Jordan Spieth is "going to miss the Tour Championship for the first time in his career," but he also notably "will not meet the PGA Tour's strength-of-field scheduling requirement," according to Nick Menta of GOLFCHANNEL.com. Tour policy states that players "must start 25 events in either the current or previous season or else add one new event they have not played in the last four years." Spieth played 23 events this season and his appearance at the Ryder Cup later this month will "mark his 24th official start." Since he did not add a new event in '17-18, he will "come up one start short of satisfying the policy" (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 9/10). GOLF.com reported Spieth is looking at a "$20k fine and/or a three-tournament suspension" as punishment. Josh Sens as part of a roundtable wrote, "If Spieth gets dinged, it's not because he didn't have plenty of opportunities to meet the minimum requirements this season." Jeff Ritter wrote that the Tour needs the rule to "incentivize stars to vary their schedules and add a little juice to the lower-wattage events." Alan Shipnuck called the rule "sensible" and believes the penalties "should be much steeper." Shipnuck: "It badly hurts the Tour product that the stars skip half the tournaments each year." But Joe Passov wrote the rule "seems unduly harsh in Spieth's case." Passov: "This is the guy that came back to the John Deere a few years ago when he didn't have to -- and practically was all the star power at the Byron Nelson this year" (GOLF.com, 9/11).
