“Maybe 20 million isn’t so much after all.”

Brian Hewitt scored an exclusive "one-on-one" with the PGA Tour Commish and as you can see by the breadth and length of the Finchem quotes, it probably occurred when they ran into each other at the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony buffet line. One fun highlight pertaining to Lawrence Donegan's Dubai-$20-million-purse exclusive from last week:

Regardless, $20 million is a staggering sum to play for in one week. “The world of golf’s going to change massively in the next few years,” said one highly-placed European source with knowledge of the Dubai deal.
 
But maybe $20 million is not so staggering when you consider that the six gulf countries of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have made a reported $1.5 trillion from oil in the last four years. That’s $1.5 trillion as in a 15 followed by 11 zeroes.
 
PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said he was “delighted” at the reported size of the purse because, he said, the compensation levels for the world’s top golfers still “trail” those of athletes in the major team sports.
 
As to the $1.5 trillion figure, Finchem cracked, “maybe 20 million isn’t so much after all.”

"I thought hitting the fairway was part and parcel of golf. Silly me."

Lawrence Donegan talks to Andrew Coltart about his struggles with distance and the flogging approach to course setup.

"When I played with Tiger he was a brilliant player but he was also very physically imposing, so I went away and tried to work on hitting the ball further. That was 1999. We're now in 2007 and I'm still trying to get more distance," he said. "If I don't try and hit the ball further, the way technology is going I'm going to be left way behind."

The truth is that Coltart, now 37, whose trip to tour school comes after his failure to make the top 115 in the 2007 European tour order of merit, may already have been left behind. Last year he was 181st in driving distance, hitting the ball 268 yards on average - a full 40 yards behind the longest hitters. In the Italian Open in the summer he had to play a five-wood shot into the green on seven of the first nine holes.

"How the hell can I get a five-wood shot close to the hole consistently? If I'd shot two under par I would have done really well - the winning score was 16 under par," he said sarcastically. "I don't want this to come over as bitterness but I feel technology has allowed guys to prosper who 15 years ago wouldn't have been able to make a penny. But because of technology and the way the courses are set up they are going to do really well.

"A guy might be able to dunt the ball 260 yards down the middle but that guy is constantly being outdone because the bigger hitter - the animal, for the want of a better expression - hits it 330 yards and it doesn't matter if he is in the rough because he has only got a wedge in his hands for his next shot. And the greens are saturated, so whatever he can lob up on to the green is just going to plug and stop somewhere near the flag.

"There is one statistic that is very curious to me - you have guys who are 150th in driving accuracy yet are 10th in greens in regulation. How can that be right? I thought hitting the fairway was part and parcel of golf. Silly me."

Interesting to note that he doesn't seem optimistic that a change in grooves will help him reverse his fortunes. 

The World Tour...Is Here?

Several interesting stars aligned Thursday to form what seems to be the makings of a "World Tour" in...Europe. Well, and maybe Asia. And Dubai.

Jim Gorant recaps the wacky week in Singapore and how it overshadowed the PGA Tour, while Lawrence Donegan reveals that the good folks in Dubai are ponying up even more money.

Details are to be announced in Dubai later this month but the Guardian has learned that the event, to round off the 2009 season, will have a prize fund of $10m (£4.95m) for the tournament itself with the other half to be divided as "bonus" money among the highest-ranked players at the end of the 2009 season.

Donegan also blogs about the European Tour's efforts to expand and offers this:

Beyond that there is the strong possibility the tour will change its name - a move that meets with the approval of another of the big names in European golf, Guy Kinnings, Montgomerie's manager and head of IMG's European golf division. "The name 'European Tour' has definitely got some value but in the long term it remains to been seen whether it is really necessary to keep it, especially if the tour is travelling more and more around the globe."

I guess the only question I'd ask is, what's taken so long?

"We want to give them a solid option, where they have a choice and don't have to go to America if they don't want to."

John Huggan turns on his tape recorder and lets George "I'm prone to pissing people off" O'Grady share the European Tour's scheduling philosophy. And there are a few other jabs, including one at the President's Cup.

"We are looking at where we have really good courses, really good climates and a lot of money available," he continues. "Those are the areas we will be focusing on. We will shortly be announcing some of the things we are doing in 2009, at which time it will be obvious where we are headed. We will be looking to create clusters of tournaments that are attractive to the global players. We want to give them a solid option, where they have a choice and don't have to go to America if they don't want to."

While that is as much as O'Grady is prepared to say on the subject at this stage, the smart money is on the Middle East tournaments - those in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai - moving from their current early-season slots to somewhere near the end. China, too, is sure to figure large in the newly reconfigured European line-up.

