As The Woods Camp Requested...

File this Tim Rosaforte paragraph in the buried-lead file. He's writing about Tiger not appearing at Kapalua:

In truth, this could have been averted. Had the Target World Challenge been scheduled the week after Thanksgiving, as the Woods Camp requested, instead of two weeks from Christmas, it would have given Tiger almost a month of downtime before getting back to business at Kapalua. Instead, The Target was given Dec. 14-17, and Mercedes/Kapalua takes the hit.

Hmmmm...do we have a Commissioner-Tiger spat in the making here?

Comments

[Scott]

As a volunteer working holes #6 and #15, I felt that the attendance numbers were down this year...so was the energy level...the networks didn't even use a blimp for coverage this year...
I believe that the proximity to the holidays cut into the gate, as people elected to get their holiday shopping done...
And this with a field of players that had heavy Ryder Cup team representation, too...AND John Daly and Fred Couples, two fan favorites...
The crowds on Sunday were down compared to the last several years...it'll be interesting to see how the scheduling goes over the next three years...

[dandruff]

i'd be blown away if this is true. TF is too smart to let this happen. more likely, tiger asked for specific dates, the tour said "sure--and you will play ALL FOUR of our fed ex cup playoff events, won't you?", and tiger politely declined that trade.

better question is--can tiger cut into the fed ex cup in the middle? Is there a scenario where tiger wins, say, 2 majors next year, and has so many points that he blows off the first two (or three) events and cuts in later?

If he field is cut to the top 60-70 players (ok, i DONT know the format--find five tour players who do) after the first event, is there ANY chance that tiger or phil, if they dont need to, will tee it up in event number one? I'll bet not.

my personal bet is tiger and phil play two of the four playoff events.

[Steven T.]

For sure, TW will play the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston as the TW Foundation is the major charity there and DB is one of his sponsors.