"Apparently he's a celestial being that you can't touch. That's the way I see it."

Like the motorist who has to slow down for a car crash, I decided to sit in on Rory Sabbatini's meet and fight greet with the scribblers at Wednesday's Deutsche Bank press conference. And he didn't disappoint.

After a pretty rigid, uninspired effort (the course is "fair" and in "great shape"), a question about an incident last week got him going before this question delivered some good old fashioned tension in the room. 

Q. Outspokenness has been a double-edged sword for you, hasn't it?

RORY SABBATINI: No, actually the media has been the double-edged sword in the fact that I'll make a statement and they tend to paraphrase it to their liking and change it. You know, if anybody actually had bothered going back and reading transcripts from previous interviews, they would understand what I said instead of just going with the paraphrasing and following that lead.
You know, I'll say that the media has really put a very bitter taste in my mouth.

Q. Do you suppose that's because of the fact that you speak up or that you speak out on certain topics and no one else really takes a stance publicly on anything, so therefore -- because I haven't disagreed with anything you've said all year. I think you've been right.

RORY SABBATINI: Understand, I'm generalizing. I'm not saying every member of the media.

Q. I know, I don't feel that way.

RORY SABBATINI: The situation is I speak my mind. People always say they want something different; you get me, you get something different, and then they burn you for it. So what do you want, do you want different or do you want the usual fraternal player out here? You guys need to pick and choose what you want. If you want your generic standard answer, hey, I can spend all day long here and talk generic answer with you. But that's not the person I am.

You know, if the situation continues where people continue to burn me and manipulate what I say into what they want to turn it into, I'm just not going to bother talking. That's why, you guys have got to pick and choose what you want.

It's called copy and paste my friend.

Q. Fair enough.

RORY SABBATINI: You make me out to look like the bad guy when I've done nothing but ever actually, in a sense, praised Tiger because I've seen Tiger at his best. I'm the first one to admit, when Tiger is on his game, there's hardly -- I don't know if there is a person that plays on the PGA TOUR or anywhere in the world that can beat him, and I've said that repeatedly.

Q. When you said what you said, he had just blown a three-shot lead with six holes to go at Wachovia. I thought, you know what, he's making a valid point.

RORY SABBATINI: But the thing is people don't see that as a valid point. Apparently he's a celestial being that you can't touch. That's the way I see it.

Well that ought to put things to rest!

Q. If you were Gary Player, who would you pick to take on Tiger at the Presidents Cup in the singles?

RORY SABBATINI: Why not pick me?

Q. I think that's what he's asking you.

RORY SABBATINI: Why not pick me? I would pick myself.

 There's a newsflash.

A Few Quick Comments From TPC Boston

Thanks to favorable weather and the efforts of superintendent Tom Brodeur, the course is dry and firm with a promising weather forecast.

I toured the course today with Gil Hanse and Brad Faxon, so it was fun not only to hear their insights, but to hear player reactions which included several fine compliments along the lines of "I'm not sure how to play this hole" or "that bunker is right where I want to layup." Of course, the players don't realize they are paying the architects a compliment!

The new fourth is a real standout and I'll post more on that with some photos when I get the chance. Both 16 and 17 could be really fun on television, while the 18th is loaded with trouble but until the original green is blown up, I'm not sure how great it can be.

Most exciting of all is how aged the fescues already look. These images are of 5 month old bunkers. In a few years when the grasses break down and see a little wear and tear, they'll only take on more of an antique flavor.

 

Greetings From Boston

Posting will be sporadic as I've landed in Boston and will be at the TPC the next few days soaking up playoff fever. WiFi willing I'll be posting some photos and other observations from the media center.

To whet your appetite, TPC Boston's pro Tom Ellis talks about the course changes and other issues surrounding the Deutsche Bank event, while Dave Shedloski previews the week in his Tour Insider column.

And over at Golf Digest a FedEx Cup gang bang broke out while I was flying cross country. Ron Sirak is lukewarm, John Hawkins offers less than encouraging reviews for the Cup and Westchester in his Golf World game story, while Bill Fields is hopeful that the playoffs will get interesting. Of course, he also quotes several prominent players saying that playoffs may have been a poor choice of words. Huh?

