Tuesday
Jan152008
"The B.C. Open. The International. The Kemper Open. All three were tournaments that didn't fit into Woods' schedule. All three have since disappeared from the schedule."
Started the day of with a nice warm chuckle courtesy of Doug Ferguson AP's Jeff Gold quoting Ty Votaw on the Westchester situation:
A tour spokesman insisted Monday a final decision had not been made.Premature to about 40 people in Ponte Vedra!
``I would say that no decision has been made to terminate our agreement with Westchester,'' tour spokesman Ty Votaw said, adding talks with Westchester are continuing. ``Those discussions may or may not result in a joint decision to keep The Barclays at Westchester.''
Reports that the 2008 edition would be moved to Ridgewood were ``premature,'' Votaw said.
Meanwhile Sam Weinman is full of great points in this post-mortem on the prematurely reporting:
The B.C. Open. The International. The Kemper Open. All three were tournaments that didn't fit into Woods' schedule. All three have since disappeared from the schedule.
"This is a factor with a lot of tour events. They all want him as a competitor because he brings crowds, he brings attention, and he obviously brings ratings," said Neal Pilson, a Chappaqua resident and former president of CBS Sports who now has a private consulting business. "Tiger has a greater singular influence on golf than anyone in the era of television, and that includes Jack Nicklaus or Tom Watson or Greg Norman. He's a phenomenon unto himself."
Granted, The Barclays scenario would not be one of a tournament disbanding, but a tournament simply looking to relocate from its longtime home. For the people who have long considered this tournament their own, though, it might as well be the same thing.
What's interesting to note is that if The Barclays remained in its customary June spot either before or after the U.S. Open, much of this would have been avoided. There still might not be any Woods, but the set-up time in the quiet spring months wouldn't be such a point of contention.
Throw in the problems with the Western and now this, and it really is remarkable how much turmoil these little playoffs have created...off the course.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 08:20 AM
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Reader Comments (13)
ES
Let Trump have another event. It's perfect for his ego. You could have a WWE event on the 18th green...Trump and Finchem duke it out for who gets on camera first!
Frank, to the contrary, I find Westchester to be EXTRAORDINARILY accessible. Matter of fact, last year I followed the leaders through the turn and made it home to 88th and CPW in plenty of time to see the finish on TV. On the flipside, try getting into the Charlotte tournament sometime...park WAY WAY offsite and then walk a 1/4 mile to a bus and then bus for 15 minutes and then, well, you get my drift...
ES
i guess accessable is too relative a term to decide on specifics, but in comparing WCC to say the US open tennis facilities, in my opinion, WCC has its limitations. one example, try taking public transportation from GCT to WCC as compared to the USTA in queens. i would also guess you took a shulttle bus from WCC to a corporate parking lot in white plains or harrison if you drove a car, something more difficult on a non-holiday thursday or friday rather than a final day sunday afternoon. for the future of golf tournament facilities, look at erin hills, a 700 plus acre location with a mere 200 of those acres devoted to the golf course. the rest is for corporate tents, on-site parking, shopping mall type exposures etc. in my mind, WCC is quaint compared to erin hills, but again, its relative.
per steve elling CBS sports.com RE:WCC...."there were few fans last fall on the Westchester course, which is remote and largely inaccessible to fans from outside the area. The final group on Sunday was followed by perhaps 300 on the front nine, ridiculously low numbers that do not engender excitement in a TV broadcast."
frank
Tiger played Cog Hill in the third FedEx Cup, where were the fans that week?
Oh, right, it was the golf course's fault! Tiger never had a problem drawing the masses to Cog the 4th of July weekend.
Maybe fans couldn't care less for the FedEx Cup. I mean maybe its not Tiger or the course, maybe fans are not crazy about a lame format known as the FedEx Cup.
as we know, golf is big business and marketing and promotion include constantly rolling out the "new" and "improved" generation of product.
liberty national was slated to be the replacement to WCC about ten years ago.
i dont personally agree with it, hey yankee stadium is being replaced as well, but thats what it is today.