The Skill Open?

Get the Washington Post ombudsman on the line!

We have some good old fashioned anti golf ball bias displayed by Leonard Shapiro, who not only dares to suggest a retro equipment tournament, but proposes that Nike run it!

Back in June, when the PGA Tour pulled the plug, for now, on Washington playing host to a tournament for the next few years, I received several e-mails from a friend and Northern Virginia neighbor, Howard Jensen, clearly a thinking man's golfer himself, who offered an intriguing alternative to the usual stroke play format for a tournament he'd love to see some day replace the Kemper/FBR/Booz Allen Open.

The play of Woods and Pavin over the last two weeks reminded me of his proposal, which follows mostly in his words. It includes a deep-pocketed sponsor -- he suggested Nike--that would put up the prize money -- say $5 million -- and dictate the rules of play that would go something like this:

Equipment: Nike selects a standard shaft, maybe graphite, and a standard ball (soft) that all players must use. The goal is to select a shaft and ball combination that, in the hands of the longest hitters, would only carry 300 yards maximum when hit perfectly.

See the bias. Criminal I tell you! Here's more from Len's equally biased friend:

"Skill with mid-irons and skill around the greens becomes a significant factor in professional golf again. The equipment in the bags of all players is identical, no tricked-up wedges, no fairway iron/woods, no fade driver/draw driver combinations. It's pure golf, pure equipment.

"This is not a radical notion. Every other professional sport uses standard equipment for all players, even NASCAR. The Battle Cry will boil down to a single question: Is it the player, or is it his/her equipment?

And naturally, this next point is just ludicrous. The plummetting ratings and Tom Fazio say the people want long drives, so they must want the power game, not silly stuff like this:

"Fan interest would be off the charts, drawing in even the casual golf fan. Sports radio and ESPN will have a field day hyping the event, and Washington would be the place to be in the world of golf.

Fuzzy On Today's Tour Players

Fuzzy Zoeller's "My Shot, from the August Golf Digest:

Many of the younger players on the regular tour today are just plain shy. They started at an earlier age than I did and from day one really had the game hammered into them. They grew up more insulated from the outside world. So they're a little less comfortable around people. It shows in their interviews, their interaction with the fans and even with each other. They just aren't people-oriented; caddies and teachers tend to get fired more often because of personality conflicts. I don't think they have as much fun as we did back in the 1970s and '80s. I have to say, I enjoyed the best years of the PGA Tour.

"The PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup"

From a story on Deutsche Bank extending it's deal with the Tour:

"The FedExCup and new playoff system on the PGA TOUR truly usher in an exciting new era in golf, and establish a new measurement of success on the PGA TOUR," TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said. "Moreover, the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup will bring the same pressure and compelling drama to the PGA TOUR that other sports have had for many years."

The PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup. Just leveraging the equity of the brands. I'm sure they'll use version on SportsCenter. 

Hawkins On The Commissioners

John Hawkins in the latest Golf World:

In 2006 we've learned Carolyn Bivens and Tim Finchem share at least one common trait: a zeal for prioritizing revenue generation over the game's competitive welfare, then trying to disguise their corporate mentality by peddling it as progress.

And...

The FedEx Cup format has been panned both inside and outside the ropes, becoming the first playoff series to include more participants than are eligible for the regular season.

Coming off the controversial decision to forsake ABC/ESPN and sign for 15 years with an endemic network such as The Golf Channel, Finchem appears to have bartered his legacy to strengthen the tour's fiscal standing. He calls title-sponsor suits to the podium at news conferences, a practice that further reveals his transparent motives. He uses his own time at the microphone to embark on tangents about the tour's economic prowess, then fends off pertinent questions with his patented semantic splendor.

The Lost Statements of Henry Hughes

Last week we featured a mistaken Michelle Wie press release from the PGA Tour that went out by accident to members of the media. Well my sources in Ponte Vedra have unearthed two more Henry Hughes statements that never were emailed to writers.

“The PGA TOUR congratulates Phil Mickelson on his historic accomplishment of winning his third straight major at Winged Foot, becoming the first to do so since Tiger Woods in 2000. His quality of play over the final round is a testament to the level of performance and individual achievement found on TOUR. The PGA TOUR wishes him well in his attempt to win a fourth straight major at the British Open.”

And this one is a bit dated, but an understandable mistake:

"The PGA TOUR congratulates Thomas Dewey on his election as President of the United States. His quality campaign overcame Harry Truman's negative advertising and is a testament to the level of performance and individual achievement that is found every week in America, especially on the PGA TOUR."