No, we like the idea of a playoff. It just has to act like one!

Steve Stricker's Emotional Win Overshadowed By Steve Allan's Early FedEx Cup Exit

Just remember, they weren't going to eliminate anyone after this first event until Tom Pernice sounded off last year to John Hawkins (I'd link it, but I think it's a goner). The tension it added was palpable, well at least the few times I flipped over from the U.S. Amateur.

Meanwhile, Rich Beem avoided elimination with his fine play, earning a spot in Deutsche Bank and reportedly forcing tournament officials to order an emergency print run of tickets,

"Rory Sabbatini still found a way to tug on Superman’s cape"

That's Steve Elling writing about Rory Sabbatini's latest comments directed toward Tiger. Now, they say the definition of insane is when you keep doing the same thing ov...you go Rory! We love when Tiger wipes the floor with you!

His favorite foil, Tiger Woods, isn’t even in the field this week, yet cantankerous Rory Sabbatini still found a way to tug on Superman’s cape and court another mini-controversy.
 
Sabbatini shot an 8-under 63 Thursday to take the first-round lead at the inaugural FedEx Cup playoff event, The Barclays at Westchester Country Club, but he couldn’t resist taking the bait when the topic of Woods’ controversial absence was broached.
 
Sabbatini, whose opinionated honesty has repeatedly landed him in some sticky situations with regard to Woods this year, characterized the decision of the game’s top player to skip the first round of the mega-hyped playoff series as an embarrassing black eye.
 
“It's a disappointment because, obviously the whole purpose of this new system was to try and create an atmosphere that would draw everybody to the final four events of the year,” Sabbatini said. “Obviously, it's kind of backfired in the sense by Tiger skipping the first event.
 
“It leaves a lot of questions and a lot of interesting questions to what they need to do, to maybe change it so that you definitely have the incentive to play all four.”
 
Sabbatini, who won earlier this year at Colonial and stands sixth in FedEx Cup points entering the week, said those who skip stages should suffer a penalty of some sort and possibly should not receive the full $10 million bonus if they win the four-week race.
 
“There's many guys that play on tour that are out of shape and they play six, seven weeks in a row,” Sabbatini said. “It's just, I don't know if there's any solution to it, but there's got to be some kind of financial incentive.”

This ought to go over particularly well in Orlando this week. 

Woods’ claim that he was too tired to play after winning back-to-back weeks at the Bridgestone and PGA Championship rang hollow in Sabbatini’s ears. For Woods, the FedEx bonus money is probably no great windfall, odd as it might sound to civilians out there, he said.
 
“Oh, I definitely think it's something other than fatigue,” he said. “Well, I think maybe to some people $10 million doesn't seem like a whole lot of incentive but to others it would seem like a good incentive.”

 For more of Rory's thoughts, here is his press conference transcript.

Explaining Westchester's Greens

John Hawkins says the August weather has taken its toll on Westchester's greens.

They really need to lose some trees too. 

"They have gotten excited and captivated about the Cup. They are looking forward to everybody playing. The No. 1 player doesn't play, they don't like it."

Tim Finchem slipped away from vital cocktail reception to calm down that liberal, secular, cynical press corps on the eve of the FedEx Cup playoffs. His comments sounded genuine until...he started talking about the FedEx Cup.

Q. First question, you're here in the No. 1 media market, your No. 1 player is not here, you're promoting the Playoffs, big kickoff here, how much of an impact does his absence have on the promotion of the FedExCup?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: Well, obviously I'm disappointed with his decision. It's not a decision that I like to see him make, candidly, any week of the year, but he doesn't play them all.
I think there's two ways to look at it. On the negative side, and I'll be candid about the negative side, you know, from the standpoint of the sponsor here, the fans in New York, it's certainly a negative. You know, I would like to see it the other way.

Thankfully, no grey area there. 

From the standpoint of the FedExCup and the Playoffs, it's a little different focus. I mean, clearly we've been carefully watching the e-mails and blogs come through over the last better part of a week now, and the fans seem to have a different view. They seem to think that Tiger was going to win this thing, and now it's not so sure that he's going to win it, so it creates more excitement and more enthusiasm.

