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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Indulge/  For the golf fan, the dates you need to know in 2014
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For the golf fan, the dates you need to know in 2014

The real golf season kicks off in April with the Masters, and the rest of the most important tournaments fall between April and November

Photo: iStock photoPremium
Photo: iStock photo

The world’s best golfers have begun their march towards another FedEx Cup title in the 2014 season, chasing the warmer weather of Hawaii and the US West Coast. But these early competitions—known in golf as the “silly season"—are merely window dressing and a warm-up for the main event. The real season kicks off in April with the Masters, the first of the year’s four majors, and the rest of the most important weekly tournaments fall between April and November.

As a golf fan, these are the dates you need to know around the world:

Masters Tournament

Augusta, Georgia | 10-13 April

Will Adam Scott, the first Australian winner in the tournament’s 77-year history, defend his title at 2014’s first major, or will Tiger Woods finally don his fifth green jacket?

Manchester Golf Show

25-27 April

The UK’s largest consumer golf show moves from London to Manchester, where enthusiasts can try out the newest clubs from major brands such as TaylorMade, Titleist, Nike and Cleveland, receive custom club fitting and free PGA tuition, with indoor driving range, launch monitors and simulators. There are also steep discounts on gear and lots of accessories and gadgets, from GPS course guides to practice aids.

Players Championship

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida | 8-11 May

Known as ‘‘The Fifth Major", this is the richest tournament in golf with nearly $2 million prize money going to the winner. Last year, that was World No. 1 Tiger Woods, his biggest victory of 2013. The tournament is held on TPC Sawgrass, the original Tournament Players Club or ‘‘Stadium Course", owned by the PGA Tour and built specifically for tournament golf. The field is limited to the top 50 ranked players in the world, the best of the best.

BMW PGA Championship

Surrey, England | 22-25 May

The European Tour’s flagship event is always held on the West course at fabled Wentworth, just outside of London, where the tour has its headquarters.

US Open

Pinehurst, North Carolina | 12-15 June

What is traditionally the most difficult tournament of the year worldwide returns to ‘‘America’s Home of Golf", the US version of St Andrews. The single most historic venue in the country, Pinehurst is the nation’s very first golf resort (1895) and its fabled Number Two is the only public course on earth hat has hosted two different Majors (US Open and PGA Championship) and the Ryder Cup.

Amateur Championship

Northern Ireland | 16-21 June

Known to the rest of the world as the British Amateur, this is simply the most important event in amateur golf, won by famous names from Bobby Jones to Sergio Garcia. It will be contested for the 119th time on two top courses of Northern Ireland, Portstewart, often credited with the finest opening hole on earth, and Royal Portrush, the only course outside of Great Britain to have hosted the Open Championship.

Women’s US Open

Pinehurst, North Carolina | 19-22 June

In another historic first for Pinehurst Number Two, the course will become the first venue ever to hold both of America’s premier Open Championships, men’s and women’s, and on back-to-back weekends.

Irish Open

Cork, Ireland | 19-22 June

Ireland’s national championship will be contested at Fota Island golf club, and traditionally draws the biggest names from the Republic and Northern Ireland, including Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy, plus other top European players—past winners include Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey and Colin Montgomerie.

Ricoh Women’s British Open

Southport, England | 10-13 July

The legendary Royal Birkdale, which has been home to five Women’s Opens, nine Open Championships and two Ryder Cups, will again host the most important tournament in women’s golf, won last year by Stacy Lewis on the Old Course at St Andrews. This is a huge year for western England, as the following week the Open Championship will be contested just down the road at Royal Liverpool.

Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open

Aberdeen, Scotland | 10-13 July

Royal Aberdeen will host this year’s Scottish championship, especially prestigious because it is a traditional warmup for the Open Championship, always held a week later, and thus attracts usually prominent field. Last year, Phil Mickelson became the first to win both back-to-back events.

Open Championship

Royal Liverpool, Hoylake, England | 17-20 July

For its 143rd edition, golf’s oldest tournament (that started in 1860) returns to the fairways of fabled Royal Liverpool for the 12th time, with Phil Mickelson defending the most coveted trophy in golf, the Claret Jug, after his 2013 win at Scotland’s Muirfield.

US PGA Championship

Louisville, Kentucky | 7-10 August

Valhalla Golf Club will host ‘‘Glory’s Last Shot", the year’s final major and the only important event organized by the Professional Golfers’ Association of America rather than the PGA Tour. Perhaps the most unpredictable major, it has been won in the past five years by players from all around the world, including Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, US rookie sensation Keegan Bradley, Germany’s Martin Kaymer and South Korea’s Yang Yong-eun (pictured right), the only Korean to ever win a Major.

Tour Championship

Atlanta, Georgia | 11-14 September

The last important event on the US golf calendar, the tournament is the final round of the FedEx Cup playoffs and limited to the 30 players leading in FedEx Cup points. It typically decides the season-long Cup title, the biggest payoff in golf: $11,440,000 in 2013.

Ryder Cup

Gleneagles, Perthshire, Scotland | 25-28 September

This biennial team competition pits the best players from Europe against their US counterparts and has become one of golf’s biggest spectator events, with no purse but instead nationalistic bragging rights on the line, sort of the Olympics for golf.

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship

St. Andrews, Scotland | 2-5 October

The world’s premier pro-am, this event combines a traditional golf tournament—one of the richest on the European Tour—with a star studded field of amateurs, and this star power draws crowds. Two man teams, one pro and one amateur, usually a celebrity or high powered CEO, play across three premier links courses; The Old Course at St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie. Amateur participants have included Michael Phelps, Hugh Grant and Samuel L. Jackson.

DP World Tour Championship

Dubai, UAE | 20-23 November

Held annually at Jumeirah Golf Estates, this is the international equivalent of the US Tour Championship and caps the European Tour’s season-long Race to Dubai, which consists of 47 tournaments in 26 countries on five continents. The 60 players with the most Race points advance to this finale that offers a $5 million bonus.

Larry Olmsted is a golf and travel writer, and a columnist for Forbes and USA Today.

Read all of Larry’s articles

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Published: 28 Mar 2014, 08:34 AM IST
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