More Criticism Of Western Change

Paul Azinger talking to Len Ziehm:

"The Western Open, are you kidding me?'' Azinger said during last week's John Deere Classic. "Some guys, like Sam Snead, have it as a major championship on their resumes.

"But the tour's not loyal to anybody. Players have no input at all, but what can we do? We can't be a union. We've just got to accept what they do. The players will make a little more money, but there's not a lot of loyalty in big-time sports now.''

Phil Kosin in Chicagoland Golf had this to say in a July issue:

How can the PGA Tour claim Chicago golf spectators will be better off if the tournament formerly known as the Western Open is rotated out of town every other year?

“We really don’t look at it as abandoning Chicago,” said PGA Tour chief financial officer Tom Wade. “We look at it as really upgrading and bringing a top-level world-class event to Chicago. I think it’s fair to say that the whole restructure of the PGA Tour with the FedEx Cup competition culminating in the new PGA Tour playoffs is the most important change we’ve ever made on the PGA Tour. We have big, big expectations and big plans for this.”

What a crock. I’m offended because the PGA Tour actually expects Chicago golf fans to buy this manure.

Why is the PGA Tour abandoning the nation’s third-largest market, golf-crazy Chicago, to take the event to smaller markets like St. Louis, Minneapolis and Indianapolis?
First, the Tour is still seeking a site in the Twin Cities area. We announced on our radio show two weeks ago that Hazeltine, which had been floated around as the third out-of-town site, had already told the Tour “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Maybe St. Louis and Indianapolis are golf-starved markets eagerly waiting to be tapped. But I remember vividly last September, while in Indy covering the Solheim Cup (the women’s version of the Ryder Cup) that the town’s big daily, the Indianapolis Star, did not even mention the event on its front page. Or in the first section of the paper. That’s a commitment to golf?

Oops, Wrong Attachment

Looks like the PGA Tour's Joan Alexander attached the wrong Henry Hughes statement on Michelle Wie's John Deere WD due to heat stroke:

Comment from the PGA TOUR on Michelle Wie making the cut at the John Deere Classic:

“The PGA TOUR congratulates Michelle Wie on her historic accomplishment in making the cut at the John Deere Classic, the first female in more than 60 years to do so on the TOUR. Her quality of play over the first two rounds is a testament to her high level of performance and individual achievement. The PGA TOUR wishes her well in her play this weekend.”

Henry Hughes
Senior Vice President and Chief of Operations PGA TOUR

Jeld Win Teleconference

The PGA Tour held a teleconference to unveil yet another new THE PLAYERS logo and to announced another presenting sponsor. Some nice Finchemspeak for your files.

One of the most important things about next year's tournament is the telecast. To think that we're going to have later air times, that's important, but we're going to have limited commercial inventory, with only four minutes of commercials an hour.

Limited commericial inventory. Is that why we have all of those The Villages ads?

So over the years we have been blessed in the last few years with our relationship with Price Waterhouse Coopers and also with UBS. And today we're delighted to announce that Jeld-Wen, which is the largest manufacturer of reliable doors and windows in the world, will become our third sponsor.

That is particularly important to be able to generate the kind of television presentation that we want to present. It's also important to help underpin all the changes and presentation that will occur with the players going forward.

Underpin...nice verb choice Tim. 

Jeld-Wen is -- why Jeld-Wen? Not just that we have a relationship with Jeld-Wen that goes back several years, when Jeld-Wen has been sponsoring a major championship on the Champions Tour, the Tradition. The Jeld-Wen Tradition has quickly become a fixture on the Champions Tour.

Is that like one of the nine majors in a row they're currently playing?

But the nature of the people at Jeld-Wen, the executive team at Jeld-Wen are a group of people that believe in the game of golf. They believe in what the game can do for a brand. They have demonstrated in their relationship with the Tradition out in Portland, a commitment to charity as well, a million dollars have been raised for charitable causes in the Portland area. So they are a natural, big company, global brand to align not just with The PLAYERS, but in association with The PLAYERS with Price Waterhouse Coopers and UBS. So that rounds out our charitable mix and gives us the basis where we can move forward and have the security to know that we can accomplish the things we need to accomplish to create a better PLAYERS and bring it to our fans.

So many words, and yet so little actually said.

Ah but here's the best part, the report on course and clubhouse renovations from David Pillsbury.

DAVE PILLSBURY: Well, first, I can assure you that the windows and doors are in fact Jeld-Wen through and through. We are very proud to say that. A great product for a great clubhouse, building a platform really for the next 25 years.

