Golf-PGA Tour to host 47 events in revamped 2014-15 schedule

Aug 13 (Reuters) - The PGA Tour confirmed the addition of two more tournaments and that it was moving the WGC-Match Play Championship to a week before the Players Championship as it announced it schedule for the 2014-15 season on Wednesday. The sport's most lucrative circuit starts in early October and will now host 47 tournaments, up from 45, yet still finds a space in the calendar to reinstate a week's break in the end-of-season playoffs after it was removed from this year's schedule. The Sanderson Farms Championship returns to the schedule with a new venue after a one-season absence, now to be contested from Nov. 6-9 at the Country Club of Jackson in Mississippi, the same week as the WSG-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. It was last held during the same week as the British Open in 2013, a slot that will now be occupied by the new Barbasol Championship (July 16-19) at the Robert Trent Jones Trail's Grand National - Lake Course near Opelika, Alabama. The WGC-Match Play has shifted from February to April 30-May 3 and will be played at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, pushing the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina to the week after The Players. The U.S. Open will be held for the first time at Chambers Bay in Washington, the British Open will be played at St Andrews, Scotland and the PGA Championship will be held at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. The playoffs will feature a bye week in the middle of the four tournament race for the FedEx Cup. The 2014-2015 season tees off with the Frys.com Open in Napa, California from Oct. 9-12 and concludes with the Tour Championship in Atlanta from Sept. 24-27 next year. "After the successful debut of our wraparound schedule this season, we have another very strong schedule for 2014-2015 that will provide excitement for our fans and additional playing opportunities for our members," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement. "We look forward to the return of the Sanderson Farms Championship and are very pleased to welcome the Barbasol Championship to the PGA Tour. "We are also excited about the Match Play Championship being played at TPC Harding Park before the passionate golf fans in the San Francisco area." The biennial Presidents Cup will take place after the conclusion of the PGA Tour season, held for the first time in South Korea at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon from Oct. 8-11. (Reporting by Ben Everill in Los Angeles; Editing by John O'Brien)