Whoa Files: How About That Trophy, Nelson Mandela Edition

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Mark Garrod reports on the Euro Tour's Nelson Mandela Championship where they played Royal Durban as a 5,594-yard par-65 due to flooding, prompting Jason Sobel to suggest this was the first (albeit unintentional!) professional example of Tee It Forward.

But what caught my eye: the Getty Image accompanying the story.

I thought winner Scott Jamieson was doing a complicated ventriloquist act featuring former President Mandela talking to graduates of the The First Tee and then, well, I realized some South Africans just went an ambitious direction with their trophy design.

At Least It's Not Dubai: Turkey Eyes 2022 Ryder Cup Bid

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And as Bernie McGuire reports, Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose supported the idea when asked about Ahmet "Head Butt" Agaoglu's desire to launch a Turkish Golf Federation supported bid.  Of course the lads are both carrying quite a bit of cash from their recent visit there, so it would rude to say otherwise.

As you know, it's a European Tour tradition to hang a for sale sign on their most important event, regardless of course quality and as we learned not long ago, location.  Dubai was kicked around as a possibility, before sanity prevailed. And since Turkey is also not a European union member, it might take some convincing to send the Ryder Cup there.

Tiger Sounding Non-Committal (At Best) On Euro Tour Membership

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From today's presser to announce the field and new sponsor for the year-end World Challenge at Sherwood.

Q.  Wondering what your thoughts are on ‑‑ you mentioned before that you might be joining the European Tour a few weeks back.  I want to know what that would mean if you chose to do that.

TIGER WOODS:  Well, they asked me the question whether or not I would entertain it, and I said, yeah, I entertained it early on in my career, there's no doubt, because at the time there was only 11 events, and I believe it was eight cross‑overs, and I played once or twice in Europe, and that put me at nine or ten ‑‑ usually at 10 because I played in Asia and I played as well in Germany for all those years.  So I was only one event away.

Now it's at 13.  13 is a little bit more difficult to get to, but that's one of the reasons why I think they implemented the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup as events that count towards that number.  I certainly can see the benefits and also see the negatives of playing that much golf.  But going forward, I don't know.

Chubby: Turkey Final A Model For Others

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Dermot Gilreese assesses the Turkey Final cash grab that so enriched the lives of eight men last week. The primary organizer explains how it could be a model for future events.

Meanwhile, the money flows. And given his success in attracting such leading names to last week's enterprise, Chubby Chandler of International Sports Management believes it could work in other countries as a promotional vehicle. Indeed as an early by-product, it is hoped that several of last week's octet will return to compete in the Turkish Open in 13 months. As Chandler put it: "I've already established that it's a free week for Tiger."

And Chandler explains how he insured that there were no last minute WD's:

Even with attractive figures being thrown around, it seems that good faith is crucial to the success of these ventures. Which explains why Chandler made sure that $150,000 -- half the minimum guaranteed prize money -- would be lodged to each player's bank account on September 1 of this year -- almost six weeks before the event. "As a gesture, I felt it appropriate to assure them that they were going to be paid," he said.

So much classier than a brown paper bag full of cash or chips to the casino!

Why Tiger Joining The European Tour Would Have An Impact

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I saw the news out of the Turkey Final about Tiger suggesting he might take up European Tour membership if the rules are changed to include the various Cups as appearances. And I yawned, then moved right along.

But Bob Harig explains that such a membership requirement change, coupled with a few other factor$, makes the scenario increasingly likely and would certainly mean fewer appearances in the U.S. Perhaps as many as 3-4 events shaved off his PGA Tour schedule.

Because he is formalizing an endorsement deal with Turkish Airlines, it would make sense that Woods add a new Turkish European Tour event to his schedule -- which will be played in November 2013, just a week prior to the season-ending Dubai World Championship.

So four majors, four WGCs, Abu Dhabi (or something similar early in the year), Ryder Cup/Presidents Cup, Turkey and the season-ending Dubai event would bring the total to 12. He could, possibly, add the European Tour event in China prior to the WGC; or he could play another event around the time of Abu Dhabi during the tour's Gulf Coast Swing.