I noticed one blog the other day on ESPN, a couple of them accused me to going to Tiger and asking him not to play for that purpose, which I thought was a little amusing. (Laughter).

Wait, you read blogs? Whoa Nellie.

And what blogs were those representing the fan enthusiasm? You have a link handy?

 Q. That said, what are some of the issues that you're focusing on next year?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: Well, if I started listing them, I'd be focusing on them and I don't want to focus on them. We're going to look at everything.

That's a relief.

I'll say this, though, categorically, that the enthusiasm and the excitement that we had as a team, working after a couple of years with most of the players, not all players got involved in the process, but the vast majority did.

I don't think Jeff Maggert would agree. 

But that enthusiasm that we felt when we brought the Cup forward and announced it, there is absolutely nothing that has happened to this moment that detracts in any way from our enthusiasm about what the FedExCup potentially can be for the PGA TOUR.

Of course, the playoffs haven't started yet...

 Q. Just going back to Tiger for a second, have you had any conversations with him since he came to his decision not to play?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: We communicate different ways, but I've had communications with him, yes.

Text? IM? Telegrams?

Q. What were the assurances, and what were the impressions that you had of assurances from him that he was going to play all four?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: I didn't have any assurances from any player. I didn't ask for any assurances. I asked for players to get involved in structuring and lending their best contributions in terms of what they thought would make an exciting, compelling series, and most of them, you know, certainly a significant majority did just that.

And according to Adam Schupak's reporting, you didn't listen to them. At least on perhaps the most important element of the playoffs, the $10 million annuity.

I never asked a player, and I don't ask a player, you know, to commit to me. That's a process that they have to deal with based on what we put out there in terms of product. That's the history of the TOUR.

Our first product mention of the day. Word 1835. He's losing his touch.

 Q. With golf being so traditionalist-steeped and such, looking back, do you think you guys have maybe over hyped or over promoted this product at any point where there's been a little too much change?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: No, I don't --

Q. Last Friday the reaction was pretty harsh.

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: But I think a lot of the harsh reaction was because people were excited about the Cup. I mean, that's certainly what I read in the fan comments. They have gotten excited and captivated about the Cup.

I know what you are thinking, is Tim going to head into the city to do a quick stand-up spot at Comic Strip Live this week? He is a funny man!

They are looking forward to everybody playing. The No. 1 player doesn't play, they don't like it. I like to see that. I'm glad they had that reaction rather than saying, gee, whiz, we don't care.

No, I don't think -- we have to get people -- this is not -- listen, we've been through this. We created the Presidents Cup. We created the World Golf Championships. We created The First Tee. People didn't understand The First Tee and questioned it and why would you want to go out in inner cities and get kids involved with the game of golf.

Hey don't bring the First Tee into this.

Q. You mentioned maybe the lack of players' focus on the Playoffs until they actually got here. But what was the educational process for the players adapting to the Playoffs, because a lot of them as recently as Akron and the PGA Championship seemed confused as to what the format was. So I guess can you talk about how many meetings did they have; how often were they briefed about what the format would be?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: Well, I don't think -- let me make sure we're clear. I'm not suggesting the players didn't focus on the playoff until they got here. I'm saying a lot of the players didn't focus on the details on what's involved until late.

Oh, huuuuuuuuuuge difference!

For example, alternates or no alternates; it's just a straight 144. You play all year to get to 144 and you're in and then it cuts, little things like that. I think there's been a focus all year long on the Playoffs, and that has resulted in some scheduling impact with certain players knowing they are going to play a lot late and addressing their schedule in such a way.

Although, my sense is from talking to players during the course of the year, they weren't really going to be at a comfort level about their schedule until they got through one of these in terms of how it played out. We have had an uptick of the number of starts in the Top-30, Top-50 players, which is a good thing for the first year. It's a spinoff benefit we'd like to see the Cup have.

I suspect the stat gurus out there just logged out and are already looking over the "starts" on PGATour.com.

Hey, there is one benefit to no one really liking the FedEx Cup. No steroids questions!

Phil Intent On Playing All Playoff Events Until He Is Not Intent On Playing All Playoff Events

Steve Elling reports on the latest waffling from the other superstar who wanted the season to end earlier.