"By the end of 2009 the new framework will be well established," reveals O'Grady. "It will be very clear what we are trying to do, although we will still have some work to do. I don't think we will ever have the schedule exactly the way we want it, so it is hard to put a time on how long it will take us to get there. We have to be aware of the whole world."

And on the Cups... 

"The American players are all very committed to the Ryder Cup," contends O'Grady, whose lack of cynicism on this subject is hardly shared by all informed observers. "There is such passion for the event. And the tension on the first tee is comparable to Sunday afternoon at a major championship. When Tiger Woods arrived on the first tee at the K Club last year, he was really tight. That tee-shot he hit into the lake was indicative of that.

"The Presidents Cup is very different. I sat on the first tee there this year and it was all very nice. There was plenty of banter and everyone was friendly. In contrast, you daren't speak on the first tee at the Ryder Cup.

"So I think the players would let the PGA Tour know if they needed a bigger gap between the Fed-Ex Cup and the Ryder Cup. But the Ryder Cup is far more important to me than it is to Tim Finchem. I'm not sure how aggravating he finds it that we are involved in the Ryder Cup and the PGA Tour is not, other than sharing a bit in the television revenue.

"If you take the view that whatever the PGA Tour does regarding the Ryder Cup is for the benefit of its membership, then it is a benevolent dictatorship. I don't think what has been done with the Fed-Ex Cup was done to hurt the Ryder Cup; it is merely a by-product."

"Nice event, good fun, but no integrity," was the widely held view.

John Huggan says Ernie Els' resounding win combined with the lack of IMG star power actually may do wonders for the World Match Play and certainly felt more worldly than the PGA Tour's WGC events:

Over the 43 years of its existence and through as many as half a dozen disparate title sponsors from Piccadilly to Colgate to Suntory to Toyota to Cisco to HSBC -- with another on the way -- the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth has been accused of many things, most of them relating to the tournament founder, the late Mark McCormack, packing the field with his own IMG clients.

In truth, Mr. Ten Percent was an easy target, as was his Cleveland-based company's acronym. "IM Greedy" was a popular alternative, as was "International Money Grabbers," with neither barb, of course, by extension doing anything for the World Match Play's standing in the game. "Nice event, good fun, but no integrity," was the widely held view.

But that was then. With a quantifiable and public qualifying system in place nowadays, this long-standing autumnal event has grown in both stature and credibility. Take this year. Of the four semifinalists, only one, Hunter Mahan, pays a percentage of his earnings to IMG, a point worth making in an event offering golf's biggest first prize, a cool £1 million. And even better, eliminating any hint of blatant bias seems to have brought with it a greater diversity, too. Not only were the final four all from different countries, each hailed from a different continent: Ernie Els from Africa, Angel Cabrera from South America, Mahan from North America and Henrik Stenson from Europe.

Such a cosmopolitan lineup has to be commended in a so-called "world" event, even if, with only 16 starters, there remains an air of exhibitionism about the proceedings. And let's not get into the fact that with the arrival of the WGC-Accenture World Match Play Championship that features the planet's best 64 players, the global claim of this event's title is, if one is honest, more than a little dubious.

"If you run around thinking you can beat this guy, he's going to keep knocking you down."

John Huggan talked to Thomas Bjorn about his desire to be chairman of the European Tour tournament committee, and he offered this interesting bit of wisdom:

"I always compare the PGA Tour with Tiger," he muses. "The second you realise he is what he is, that's the time you can start competing with him. If you run around thinking you can beat this guy, he's going to keep knocking you down. And it's the same with the PGA Tour. If the European Tour thinks it can be as big and powerful as they are, then it isn't ever going to happen. But if we accept that they are there and that they do what they do, then we can start managing our own affairs to the best of our ability."

Seve Having A Blast Captaining; Wants To Do It Again At An Event That Draws A Gallery

He's older, wiser, grayer, paler but nonetheless able to Captain at a team tournament where people show up. Yet how can he be considered when he still won'tfess up to his hand in the single worst pre-tournament renovation and setup in golf history: Valderamma's 17th.

Paul Forsyth reports:

The man who led them to victory at Valderrama in 1997 has been having such a ball at the Seve Trophy, where his European team lead Great Britain & Ireland 9½-8½, that he fancies himself to succeed Nick Faldo at Celtic Manor in 2010. “I was thinking about it out on the course,” he says. “I was having such a good time. If the players want me, I would be happy to do it again.”

