ATLANTA -- The PGA Tour released its 49-tournament 2017-18 schedule on Tuesday, worth a record $363 million in total prize money, including two previously announced inaugural events and a recurring one which is still very much up in the air.
Formerly known as the Quicken Loans Invitational, the tournament hosted by Tiger Woods in the Washington, D.C., area is currently without a title sponsor or host course, currently listed on the schedule as "The National" to be played June 28-July 1 at a still-unknown location.
"We are in discussions with Quicken on extending our partnership, but as we sit here today we have not concluded those discussions," PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan explained during a news conference. "So we're in a position where we've got to put forward the schedule and that's why we've put The National on the brand. We need to conclude those discussions with Quicken, but you also need to maintain your flexibility, because whether or not Quicken steps up, we need to have all of our options in the event that a sponsor is looking in a different direction or we're going to take the tournament in a different direction."
New to the annual schedule are the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges, the PGA Tour's initial even in South Korea, which will be played Oct. 19-22, and the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, a former Web.com Tour event that will be contested opposite the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, from March 22-25.
The upcoming schedule otherwise resembles that of the current season, with the opening round taking place on Oct. 2 of this year at the Safeway Open and the final round nearly a full year later, on Sept. 23 of 2018 at the Tour Championship.
Monahan hinted that more changes could take place for the 2018-19 campaign, though, for which it has already been announced that the PGA Championship will move to May and the Players Championship will slide back to its former slot in March.
Specifically, there has been speculation that the FedEx Cup playoff events would end on or before Labor Day, eliminating the dynamic of competing with the early part of the football season.
"I think we've been fairly public about this and it's something that we're taking a hard look at, but whether or not we accomplish that goal, I think this event has and will continue to perform extremely well," Monahan stated. "As I've said in the past, it's something that we'll continue to look at, but at this point in time we have not resolved it."
The four major championships for 2018 have, of course, already been announced. The Masters will take place April 5-8; the U.S. Open from June 14-17 at Shinnecock Hills GC; the Open Championship from July 19-22 at Carnoustie Golf Links; and the PGA Championship from Aug. 9-12 at Bellerive CC.