Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy joining PGA Tour again – Great Season expected in 2012
British star Lee Westwood has announced to rejoin the PGA Tour after in 2012 after he left the Tour in 2008. World No.3 will have to play minimum of 15 events on the 2012 PGA Tour and likely to play in the 2012 FedEx Cup playoffs.
Westwood started the 2010 season with 1st position in World Golf Rankings but dropped to 3rd position later on. He plans to start the 2012 PGA Tour with Match Play Championship scheduled in Arizona.
Westwood said that FedEx Cup is one of the major reasons for his joining to the PGA Tour. The golf fans would definitely be happy to know about his participation in the PGA Tour as it is always good and pleasing to see the high raked players playing on any
Tour.
It is expected that he will follow Luke Donald on the PGA Tour and will play as many events as he can. Westwood is one of the most consistent golfers around the world and has the capability to win a major. Westwood should at least be consistent like Donald
who didn’t manage many wins in 2011 season but his consistent performance in the season took him to the top of the money list. The fans would love to see another great player playing in the United States and competing for the top position.
Rory McIlroy is another professional golfer who is likely to play on the 2012 PGA Tour. He showed his interest to play again on the Tour in United States.
“I feel I play my best golf over here,” McIlroy said. “I’m very comfortable in this country. Yeah, I’m definitely looking toward coming back and playing a full schedule.”
McIlroy left the PGA Tour in 2010 saying that he doesn’t like to travel for the purpose of playing both the European Tour and PGA Tour. He said that FedEx Cup playoffs, which is the main benefit of playing on PGA Tour, becomes tiring in the end. However,
he is now returning back to the Tour and will have to play at least 15 events on the Tour.
With Westwood and McIlroy returning to the PGA Tour in 2012, it will really become interesting to watch more and more top ranked players in the season. Moreover, Tiger Woods is already playing on the Tour and if he gets back to his form in the coming season,
it will add more punch to the PGA Tour. Woods has shown some signs of his comeback in the recent events that he played in Australia. He finished 3rd in the Australian Open and won 2 matches in Presidents Cup including his individual match against Aaron Baddeley.
The most important aspect of these top players joining the PGA Tour is that they will definitely raise the popularity of the small events played in the PGA Tour. If World No.1 Luke Donald plays in any small event, it adds to the popularity of the event and
more people like to watch it. Hopefully, McIlroy and Westwood will play similar roles in the smaller events that are not very much known and followed by golf fans.
It is understood that both these players will play big events on the Tour; however, the real winners will be small events due to these two big additions to the PGA Tour.