Ballesteros, who retired from competitive golf earlier this year, has relished his captain’s role at the Heritage, careering his buggy over the humps and hollows of County Laois, dishing out legs of Iberian ham to anyone with an appetite, and adopting the hands-on approach for which he was famous at Valderrama. The man who said he would never return to the Ryder Cup is having second thoughts. “In life, you say certain things and then change your mind.

Everybody does that. I have no doubts that I would be a better captain now, although it would be difficult because I won. I have learnt a lot of things. I know how to treat players, how to make the team play together, how to keep everybody happy. I have a very good relationship with the players,” he said.

Maybe, but his relationship with the European Tour is so uneasy that he will have a hard job persuading them this event deserves to keep its slot on the schedule, never mind that he should be installed as their next Ryder Cup captain. Yesterday’s marginal increase in crowds at least ensured there were more bodies behind the ropes than there were inside them.

Warren Survives Bout With Chandelier

Mark Garrod reports another lively story for the beleaguered Seve Trophy correspondents.

Scottish golfer Marc Warren was back playing at the Seve Trophy in Ireland today after what was literally a shattering experience at the team hotel.

Practising his swing in his room after losing his opening match with Colin Montgomerie, last season's European Tour Rookie of the Year smashed a chandelier above him.

The glass showering down on him cut his head, both arms and, most worrying of all, caused a nasty deep gash across his stomach requiring a trip to hospital.

Sounds like he was lucky to not lose his who-ha.

"It was about a centimetre wide and looked about a centimetre deep," said Warren. "I looked in the mirror and I was covered in blood.

"I rang Bradley Dredge because I was supposed to be having dinner with him, then Monty came along and (captain) Nick Faldo called.

"A car took me to hospital, although the driver stalled three times, and I had butterfly stitches in my cuts and had it dressed and covered."

Returning to the hotel around 10pm, Warren found he had fused the lights and so had to pack his things in the dark before being transferred to another room.

Unsure how sore he would be on waking up this morning, the 26-year-old was relieved to discover he was not too bad and even began with two birdies against French pair Raphael Jacquelin and Gregory Havret.

However, after five holes mostly played in rain and in front of another tiny crowd, Warren and Montgomerie were two down.

Before teeing off, Warren was even able to joke about what he called "an adventurous evening", saying: "I was using a five-iron - it should have been a six because I would have missed it."

"The atmosphere was limited"

Lawrence Donegan writes about the galleries--can you call 250 a gallery!?--present for day one of the Seve Trophy.

Europe took a one-point lead over a team from Great Britain and Ireland after day one of the Seve Trophy but in the battle for the hearts and minds of the Irish public between the Royal & Ancient game and the national ploughing championships, it was a complete walkover.

The result: golf - approximately 250 paying customers wandering forlornly around the vast expanse of the Heritage resort; ploughing - 80,000 crammed into the Annaharvey Farm, 20 miles away, for one of Ireland's great cultural events.

"The atmosphere was limited," said Colin Montgomerie after he and his partner, Marc Warren, lost 3&1 in the opening fourball of the day to Europe's Peter Hanson and Robert Karlsson - a match that attracted around two dozen spectators as it headed off into the back nine. "The ploughing championships need to finish, and the sooner that happens the better. The farmers need to bring their wellies and get over here because the quality of golf is excellent."

Leaving aside the stereotyping of farmers and their footwear, the Scotsman had an excellent point.

The Principal also shares a story of getting to watch great golf with unobstructed views.  

Broken Heart Clubs

From the wire story on round two of the British Masters, courtesy of reader Steve...

Robert Karlsson (75) broke two clubs, an 8-iron and a 6-iron, trying to hit a ball next to a tree on the third hole. He took an eight.

Karlsson sent for his clubs to be repaired and had them back by the sixth hole.

Also, Alastair Forsyth shot an 11 at the revamped sixth hole and missed the cut. The Scot drove into the water, put a 3-iron into the water, then hit two 2-irons into the water.

Then he threw the 2-iron into the water.

"I'm concerned that, if you were in a sinking ship with Finchem and there was only one lifeboat, you wouldn't get that lifeboat. He'd have it, and you'd go down with the ship."

John Huggan tries to understand Tim Finchem's buckets and mostly lets Peter Alliss consider the impact of the FedEx Cup on European golf:

While it is easy to make fun of the verbally-manipulative Finchem, the danger he presents to golf in the wider sense should not be underestimated. He thinks "outward looking" means anywhere inside the US. Hence his utter indifference when it was pointed out to him the damage the Fed-Ex Cup would almost certainly do to, for example, a suddenly star-starved European Tour.

