"Desperate and dateless"

Mick Elliott on the Tour's sponsorless Tampa stop, which will be returning to Innisbrook in March:

Crazy is what this has become. Long ago it was common knowledge Chrysler planned a dramatic decrease in its golf sponsorship, ending tournament involvement for Tampa Bay, Tucson, Ariz., and Greensboro, N.C., after this year. Yet the season is ending with the PGA Tour and Tampa Bay tournament officials desperate and dateless.

A tournament designated worthy of a place on the spring schedule, played on a golf course players call one of the best and most popular on tour, and contributor of more than $8 million to local charities since its 2000 inception hasn't found a sponsor.

And...

With the exception of two "out of the box" hopefuls - both invited by the tournament and both getting their initial introduction to golf - no corporate checkbooks searching for a place to put the company name set foot on Innisbrook during the week.

I'm just wondering how the Tour could move this event to March without having had a sponsor locked up? Did they underestimate Chrysler's desire to get out of golf?

Or was there a little Florida-is-wonderful bias that led them to assume sponsors would line up for a week at Innisbrook?

Because we know the resort didn't want to move to March and well, most importantly, the drapes and decor are outdated. 

Elkington On Tour Courses

Steve Elkington talking to The Age...

"This is just a good course, one of the better ones we play," said the battle-hardened veteran, who trailed American leader Brian Gay by three strokes at demanding Innisbrook.

"Some of the crap we play on is ridiculous. As big as the tour is, you'd think we could play some better courses."

Fun Notes From Babineau

Jeff Babineau shows what happens when curious writers leave the press room and share a few notes, quotes and anecdotes. The entire column is interesting, but these bites caught my eye:

The Tour's Player Advisory Council assembled at Innisbrook this week, and one of the major issues (tabled to a later date, as most important issues are) was whether or not to pare down FedEx Cup fields with each playoff week (from 144, to 120, to 78, to 30 for the Tour Championship).

This is an encouraging development for those of us who would like to see the FedEx Cup work (it will not in the current configuration).

As it stands now, the current PGA Tour "playoffs" are structured to include the Durham Bulls and half the Cape Cod league along with the Tiger and Cardinals. The all inclusive approach might be more tolerable if they were actual playoffs, with eliminations occurring each week. But without eliminating players, they are not playoffs and the 144 number remains ridiculous. (I'd take 100 to the playoffs and go from 100 to 78 to 50 to 20, or something along those lines.)

I know, I know, what if, God forbid, one of the stars is eliminated in week one? Well, considering that they are passing on the Tour Championship like it's the B.C. Open, who says they are even going to play in the playoffs? And wouldn't some upsets along the way make it more fun?

Anyhow, this was also fun from Babineau's column...

Walking past Rory Sabbatini as he belted his new Nike Sumo, flying a few balls into a lake nearly 300 yards away at the end of the range, one veteran stared and mumbled, "Is this what golf has come to?"

Guess so.

"The thing is, how can you have 20-year-olds when all the old guys are holding on?"

Jeff Rude continues his look at the demise of the under-30 American golfer and gets some great quotes from Lee Trevino:

"That got me all fired up again," the Merry Mex said the other day by telephone. "The thing is, how can you have 20-year-olds when all the old guys are holding on?"

Year after year, the deck is heavily stacked against Tour newcomers, and it figures to get worse starting next year with the introduction of the shorter FedEx Cup primary season. If this were a poker game, you might suggest the dealer were more crooked than a drunk's stagger. The cards are that fixed.

Loved this. I wonder if Ponte Vedra fines for this kind of thing?

"If I put up $4,500 and grind my way through three stages of Q-School and pay for my caddie and for my hotel rooms and I'm out $10,000 or so and then the Tour tells me I can't play in the first tournament if I have the 30th card, I'd say, 'Uh-uh, we're going to the courthouse,' " Trevino said.

The problem, he says, is that the Tour wrongly gives out more Tour cards than there are spots in tournaments. Trevino suggests a good remedy: Bring the exempt list down from 125 to about 90 so the new or recycled blood from Q-School and the Nationwide have a better chance to prove what it can do.

Building An Impressive Team...But At What Cost?

And who are they trying to impress?

Well, for starters, Golf World's Ron Sirak who lauds Tim Finchem's hiring of Wie agent Ross Berlin for an unspecified job at an unspecified (and surely bloated) salary:

Tim Finchem must be a fan of the National Football League. The PGA Tour commissioner seems to have a personnel strategy favored by many NFL general managers going into the college draft: accumulate the best available athletes. That's the context within which to view the return of Ross Berlin to the tour after a year chaperoning Michelle Wie for the William Morris Agency. This was not an isolated move but rather part of a grand plan.

