways of doing that. You need to build a schedule in a way that you're still giving yourself that time off."
Typically, that requires taking time when tour officials -- on both sides of the Atlantic -- would love to see name players competing. They provide numerous playing opportunities but then scramble to deliver a product to sponsors and fans while some of the biggest players go to the sideline.
None of this speaks much to the fans of the sport, who cannot possibly sustain interest in a game that never goes away. Their loyalties are compromised by the aforementioned other sporting options, whose fans crave the return of those games during lengthy offseasons. Golf fans never have a chance to miss it. And with one morphing into another, forget about any fanfare when a new season begins.
In fairness to the PGA Tour, the European Tour is worse in this regard. After the 2015 season ends Nov. 22 in Dubai, the 2016 season begins the following week in South Africa.
McIlroy was not able to get much going Saturday, though Rose found a spark late in the round to get into contention. But indifference would be understandable, given the lengthy seasons that just concluded and the golf that lay ahead for both.
As such, Steele is taking advantage. He has just a single victory in his PGA Tour career, with his 2014-15 season ending Sept. 20 at the BMW Championship. At least he had a month off.