West Coast Swing could be impacted by Match Play Championship move

ATLANTA – Some 20 years ago, there was a feeling that the PGA Tour didn't really get going until Florida. 

 

It might feel like that next year, too. 

 

Among the contributing factors – the busy end to the FedExCup season that forces players to pace themselves during the year, the start of a new season and moving the Match Play Championship to the first weekend in May. 

 

Tiger Woods doesn't know what his schedule will be in 2015. Except for the Match Play, he has played only one event on the West Coast (Torrey Pines) since 2007. He did play Pebble Beach in 2012, but that was a one-time agreement with AT&T. 

 

Adam Scott is contemplating such a big winter break he likely will skip Kapalua. 

 

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"My schedule is going to start on the East Coast," Scott said last week. "That's just the way I want to do it. I've got some things I want to do in the offseason to get ready for next year and do better than this year." 

 

Scott said it would be "a bit of a heart-breaker" to skip Kapalua. He said he's not 100 percent sure he will miss the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, though it sounded that way. The Australian PGA Championship ends Dec. 14 and "I'll get 10 full weeks" off before resuming at the Honda Classic. 

 

Of the six Europeans from the top 20 in the world, three played one West Coast event before the Match Play. Graeme McDowell was at Pebble Beach, but only because his father played with him. Justin Rose played Riviera because he missed the European Tour's Middle East Swing because of injury; and Martin Kaymer played Phoenix, where he lives. 

 

The rest showed up at the Match Play, which will not be at the end of February in Arizona next year. 

 

Rory McIlroy left Atlanta on Sunday. Odds are it will be five months before he next plays an official PGA Tour event in America.