And...

To prepare for the future, Finchem is staffing his ship with an impressive array of talent. In less than four years, he has hired Rick George from the Fore!Kids Foundation, Dave Pillsbury from Nike and Ty Votaw from the LPGA, as well as rehiring Berlin. Expect an announcement in the near future that several of these executives will take on expanded responsibilities.

In Berlin's case, we'll just take an announcement on duties before we make him the next commissioner.

Also in Finchem's burgeoning talent pool are Joe Barrow, who runs The First Tee, and co-Chief Operating Officers Charlie Zink and Ed Moorhouse, who have been long-time tour employees.

Of course, Finchem -- and the board, which will make the final decision --

Uh, the non-player portion...

can always take the route followed by any good NFL general manager not happy with his team. He can go outside the company for a high-priced free agent. But this much is obvious: Finchem is building an impressive team, for now and the future.

Look at how much this line of succession nonsense is costing (according to the October Golf Digest, but not posted online). All are 2004 salaries:

Tim Finchem $4,067,318
Charlie Zink $1,227,634 (co-COO)
Ed Moorhouse $1,227,634 (co-COO)
Ron Price CFO $742,049
Henry Hughes (Chief of Operations) $572,773
Bill Calfee (Nationwide Tour chief of operations) $513,518
Jeff Monday (tournament development) $486,409
Bob Combs, (VP Communications) $458,737
Rick Anderson (General Counsel) $345,648
Rick George (Valiant Competitors Tour) $322,269
Ruffin Beckwith (World Golf Foundation) $284,037
Sid Wilson (VP player relations) $256,112

And that doesn't include Votaw or Berlin's salaries. 

"Their skills are limited."

Jemele Hill in the Orlando Sentinel tackles the "why no promising young players" question and gets some interesting replies.

"Young guys just pick a driver out of a bin that goes 320 [yards]," said [Frank] Lickliter, who shot a blistering 62 in the final round of Disney's Funai Classic on Sunday. "They can't carve one on the fairway. They don't know how to knock down a wedge. Their skills are limited."

And Hill writes:

You could blame a lot of things for why golf is the latest sport lacking a strong presence of young American superstars -- the increased presence by talented foreigners is one -- but our obsession with flash is slowly killing U.S. dominance in sports around the globe.

Our kids would rather practice a 360-degree dunk a billion times than set one proper screen. They would rather obsess about home runs than learn how to stretch a single into a double. They would rather hit an 100-mph serve than develop a decent backhand.

In golf, it's all about the 300-yard blast off the tee. Michelle Wie has a big swing and an awfully hollow trophy case, but a mighty big bank account.

"It's kind of sad what's happened to the skill part of the game," said Scott Verplank, a 20-year pro. "The skills required to be a great player in this game are not near as important as they used to be. It's really changed the game."

This is just another depressing reminder of how much our sports culture emphasis on style has hurt the overall product.

Most of us were just fooled into thinking it was strictly a U.S. basketball problem. As it turns out, it's an American problem.

You can sit there and blame YouTube, MySpace and ESPN for the downfall of sports society, but we must take a hard look at ourselves first.

Most of us are more impressed with a teeth-rattling hit in football than a left guard's pull.

This is where you wish Jemile had floated her column idea by her colleague, Steve Elling. 

Golf course designers and PGA officials know we're hooked on Happy Gilmore-esque shots, which is why more courses are being built to complement power instead of finesse.

Ugh...yep, it's all the fault of architects. Now, why is it again that architects are lengthening courses?

A Few Minutes Of Your Time...

...is all that's required to fill out this PGATour.com survey (if the link doesn't work, go to their home page and look in the upper right). This survey will help the Tour and their new content providers to provide you with a better site. I'd love to see the results for some of those questions. Oh well...the perks of being one of the PGA Tour's many Vice Presidents.

Lesson: Award Tournaments To Completed Golf Courses

Exhibit #1291 of the PGA Tour's unfortunate disregard for the tricky business of golf course development was noted in Doug Ferguson's AP notes column:

Not quite two months after the PGA Tour announced its fall schedule, it has hit a speed bump with one of them.

Because of construction delays and financial issues surrounding the Running Horse Golf and Country Club, Tour officials will be going to Fresno, Calif., this week to meet with the developers.