And you wonder why I'm cynical? 

Michaux: "Finchem is a corporate drone"

In introducing this web site's week in review, I wondered why Tim Finchem has received little criticism for so many questionable initiatives, most notably the recently announced FedEx Cup.

Well, the Augusta Chronicle's Scott Michaux not only criticizes Finchem, but undoubtedly will have some Vice Presidents running around tomorrow working to make sure no one ever utters the words "FedEx Cup Evaluation System."

It is difficult to swallow, much less stomach.

What I'm talking about is PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem's undigestible contrivance coming in 2007 dubbed - depending on your threshold for corporate jargon - the FedEx Cup or Finchem's Folly.

A couple of weeks ago, Finchem unveiled the hardly anticipated FedEx Cup Evaluation system, which heretofore will be referred to by its acronym, FECES.

Whoa Nellie!

Without boring you in excruciating Finchemesque fashion with any of the details you already don't care about, it is just another list attempting to quantify the relative values of professional golfers in a cluttered landscape that already includes an official world ranking, money winnings, orders of merit, various international team standings, etc.

The only thing that makes the FECES curiously different is the PGA Tour's transparent attempt to mathematically equate its Players Championship with the universally acclaimed four major championships.

Uh Scott, it's now THE PLAYERS. Please, get your facts straight!

Finchem's goal with this whole FECES thing is to create a "playoff-like" finish to his laudably truncated PGA Tour season. Through the first 36 events of the season, the roughly 240 players who start the year with some semblance of official status will be whittled all the way down to 144 lucky few who qualify for a four-week, no-tee-times-barred, battle royale culminating at the Tour Championship at East Lake. For getting hot at just the right time, Finchem will reward $10 million to the man who, in essence, turns out to be the glorified player of the month.

When the FECES hits the fans, will anyone care other than the individual who'll get to fortify his already lucrative retirement portfolio?

No.

Finchem believes he created some kind of excitement that will compare to NASCAR's season-ending chase for its championship or the NFL's compelling buildup to the Super Bowl. Instead he's done nothing but give birth to another flawed BCS concept that ultimately won't resolve anything. He's tried to rationale his baby with another postseason analogy about a 105-win Yankees team having to start over in October, but those Yankees wouldn't have to start over against the last-place Royals.

And he's just warming up.

If this were the only thing that Finchem had overdone in his tenure as commissioner of the PGA Tour, it would be almost excusable. But seeing as he's callously dismantled or neutered some golfing traditions that have been around for more than a century in the process, shackled the tour to the ultra-fringe Golf Channel for an astonishing 15 years and stepped on the toes of every other worldwide golfing entity with his avarice, Finchem's Folly loses any benefit of the doubt.

Finchem is a corporate drone who believes everything is better based upon money. If the Players pays more money than the Masters Tournament, it must be better. If The Golf Channel is willing to pay you more money over the course of 15 years than ESPN would have for the next four, it must be better.

That's why Finchem believes he's doing a good job, because the players he (with one whopper of an assist by Tiger Woods) made rich and spoiled gave him a $27 million contract extension.

More money, however, hasn't made the PGA Tour better. It's made it worse. Extra zeroes only add to the numbing. If you really want to see the best players on the PGA Tour going head-to-head more often, start paying them what they were making back in the '80s and early '90s - when making a million dollars was a season's work for the hardest workers who performed the best instead of a week's salary for a tournament winner or the median annual income for finishing in the top 150.

Just how much of Finchem's decision-making is based upon money? Consider that the only way the nearly 70-year-old event in Greensboro, N.C., was spared the cutting block was because it ponied up $500,000 to agent Mark Steinberg - just to be granted an audience with Finchem in order to make its case.

Ah, there's a story that no one really has explored enough.

That was not a benefit granted to, say, the 102-year-old Canadian Open, which was rendered all but obsolete with an untenable date between the British Open and PGA. Or the Western Open, which will be stripped of its venerable title and relegated to semi-annual visits to the Chicago area. Or the tournament outside Washington D.C., which was shut out of the regular season because FedEx attracted favoritism to its Memphis, Tenn., event. Or the Disney Classic and 84-year-old Texas Open, which were all but dismissed without any more dialogue than a curt "thanks for coming."

Not that the overly fattened PGA Tour season couldn't use a little trimming, but Finchem handled the whole process badly.

This next statement is precisely why Finchem can't be relied upon to deal with equipment.

