PGA Tour to treat Fall Series events like all others starting in 2013 season

BETHESDA, Md. -- Starting next year, Fall Series tournaments won't feel like second-class citizens.

The PGA Tour Policy Board has decided to award full FedExCup points to the tournaments that come after the season-ending Tour Championship. That was one step in trying to shore up plans for a new season that will start in October 2013 and conclude with the Tour Championship in September 2014.

''With the fall tournaments moving to the front end of the PGA Tour schedule, the policy board believes the next logical step is for these tournaments to kick off the FedExCup and begin awarding full points,'' PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said. ''All of these tournaments have been very successful and certainly deserve to be part of the FedExCup competition.''

For the past five years, the FedEx Cup has ended in September with the Tour Championship. The Fall Series events that followed only awarded prize money to determine the top 125 players on the money list who kept their full cards.

All that changes in 2013 with a fall start to the season.

Still to be decided is a major part of the puzzle -- determining how players get their cards.

Instead of Q-School, the tour already has approved a plan to merge the top 75 players from the Nationwide Tour with PGA Tour players who finish from No. 126-200 on the money list for a three-tournament series. Fifty full tour cards will be awarded.

Tour officials have been retooling various options, though no consensus has been reached on a model.

Three options were reviewed at the Monday board meeting, and Finchem said his staff will get further feedback from the Player Advisory Councils on the PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour before deciding on the best model. A decision could be sooner that some might expect.