In a joint announcement, the PGA of America and the PGA TOUR announced yesterday that beginning in 2019, the PGA Championship will be played in the month of May -- while THE PLAYERS Championship will be contested in March at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

By moving the PGA to May, it gives the tournament its proper due as a major, making it a centerpiece in the schedule. And by bumping The Players Championship to March, it gives the PGA Tour a strong, six-month stretch without any lulls — for players and fans alike.

“It's great for the golf schedule,” Rory McIlroy said Tuesday. “To now have one really big tournament every month from March — The Players, to the Masters to the PGA Championship to the U.S. Open to the (British) Open, and to have the FedExCup most likely at end of August or start of September.

From May 16-19, 2019, Bethpage Black in Farmington, New York, will host the 101st PGA Championship, which will be the first conducted in May since Sam Snead’s triumph in 1949.

A total of four PGA Championships have been held in May. Ben Hogan claimed the second of his two PGA Championship victories in May of ‘48. Denny Shute also hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy in May 1937, as did Snead for the first time in May ’42.

After being played at three different venues in Georgia, Texas and Florida starting in 1974, THE PLAYERS moved to Ponte Vedra Beach in 1977. Five years later in 1982, the PGA TOUR’s flagship event found a permanent home at the TPC Sawgrass. The tournament was played in March until 2006, and then the event moved to May in 2007. It has remained there for the last 11 years with Korea’s Si Woo Kim becoming the youngest-ever winner of THE PLAYERS earlier this year.