The Running Horse Golf Championship is to be played Oct. 25-28 next year, the second-to-last event on the 2007 schedule. Along with falling behind on the course, KFSN-TV in Fresno has reported that the managing partners are trying to sell it.

"Things at the golf course are going slower than we thought they were,'' PGA Tour spokesman Bob Combs said. "I understand there are one or maybe more groups looking at investing in it. But from our perspective, we're playing in Fresno.''

One option for the Tour if Running Horse is not ready would be to move it to another golf course in the area, such as Fort Washington.

"We believe Running Horse is going to be the site,'' Combs said. "If it turns out to be another one, we'll cross that bridge. The key thing is we'll be there.''

You may be there, but so far, there is no there there. 

Wie Be Going Through Agents Now!

Doug Ferguson reports that Michelle Wie's agent is leaving the William Morris Agency to return to the PGA Tour (because Ponte Vedra needs another over handsomely-paid executive).

Las Vegas On Las Vegas

I watched parts of the rain-delayed Las Vegas final round as it moved yesterday from ESPN on ABC, to ESPN on ABC on and finally, to ESPN on ABC on ESPN2. (International readers...it's a long story. A branding thing.)

Besides the lack of star power, the lack of a fan base was painfully obvious. Ed Graney in the Las Vegas paper notes that it's a problem likely to worsen when the event moves to the "Fall Finish."

Golf is about to undergo a change that will either re-energize an indifferent fan base or continue to keep casual followers at an AccuFLEX shaft distance away from any event that doesn't include Woods, a transformation that could ultimately determine where the Las Vegas tournament fits into the sport's long-term landscape.

The question is not whether the event can improve greatly (if at all) in stature -- Hoffman couldn't be more correct in his assessment that it is what it is -- but whether a newly designed PGA playoff system will lessen its appeal to golfers (and in turn fans) even more.

There always will be a place at the event for the golf purist, for those who truly appreciate the idea of walking alongside the world's No. 2 player (it's Jim Furyk for those who don't know, which means most everyone) and not having to strain their neck glancing over rows of heads to watch him putt.

But when the FedEx Cup portion of the 2007 schedule concludes at the Tour Championship next mid-September and the $10 million payday has been awarded to the first points champion, how much interest will remain for a seven-tournament fall series than includes the Las Vegas stop?

And what can those running the event here do to make it more than just another week for those players merely trying to avoid Q-school or improve their world ranking?

"Stay tuned - this thing is a long way from over."

John Huggan is in fine curmudgeonly form while looking at the havoc the FedEx Cup schedule is creating on the European Tour.

As America's PGA Tour embarks on a lucratively-reshaped season that will "climax" with something called the Fed-Ex Cup - oh, the history, the mystique - and very likely pull many of Europe's leading players across the Atlantic even more than has already been the case, the European Tour's money-list is destined to be won by someone who picks up the vast majority of his cash in so-called co-sanctioned events - where prize- money is eligible on more than one circuit - rather than by a man ranked outside the world's top-50, and thus "relegated" to playing most of his golf outside of the United States.

So it is that the just-released European Tour International Schedule is all about filling dates. Next season, as the blaring press release was quick to trumpet, the European Tour will consist of at least 50 events - a "momentous milestone" - as it winds its often mediocre way across the globe.

Also, Golfweek's Rex Hoggard fires a few shots at the FedEx Cup as he looks at issues with the Champions Tour schedule. And he notes this about another major change in the Valiant Competitors Tour:

Starting with next month's Q-School, players will no longer play for a Champions Tour card. Instead, the hopeful will vie for a chance to qualify for events. The top-30 finishers from Q-School will earn a seat at the Monday qualifying table each week and play for nine spots in that week's tournament.

With the move, golf's most closed club just went private.

"There are some positives and some negatives," George said of the new qualifying system. "How will it impact the international players on the tour? I want to make sure the tournaments aren't impacted by the qualifying. We're going into it very cautiously."

But back to Huggan and Hoggard's pithy FedEx Cup remarks.

Isn't it interesting that time has not helped the Tour's concept age like fine wine, but instead has some of golf's finest inkslingers realizing just how flawed the schedule and points concepts are?

"You should know how to hit every shot and every club. If you’re on the PGA Tour you don’t have to"

Hal Sutton talks to Cameron Morfit about the state of American golf, and in particular, issues confronting U.S. Ryder Cup teams and the PGA Tour.

The “high and long” way to play is an epidemic in the United States, Sutton says, but that style isn’t translating to birdies amid the ever-varied setups and unpredictable weather that define the Ryder Cup.