Finchem constantly displays an arrogant disregard for everything in golf outside of his own tunnel vision. Who cares if the new tour schedule will gut the European Tour's prime events during the spring and late summer? Who cares if its big announcements distract the attention from the LPGA Tour's most important event? Who cares if none of the so-called World Golf Championship events are played in front of audiences outside the United States?

Finchem has unilaterally constructed the PGA Tour to fit his vision. Thank goodness he has no control over any of the major championships, meaning the most important historical results of the year will never be sullied by an inadequate TPC venue or distasteful title sponsorship.

At least that knowledge can settle the uneasiness in the stomachs of the constituents who really matter - the golf fans.

Tour's Washington Ad

(click on image to enlarge)Thanks to readers Jonathon and Jay for the heads up on this PGA Tour ad that appeared in the Washington Post.

Apparently the news of an expensive TPC Avenel redo is supposed to excite the masses?

The Western No Longer

I actually got to read this Ed Sherman column on the death of the Western as it appeared in the Chicago Tribune. And I wonder how many people at the Tour realize what the "Western Open" name has meant to pro golf? Doesn't matter now.

Officials, using well-rehearsed lines, tried to explain why Chicago golf fans shouldn't feel jilted.

"We really don't look at it as abandoning Chicago," the PGA Tour's Tom Wade said. "We look at it as really upgrading and bringing a top-level, world-class event to Chicago."

How much of an upgrade do we need?

Sure, the September field will be deeper, but Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh are Western Open regulars and Phil Mickelson is an occasional visitor.

Are the crowds, which average in the high 40,000 range on the weekend, going to be substantially bigger because Retief Goosen is in the field? I'd rather see Woods every year and take a pass on Goosen.

The fact is, a strong local sponsor never would have allowed the tournament to be moved.

It remains a mystery why, after Motorola bowed out in 1999, a Chicago-area company never stepped up to support the event.

Now BMW, for a substantial $12 million to $14 million per year investment in sponsor costs, has renamed the tournament. It's hard to see the Western Open name go, but at least Evans Scholars will see a major boost in funding. That's one upgrade we can accept.

It wasn't BMW's decision to rotate tournament locations. That ruling came from the PGA Tour.

Boswell On Tour; Kite On TPC's

Thomas Boswell on the PGA Tour...

Golf is the game of sportsmanship and proper manners, the sport that exemplifies respect for others. We even use it to teach values to kids, to instill the idea that conscience defines character.

So, this is a week for golf -- at least the crass, ungrateful traveling-circus PGA Tour version -- to hang its head in shame.

t's no accident that all of the world's four major championships are run by organizations other than the PGA Tour. The tour keeps pumping its own Players Championship to join the elite. But it'll never happen -- not as long as the tour humiliates itself, shows its true colors, and drives itself down the scale of social respectability with disasters such as the one it is perpetrating in Washington this week.

Even a golf tournament deserves a decent burial. The funeral for the summer pro golf stop in Washington is being held at TPC Avenel this week. The PGA Tour didn't even have the decency to close the casket.

And this from Tom Kite on TPC's...

"The tour has made the mistake of opening [its] TPCs too early many times," Kite said. "We played Memphis too early. We played this one too early. That's probably nothing more than mismanagement -- just not taking the time to pay attention to the golf courses. . . . They've kind of jumped in, tried to make money.

"Unfortunately, that leaves us with some bad names and reputations for the TPCs."

Washington Politics

Thanks to Jim A. for the heads up on this Leonard Shapiro story on the Washington event, and the contradicting views of those involved in the event's demise move to the fall.

"Booz Allen made it clear from Day One about certain date limitations after the U.S. Open," Finchem said. "That more or less dovetailed with our attitude that continuing to move the tournament back and forth [before and after the Open] was not consistent with being able to stage the kind of event and to have continuity of sponsorship. The main thing, the main point of Booz Allen, is they did not want to play anything after the Open. That was troublesome for us."

Booz Allen chairman Ralph Shrader disputed Finchem's version of events. He said the last formal communication he received from the tour on dates for the tournament came in February 2005. He said the tour at that point offered a four-year sponsorship cycle that would have included three dates before the Open and a fourth after the Open, with the possibility of staging all four before the Open.

"That was the last formal communication we had with the tour," Shrader said. "At that point they also said they would finalize the plans to renovate the course at Avenel and they'd get back to us. They got back to me two hours before they said [in a news conference in January] they had moved the event to the fall.

"We did not have the opportunity to say no. I won't allow it to be perceived that Booz Allen cost the Washington area the event. We worked too hard and spent too much money [about $30 million over three years] to make it a first-class event. I'm not going to accept any blame for what happened. It's all in the tour's court."

