2015 West Coast Swing Will Likely See Fewer Stars Than Ever

There was a Golf World column that warned about this when the PGA Tour's calendar year schedule was announced and now the reality has hit home, with more star no-shows to come in 2015. Especially as the match play moves to May.

Even though the PGA Tour's west coast swing from January to late February produces the biggest non-major championship television ratings of the year--many times three to four times larger than last week's Tour Championship--it appears the part of the schedule when you have the most eyeballs on PGA Tour "product" will have fewer star appearances than ever, reports Doug Ferguson.

Besides Adam Scott confirming he won't be at Kapalua and and likely won't be seen until the Florida swing, the European presence is only by default.

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 Middle East swing because of injury; and Martin Kaymer played Phoenix, where he lives.

The rest showed up at 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.