"This so-called special relationship between Great Britain and the United States in all things doesn't seem to exist in golf," says BBC commentator Peter Alliss. "As much a politician as Tim Finchem is, I'm not sure he really cares about the European Tour. If we went under, I'm not sure it would register on his radar. He's always squeezing dates. The Ryder Cup is moving farther and farther back. All it will take is a bit of mist in the morning, and they won't get the next couple played in three days.

"He doesn't really seem to care. He's always going on about playing against the rest of the world, but only on his own terms. I remember when Greg Norman was going to start a so-called world tour. Finchem killed that, then virtually copied what Greg was proposing.

"I'm concerned that, if you were in a sinking ship with Finchem and there was only one lifeboat, you wouldn't get that lifeboat. He'd have it, and you'd go down with the ship. I really don't think he gives a shit. He'd be very apologetic, but at the end of the day he'd be looking after his own."

And... 

"The US Tour is a bit like going to see The Mousetrap every week, and going across the road from the theatre to eat the same meal," Alliss, a former Ryder Cup player, observes. "No matter how good the play is or the food is, you soon get bored with it. I know the counter-argument is that Finchem is not obliged to look at the bigger picture: he is employed solely to make money for his members, something he does very well. Look at the bonus system they have for making cuts. If Tiger were to retire when he is 40, he'd get some ridiculous sum of money.

"But for Finchem, the state of the game is neither here nor there. He is responsible for providing tournaments for his members to play in. I didn't think he could continue to find sponsors willing to put up a $1m first prize every week, but he has."

What has also boosted sympathy for Finchem's latest cause is the whining from players, most notably Mickelson, whenever the unavailability of the Fed-Ex prize-money is mentioned. The pampered souls will receive the cash only when they reach the age of 45.

"Professional golf has come so far in a relatively short period of time that I wonder how much longer it can go on and on," says Alliss. "The reaction of some of the players worries me. I never thought I would say there is too much money in professional golf. But I'm beginning to think there is. The top players are seemingly not tempted by anything. The Fed-Ex is worth $10m, and it can't get them to play every week. Money just does not stir them."

"We are treated to an intimate glimpse into the souls of those participating."

John Huggan celebrates the beauty of team golf. Well, except for the ugly American antics he witnessed at the Walker Cup.

For example, two days at Newcastle told me everything I will ever need - or want - to know about the current US Amateur champion, Colt Knost. A highly talented golfer, one who already looks good enough to make the perennially hazardous transition into the professional ranks, Knost is, on the evidence of this Walker Cup, an arrogant and boorish so-and-so.

His reaction to not winning his singles match on the second day, when his opponent, Daniel Willett, holed a 20-foot putt on the final green to clinch at least a half point (Knost followed him in from perhaps a yard) was disappointing to say the least. After 'treating' Willett to one of those limp-wristed, no eye contact handshakes one always hates to see at the end of any match, Knost strutted around the putting surface for an unhealthy length of time shaking his head and staring up at the heavens. The implication was clear: How dare this obviously less gifted chopper make such an outrageous putt and deprive me of my pre-ordained victory? For Knost, his match was clearly all about himself and not about what he could do to help his teammates. Let's hope, given time, that this spoiled young man will mature to the point where his character matches his ability.

And on the beauty of team events... 

All of which - the good and the bad - is part of the inherent attraction of team golf. Win, lose or draw, we are treated to an intimate glimpse into the souls of those participating. Which is also, of course, one of the great things about match play. In a head-to-head contest it isn't possible to coast along, finish tied for sixth and pick up a nice cheque. Oh no. In match play there are winners and losers. And no one likes to be a loser. Or admit to being a loser. Somehow it's easier to start a post-mortem with, 'I came fourth' rather than, 'I lost.'

The best news is that, over the course of this month, we are going to be treated to a host of to-class team matches. This week I'm popping down to Dunbar to watch the ladies Home International matches, where the cream of the British Isles' female amateurs will be on display.

Then there is the Solheim Cup in Sweden, where Europe and the US will be going perm-to-perm in the ladies equivalent of the Ryder Cup. And less than two weeks after that, the Americans will be taking on the International squad in the Presidents Cup while, across the water, Great Britain & Ireland's professionals will be facing up to their mates from the continent of Europe for the Seve Trophy.

Okay, the Seve Trophy? In that group? Uh no. 

Huggan On Clarke

John Huggan on Darren Clarke's life since losing his wife a little over a year ago:

Another understandable factor in Clarke's on-course woes this year has been dealing with the first anniversary of his wife's passing. He and the boys were back home in Portrush for two weeks' holiday last month, in the middle of which fell the fateful day.

"To be honest, in the build-up to the anniversary I wasn't at the races at all," he says, his eyes suddenly focused on a point far away.