Appleby and Others: No More Wie

A respected golf writer and I were discussing how funny it is to hear big, grown up, free-market preaching men who moan and groan about Michelle Wie taking up a spot in the U.S. Open qualifying. Even when she tries to earn her way in and beats a lot of men doing it, they still think the event should be for men only. And they sound ridiculous making their case.

Like Stuart Appleby. As Marla Ridenour reports in the Beacon Journal reports:

"Right now, she should be maturing and playing and winning and getting the rhythm of playing the ladies' tour," Appleby said Saturday. "Playing out on the men's tour, to me, is a pointless exercise, including the Open.

"I don't feel she should be qualifying and should even be allowed. No women should be allowed to qualify in any men's event. Invites I can barely accept, but certainly qualifying... I think it's the men's U.S. Open, and that's the way it should always be." Appleby wondered if Wie's advisers were pushing her in the wrong direction. Some have speculated that Wie's handlers are more interested in worldwide fame than success in the sport.

"I'm not sure if Michelle wants to play with the men or she's being advised through some decision-makers who are having a bigger play in her career than she is," Appleby said. "I think she really has the ability to be a record-breaker on the ladies' tour. I don't believe playing on the men's tour is going to make her a better player.

"If she's going to play the men's tour at all, she should do it when Annika (Sorenstam) did, when she was at her best. That may be 10 or 15 years from now. That's when she should come out and push her game."

Thankfully, there are still some big boys out on the Tour who can handle the competition: 

Countryman Adam Scott didn't share Appleby's opinion.

"Anyone who can qualify for the U.S. Open deserves to play in it," he said. "I think it will be unbelievable if she qualifies." Appleby was the only player asked to comment at the Memorial who did not believe Wie should be allowed to try for an Open spot.

"I always felt if anybody had golf clubs and was able to qualify and eligible to play in a golf tournament, they certainly can tee it up," Memorial founder Jack Nicklaus said. "I don't care if that's a man, woman or child. If Michelle Wie has the ability to qualify for the U.S. Open, fantastic. I think it's wonderful for the game of golf. It brings a whole new element that you've never heard before. I have no issue with it whatsoever. Matter of fact, I support it." Many backed Nicklaus' view. 

The PGA Tour Takes Care of Family Needs

Erin Bruehl shows us how the PGA Tour and Barclay's Classic do their part to ensure family values are a priority at Westchester.

Ashley Appleby and Phillipa van der Walt are very appreciative of everything the PGA Tour does to cater to players' wives and families.

And they both love coming to New York.

This week they are in town as their husbands, Stuart Appleby and Tjaart van der Walt, compete in the Barclays Classic at Westchester Country Club.

Ashley and Phillipa are two of the many wives enjoying the amenities the PGA Tour offers for families, including trips into New York City to see Broadway shows, free childcare and, specifically at Barclays for a second straight year, an on-site nail salon in the clubhouse at Westchester.

Ashley Appleby came to the salon for a late-afternoon pedicure yesterday with her mother-in-law, Ruth Appleby, and sister Kelsey Saleet.

While it is unusual for a tour event to have its own nail salon for players and their families on-site (most just recommend local places), Appleby and van der Walt are happy it is being offered at the Barclays.

"We love New York," Appleby said. "(Westchester's) so close to the city, everything is so organized (for the families). They take the kids and wives to a Broadway play, have lunch. It is really a family oriented kick-off to summer."

Last year was the first time player services offered the nail salon at Westchester. The salon offers free manicures and pedicures only to players and their families, courtesy of the PGA Tour.

During Barclays she is specifically hired by the PGA Tour's player services.

"Last year all the wives were thrilled," Clark said. "They are the nicest ladies, they were saying 'this is so great, we'll tell everybody.' (This year) some people made appointments over the Internet last month.

"It's a nice service to offer," she added. "The people are happy. Even if you had a pedicure last week, why not come in for a free one?"

The nail salon, located on the first floor of the clubhouse, opened just yesterday and will be open through the end of the tournament on Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Players are welcome, although Clark said she has yet to have one come, this year or last.

Don't worry, Monty will play one of these years!

Even on the first day, Clark and the three other manicurists were already busy.

Van der Walt came in to have a french pedicure and manicure and is so happy with how the PGA Tour caters to the families.

"This is a treat; it is definitely special," she said of the nail salon. "(The PGA Tour is) wonderful in hospitality of the wives and just everything the tour does to make us feel comfortable."