“When you’re embedded in the event, you’re TiVo proof"

Claudia Deutsch of the New York Times looks at the FedEx Cup ad campaign and serves up a nice warning for New York businessmen prone to rolling their eyes. Or maybe people eat this stuff up? That wouldn't surprise me either.

If you are south of Greenwich Street in Manhattan between noon and 5 p.m. today, look for a weird miniparade: A guy carrying a “quiet” sign followed by a golfer, his caddy and an entourage of nattily dressed “fans.”

Don’t think it’s another bunch of aging hippies commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Summer of Love. The stunt is part of the endgame in a long and expensive campaign by FedEx to drum up frenzy over the FedEx Cup golf playoffs that start at the Westchester Country Club tomorrow.

Just think of the poor struggling actors who have to play these parts out...in public. Then again, people are paid to perform Cats, so anything is possible.

 But now, the race to the pin begins. FedEx has set up a 12-story, three-dimensional billboard of a golf hole on a building on Greenwich Street, the starting point for today’s golfer’s walk. It has cloaked its delivery trucks in a green plastic wrap that simulates grass and that advertises the FedEx Cup.

It is peppering telephone kiosks, Pennsylvania and Grand Central stations, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal with what it calls guerrilla stickers — messages suggesting excuses for skipping work from Aug. 23 through Sept. 16, the duration of the event. (“The dry cleaners lost all of my shirts.” “The copier is jammed.” “I am downloading a file on dial-up.”)

The hoopla will be replicated in Atlanta, where the finals will be held: another staged miniparade will go through the business district there; guerrilla stickers will decorate the airport, train and bus stations; and rapid-transit commuters will be treated to cheeky observations like “most golfers will have played in the rain longer than it takes you to commute to and from work.”

Many of the commercials that FedEx will run during the tournament will continue to promote the cup, but others will promote services like printing (remember that FedEx now owns Kinko’s), shipping and supply chain management. Since most people watch sports in real time, “when you’re embedded in the event, you’re TiVo proof,” said T. Michael Glenn, executive vice president for market development at FedEx.

Oh but you haven't seen me TiVo through a telecast before. 

And golf, marketing experts say, is likely to establish an equally strong track record as an executive sport.

“Golf is one of the fastest growing sports, both for watching and playing,” said Michael Watras, president of the brand consultancy Straightline International.

And who apparently just came out of a 5 year coma. 

Younger people, he suspects, embrace golf by choice; aging boomers turn to it by necessity.

“With tennis, your knees give out,” he said. “But with golf, you walk, you swing, you walk again. You can do that for a long time.”

Or take a cart. 

"So what's the deal?"

You may recall Tiger's post-PGA comments about his superior conditioning. And now, in light of Tiger passing on this week's inaugural playoff event, Ed Sherman wants to know what the deal is.

Woods, muscles popping out of his red shirt, looks as if he could make a bid to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team in the decathlon, if so inclined.

Yes, contending in a major is taxing, a mental and physical grind, even when the conditions are in the 70s with a nice wind blowing. But runners-up Woody Austin and Ernie Els also endured the pressure, not to mention the heat, and they are playing this week.

The bottom line is Woods would have had nine days off before he had to show up in Westchester, N.Y., for his Barclay's pro-am on Wednesday. That should have been more than enough time for a finely conditioned athlete like Woods to recover.

And even if Woods was a bit tired, so what? This is one tournament where the biggest star most definitely needed to be in the field.

Could Snedeker Salvage The FedEx Cup?

After winning Greensboro, Brandt Snedeker actually seems to be one of the few players whose life could be impacted by a FedEx Cup run and win:

Snedeker, a 26-year-old Tennessee native and former Vanderbilt player, had the best round of the tournament. He finished at 22-under 266, earned $900,000 — and, perhaps most importantly, jumped 17 spots to No. 9 on the FedEx Cup points list.

"Everything the tour has been telling us, you have a legitimate chance to win the FedEx Cup, (but) you've got to be inside the Top 15," Snedeker said. "That's why I came here — I wanted to get in the Top 15 and give myself a chance. ... I know my game can leave me tomorrow and I can have the shanks. I wanted to go as high as I could."

