Greetings From San Diego, Vol. 2

A glorious day at Torrey Pines with few clouds, temperatures in the low 60s and lots of giddy anticipation for...the 11 and 3 pm mandatory player meetings to discuss the new drug policy. I saw the Commish walk by and only fear that the players were subjected to lengthy presentations by golf's first $5 million suit.

Still, I managed to have some nice chats with several veteran players about topics of interest related to stories I'm working on. It's always refreshing to know that for every guy who is just happy to be there playing for $6 million, the Bob Tway's, Joe Durrant's, Geoff Ogilvy's and Duffy Waldorf's give the game a lot of thought.

However, that meant I missed Jason Day's sitdown with the scribblers but would imagine he was not quite so audacious in his stated aspirations.

The combination of the football playoffs going dark this weekend and the strong field had many on site wondering if this would be a more appropriate place to start the PGA Tour season. Not sure what you do with Hawaii and the Hope, but that was the vibe on the putting green.

I know your day has been made so much better by that spellbinding speculation.

Comments

[Al]

Actually, it has made my day better

Had to shovel snow off the driveway
Front headlight is out
Parking garage at work locked me out
To_Do list at work now 2 pages long

Wish I was in San Diego right now enjoying the scenery.

[RTG]

Did Finchem explain to players he and his staff will be subjected to the same drug testing policies? That he could be ramdomly picked at any time and must submit a urine sample to the tester. I sure hope he covered EVERYTHING in those lengthy drug testing procedures policies so that players fully understand their rights as "Independant Contractors" who have hired Tim Finchem to run "THEIR" non-profit organization. Nobody wants Tim Finchem to think he's some kind of owner over the players and has authority over them but instead understands he's in the exact same boat as them. I for one hope he also made this point clear to the guys, reassuring them that he knows "its the player's Tour", and he's proud to have been choosen to steward their organization.

[Bob S.]

The could add the Mercedes, Hawaiian Open and the Hope to the Fall Finish ...

But I suspect that the field is stronger due to the US Open later this year ...

[y2008]

Finchem's FedEx Cup continues to be divisive, that's what happens when your desperate and willing to do almost (15 years with Golf Channel) anything. The demise of tournaments and playing opportunities for the rank and file Tour players has got to be reaching a boiling point by now. Finchem could be on his last lap!!

[JackM]

"The demise of tournaments and playing opportunities for the rank and file Tour players has got to be reaching a boiling point by now."

Please explain this um, counter-intuitive statement.

I have been reading all about low ratings because Tiger, Phil and the rest of the too-wealthy top-tier players don't play enough events. The Mercedes, Sony and the Hope are the most recent events that sadly lacked any star power. However, if the top 25 can make all their money by playing the majors, the WGCs, Arnie's, Jack's and the Fedex Playoffs, then the rest of the events are great opportunities for the "rank and file". The purses are still fat, thanks to Timmy and his shrewd TV deals - yes this includes taking hundreds of millions per year from Comcast.

What a deal, these events that don't get Tiger and have low attendence and low ratings still have huge purses for the players.

[y2008]

"Please explain this um, counter-intuitive statement."

JackM, the last time I peeked there were over 40 events on the PGAT, playing only 15 of those is just over 1/3rd, that's 60 days of work out of 365 days in a year! Its time Phil and Tiger put in a little more effort than that.

"The FedEx Cup will incentivize the top players to play more, and that's what fans want to see, the top players pitted against each other more often". Tim Finchem

Let's see, out of those 4 FedUp Cup events how many actually pitted Ernie, Phil and Tiger against one another? Is that statement counter intuitive?