Courses continue to be built by developers trying to one-up each other in the race to build the next toughest track (even if it means driving mere mortals to quit the game) while the PGA Tour chooses broad-shouldered venues that cater mostly to bombers.

“That’s why I’ve kept hammering on it, and will until the day I day: Variety. We’ve got to have more of it,” Sutton said. “Play fast greens, play slow greens, play ’em all. Throw everything at every player. We’ll find out who the best players are. I told [PGA Tour commissioner] Tim Finchem, ‘You can cut 18 holes in the parking lot and Tiger will find a way to win.’”

To show that he’s walking the walk, Sutton pointed to Boot Ranch. He went out of his way, he said, to make sure the course included doglegs left and right, short holes, long holes and a variety of lies and looks.

“There’s a driver, there’s fairway woods, there’s long irons, middle irons, short irons, wedges and a putter,” Sutton said. “There’s 14 clubs in there. There’s a fade and there’s a slice. There’s a draw and there’s a hook. There’s a high ball and there’s a low ball. There’s backspin and there’s overspin. And by the way, they’re all part of the game, and by the way, you should know how to hit every shot and every club. If you’re on the PGA Tour you don’t have to."

Harig: WGC's Not Working For PGA Tour

Bob Harig in the St. Petersburg Times takes a tough stance on the "success" of the WGC events:

The WGCs have been great for the 60 or so players who qualify for the no-cut tournaments that offer a guaranteed payday.

They have been great for fans who attend and watch on television, because the WGCs are all but guaranteed to bring together the best players in the world, something that rarely happens outside of major championships.

And they certainly have been great for the PGA Tour, which has a management arm under its corporate umbrella called Championship Management which runs - and profits from - these tournaments.

But are these big-money tournaments good for the rest of golf?

The answer, after seven years, is probably not.

Why? Because too many rank-and-file tournaments - the backbone of the tour - suffer from their existence.

"There's a reason why you never see a TV shot of the clubhouse on Sundays"

Robert Bell reports that Forest Oaks may be losing some of its luster with the Greensboro folks, but not necessarily for reasons you might expect. Says tournament director Robert Long:

"We have a fiduciary responsibility to look at all of our options -- whether they relate to Forest Oaks or somewhere else," Long said. "Nobody's questioning that Forest Oaks is a great golf course. But any good steward of the tournament would want to know their options. What we need to determine is if (Forest Oaks) is the best fit for where we want to take this tournament."

What these guys will do for their charities!

No, actually this may be about the most vital attribute of a PGA Tour site, the clubhouse amenities.

Publicly, tournament officials say Forest Oaks, which has played host to the championship since 1977, has the best golf course in the Triad for a PGA Tour event -- for now.

Privately, they wonder if they can do better. Forest Oaks' clubhouse and locker rooms are beginning to show their age, officials said. Neither has had significant renovations since the clubhouse opened in 1967.

"There's a reason why you never see a TV shot of the clubhouse on Sundays," said one tournament board member, who asked not to be named. "The physical amenities are outdated or are close to being so."

Or, maybe we never see the clubhouse because we are watching a golf tournament?

Even the course is being called into question. After opening to rave reviews three years ago, Davis Love's redesign has lost some of its luster with golfers.

"They made a great course good," PGA Tour regular Robert Gamez said after playing the course last year.

Sergio Garcia, who recently helped lead Europe to another Ryder Cup victory, said the new course was "a bit too gimmicky," a common lament among the pros.

"We wanted to get more brand exposure from this"

Robert Bell says they finally have a sponsor for the 2007 Greensboro event.

"The Wyndham Championship," said Bobby Long, who heads the charitable foundation that runs Greensboro's professional golf tournament. "It's a clean and simple name. I like it more every time I say it."

WIth $25 million over 4 years, anything sounds good.

Wyndham becomes the second hospitality company this year to sponsor a PGA Tour event. Earlier this summer, Crowne Plaza signed a six-year deal to host the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in Texas. Hanning said that deal surprised company officials but did not prompt Wyndham to jump into the sports world.

"The PGA Tour and its fan base have always matched up well with our demographics," he said.

Hanning said Wyndham executives initially wanted to attend next week's final Chrysler Classic of Greensboro at Forest Oaks Country Club before agreeing to any deal but changed their minds.

"We wanted to get more brand exposure from this," [Wyndham CEO Franz Hanning] said. "Besides, we didn't want to have to hide behind any trees next week."