With most of the elite players yawning at the $10 million annuity given to the FedEx Cup winner, it would seem that a less established player sneaking in to win may be the only hope for some genuine passion and emotion?

I for one would love to see someone like Snedeker make a run, since the annuity would actually mean something to him.

Otherwise, if this is just an extension of the rich-get-richer pyramid scheme where underdogs have no chance to contend, then it'll probably fail.

"But the truth is, I'm just not ready."

Tiger's official explanation for passing up the Barclay's:

I have decided not to play in The Barclays Classic next week at Westchester Country Club. As I have said all along, my intention was to compete in all four PGA Tour Playoff events, including the inaugural Barclays Classic. But the truth is, I'm just not ready.

Playing the last two weeks in the heat and humidity were mentally and physically draining. Although I managed to pull out victories in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship, my body is spent and I need a short break. Major championships are grueling experiences and usually necessitate recovery time.

Ever since turning professional in 1996, my goal has always been the same: To win every event I enter. I've done pretty well, winning 59 times on the PGA Tour. If I don't feel that way prior to a tournament, I won't commit.

This is in no way a knock on Barclays, their new event next week or the new FedEx Cup series, which I fully support. I just hope that this extra week of rest will rejuvenate me for the final three Playoff events and Presidents Cup. It is still my goal to win the FedExCup and I am hopeful this will give me the best opportunity to finish the year strong.

Tiger

Silver Lining In Woods Playoff Pass?

The news that Tiger is skipping the Barclay's may not be all bad, as Jeff Rude notes somewhat intentionally.

Should Woods skip the first playoff event at Westchester (N.Y.) Country Club, it wouldn’t give the initial B-12 shot the Tour’s pet project was looking for and needed. After all, the Tour has used more than $40 million worth of advertising inventory this year to trumpet the new Cup series.

Good news for Woods and the Tour is this: He can still win the FedEx Cup if he misses Week 1. He’ll be the points leader at 100,000 after the reset on Sunday night. Based on Tour computer models, he’ll need to get to about 112,000 to win the Cup. That means he’d probably win the Cup with a victory, a fifth and a 10th in the playoffs. If he skips the opener, he’d just have three weeks to get those points instead of four.

That shouldn’t be too much of a hurdle for him considering the way he’s playing and the fact he has played well at the final three playoff courses. He won last year at the TPC Boston, site of the Week 2 Deutsche Bank Championship; he has won three times at Cog Hill, the BMW Championship venue in Week 3; and he has three seconds at East Lake in Atlanta, site of the Tour Championship grand finale.

Should Woods win the Deutsche Bank and BMW, he would be all but a mathematical lock to win the Cup. And the Tour Championship would become, to the Tour’s dismay, anticlimax.

So see, not playing Westchester is just one less Cup clinching win that would mess up this otherwise wonderfully concocted idea! 

Tiger's "Intent" Is To Spend Barclay's Classic Week Studying FedEx Cup Points Permutations...From Home?

Sam Weinman reports that it looks like Tiger Woods is going to pass on the first round of the playoffs. Oh how the Yankees would love to do that!

Tiger Finishes Majors -1

Steve Elling takes his annual look at the players who made all four major cuts and breaks down the numbers.

 For the second time in four years, Woods is the major-championship major domo, unseating Phil Mickelson, who won the honor in 2004 and 2006. Woods was the low man at the Slam events in 2005, but missed the cut at the U.S. Open in '06, his lone weekend off at a major in his 11-year pro career.

There were several statistical oddities this year.

Of the 10 players who made all four majors cuts in 2006, none did likewise this year. In fact, in an eye-popping turnaround of the wrong sort, Australia's Robert Allenby finished seventh among the players who completed all 16 rounds at the '06 majors at a collective 3 over. This year? He shot the highest score of any player who appeared in all four, missing the cut across the board and finishing a collective 45 over in eight rounds.

 Because of difficult conditions at 2007's first two majors -- this year marked the third time in history that winning scores were above par at both the Masters and U.S. Open -- the cumulative numbers skewed inordinately high. Since we began tracking the cumulative Grand Slam winners four years ago, 2007 stands as the first time fewer than 10 players made the cut in all four events.

Check out the story for the list of the elite 10.