"It was all a bit much for me. But then, when August 13 did come around [one day before his own birthday], it was almost as if a wee bit of weight was lifted off my shoulders. By then I had done every birthday, every anniversary, the first Christmas, so all the bits and pieces had passed. I'd been through everything once.

"We all went up to the grave together. It's not as if I shush anyone when Heather's name comes up. The kids and I talk about her all the time. It would be wrong to exclude her name from conversation. In the car the other day Connor asked if I remembered when mummy was alive and we did this or that. That's the way they talk. Sometimes I get a lump in my throat but I wouldn't have it any other way. I want them to remember their mummy.

"I went up to the grave on my own for quite a bit of time late in the day. There were a lot of flowers, including a lovely big bouquet from Padraig and Caroline Harrington. I'll never forget that gesture, it was just so nice of them to think of Heather."

"Beyond comprehension"

Catching up on some other non-PGA Tour stories, I see where a nice little spat is developing in Europe over the consistent selection of dreadful Ryder Cup venues. Darren Clarke spoke up and Mike Aitken reports:

DARREN Clarke, a Ryder Cup regular since 1997, completed his first round on the PGA Centenary course at Gleneagles and admitted it was "beyond his comprehension" why Europe's Ryder Cup committee had chosen to stage the match here against the USA in 2014.

After carding 73, level par, in the first round of the Johnnie Walker yesterday, Clarke described the Jack Nicklaus lay-out as an American style course not up to the standard of championship venues widely available in Scotland.

He said: "I think it is unbelievable they [the Ryder Cup committee] have chosen this course to stage the 2014 match. There's only been one Ryder Cup in Scotland, in 1973 [at Muirfield], and then they choose a course like this one. There are even two better ones here at Gleneagles. Scotland is the home of golf and we should not be playing on an American-style course; it's beyond my comprehension."

Clarke was not against Gleneagles as a venue for the match, if it was played over the adjacent Kings course, which has staged European Tour events, or even the short Queens course.

"Gleneagles is a wonderful venue but this is the wrong course," Clarke insisted.

Muirfield, Turnberry, Loch Lomond and Carnoustie were the other Scottish bidders. But Diageo, the owners of Gleneagles, succeeded because they made the best commercial offer with a venue deemed the most appropriate to host a modern Ryder Cup.

The next day Aitken wheeled out some poor chap (Sandy Jones?) to defend the selection, who made sure to note that the course is difficult, therefore it must be good!

"Even when Bells sponsored the Scottish Open on the King's, there was talk someone might shoot 59 there," added Jones. "The truth is the King's and the Queen's are just not big enough to accommodate today's players. To suggest the Ryder Cup should be played there isn't helpful. If we're going to have a debate about the course, let's have a sensible one."

A sensible one eh? Well then that calls for Monty's take!

But Colin Montgomerie, chairman of the Johnnie Walker championship committee, said: "Gleneagles will be a fantastic venue.

"As far as the staging of the match in Perthshire is concerned, I have no concerns whatsoever."

Spoken like someone who really wants to be captain in 2014.

Jones also stressed the important role Gleneagles had played in the history of the match, hosting the first unofficial contest against the USA in 1921 even before the hotel was built.

Colin Montgomerie also rallied to the defence of Gleneagles and insisted the PGA Centenary course was at least as good if not better than most of the venues chosen to host the Ryder Cup on this side of the Atlantic over the past 25 years.

Asked to comment in his capacity as chairman of the Johnnie Walker championship committee about the suitability of Gleneagles as hosts of the 2014 Ryder Cup match, Montgomerie said: "People are entitled to their opinion, but I feel the course would stand up to any Ryder Cup venue."

"Gleneagles is at least on a par with any of those venues if not an awful lot better than some."

Well and it is such elite company: K Club, Belfry, Celtic Manor. The architectural marvels of our time.

"No Jeans, training pants or hot pants."

Reader Steve was checking up on the Russian Open, this week's European Tour event, and stumbled on this spectator's etiquette guide. Some of the more intriguing recommendations:

Turn your camera flash off. If you can't, refrain from taking any photographs while a player is taking a shot. Also, if your camera automatically rewinds at the end of the film, be aware of how many shots you have left before you snap away.

It's great to hear digital cameras still haven't made it somewhere on the planet. And what a shame Stevie's not there with Tiger. 

Golf promotes a specific Dress Code. Please dress appropriately when attending the golf tournament. The Dress Code is as follows:

No high heels are allowed, flat soled shoes only. To avoid damage to the course and for your safety.

Shirts with collars only must be worn at all times (no bikinis/swimsuits).

No Jeans, training pants or hot pants.

No hot pants? What does Ian Poulter do?