Making The PGA Tour More Media Friendly

Garry Smits reports on the a PGA Tour hosted brainstorming session to make the sport more media friendly. Though I wasn't invited (shocking, I know), my NSA sources say they may have a transcript or two of the "break out" sessions reported on by Smits.

In the meantime...

More than 100 members of the media, tournament directors, equipment representatives and players agents met with PGA Tour officials Wednesday at the Sawgrass Marriott. They discussed issues such as on-and off-tournament site media relations and functions, non-traditional media exposure for players (such as appearances on David Letterman and Jay Leno's shows), the effect of new media such as the Internet, satellite radio and blogs and player accessibility.

Oh yeah, I'm sure Leno's bookers are clamoring to get Chad Campbell.

The debate was nothing if not lively during full and break-out sessions.

Much of the discussion began with the results of a survey conducted among members of the media that showed they believe agents have been whittling away at access, especially those representing the top players, and the PGA Tour is doing little to control them.

Hey, they have to earn their 10%.

On the other hand, a survey of agents showed they think the media frustrates players by asking the same questions at every Tour stop, that they write the same "stale" stories and increase their demands on the time of players who find time an increasingly diminishing commodity.

The same "stale" stories. Why is stale in quotes? This implies doubt that the reporting has become stale. There's no doubt!

"There's a feeling that these guys make a lot of money ... What's the problem?" PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said at the closing session. "But it's not that simple. Players' schedules have changed, and the job of the media is different. It's a real challenge, but it can work better."

Among the measures that will be launched or streamlined: weekly conference calls with key players, a smoother post-round interview process, and a Tour communications representative on duty at all times at practice areas to coordinate interviews.

The question is, will the communications representative also sit in on these interviews?

Shuffling Chairs In Ponte Vedra

Adam Schupak reports on new duties for several PGA Tour executives, though I don't really know what it means other than they finally found a job for Ross Berlin.

It's A Playoff...Sort Of

Wow, maybe Tom Pernice ought to speak out more often. Here's his rant from two weeks ago, and now this from PGATour.com:

Specifically, the fields in the 2007 Playoff events will be reduced from week-to-week as follows:
Barclays Classic -- 144 players
Deutsche Bank Championship -- 120 players
BMW Championship -- 70 players
THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola -- 30 players

The release then included this from the Commissioner, who naturally is delighted to have his public statements from a week ago contradicted.

PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said, “I’m delighted with this direction, and believe it represents an important improvement in our Playoff structure. I had recently indicated we would not be recommending any changes in our Playoff structure given that we had preliminarily announced the format earlier this year. However, the TOUR and a number of our players had heard from several sponsors and tournaments that going in the direction of a field size reduction was the right thing to do for the success of the FedExCup. The Player Directors and the full Policy Board were in unanimous agreement.

“Not only am I pleased but am impressed that our sponsors and television partners felt strongly enough to communicate their views on making the FedExCup as good as it can be,” Finchem said.

“We are now well positioned to offer PGA TOUR players, along with other important TOUR constituents, a more compelling finish to our season,” Finchem said. “With this step, PGA TOUR players, sponsors and fans can look forward to the inaugural FedExCup Season and the exciting drama of the 2007 PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.”

Now keep in mind that this is going to be one confusing playoff, because the season points race along with your play in these events will determine if you move. How on earth anyone will keep track of that is beyond me. But it's a start. 

"I feel like I am playing the same golf week in, week out."

Robert Allenby joins the list of players bemoaning the sameness of PGA Tour golf...

"America, it is just very much the same every week and I am bored, I get a little bit bored with it and I feel like I am playing the same golf week in, week out," he said.

"Whereas if you come down here and play or in Europe, you are playing different golf shots every week."

"It's all about money. It's all about the pension."

From Seth Soffian in the News-Press of Southwest Florida:

Greg Norman drew the ire of some PGA Tour members recently when he criticized today's players for lacking charisma and the overt desire to challenge world No. 1 Tiger Woods.

On Saturday, he drew support from partner Nick Faldo in the Merrill Lynch Shootout. After their round, Faldo told CBS, for whom he will become lead analyst next year, that the riches in today's game have robbed players of the single-minded will to win.

"It's all about money. It's all about the pension," Faldo said after Norman again raised the topic.

Promising "To Be In Bed Together"

Honestly, you just wonder if they hesitate before hitting the send key on stuff like this. I swear I haven't made this up.

Sawgrass Destination Set To Become The Pebble Beach Of The East; Key Partners Promise To Be "In Bed Together"

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Redquartz Boundary Ltd. (RQB), the new Sawgrass Marriott Resort & Spa ownership group -- together with the Sawgrass Marriott and TPC Sawgrass teams -- recently announced a refreshed vision to establish the Ponte Vedra Beach area as one of the premier golf, spa, beach and convention destinations in the world. "The dynamic partnership between RQB, Sawgrass Marriott and TPC Sawgrass is setting up the Sawgrass destination to secure a position as the Pebble Beach of the East," said Debi Bishop, general manager of Sawgrass Marriott Resort & Spa.

Pebble Beach of the East?  Don't you have to have an ocean nearby to claim that? Hopefully a good legal department too.

"Sawgrass will undoubtedly be paralleled with iconic golf destinations such as Pebble Beach and Pinehurst," said David O'Halloran, the representative for RQB Ltd., the joint venture comprised of affiliates of an Irish-based investment company, and chief executive officer of RQB America.

Bill Hughes, general manager of TPC Sawgrass, added, "with THE PLAYERS Championship primed to go to the next level with a new May date, High Definition NBC broadcast with limited commercial interruption, and our dramatic renovation, we are clearly at a defining point in elevating Sawgrass as one of the most unique golf destinations in the world."

During a media briefing held Wednesday, Nov. 8, O'Halloran, Bishop, Hughes and Vernon Kelly, chairman of the RQB Development Committee and past president of PGA TOUR Golf Course Properties, illustrated how they are "in bed together" in an outdoor replica of the resort's revived guest room.

Like I said, you can't make this stuff up.

"Tim works for us."

 Jerry Potter has the highlights from Tom Pernice's post 1st round rant which (I believe) first aired on The Golf Channel.

His anger was directed at PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, who on Wednesday said there would be no alterations in the format for the FedEx Cup, the season-long playoff system that begins next year.

"Tim has no right to say that," said Pernice, a former member of the Tour's Policy Board. "It's not Tim's decision to make. Tim works for us (the players)."

Right Tom, right.

"If you're going to make that an elite competition, you have to cut the field," said Pernice, who believes the no-cut fields just protect lower-ranked players, who should be eliminated to make it a true playoff.

That was the Tour's original idea, put [but] the plan presented in June was for 144-player fields.

Henry Hughes, chief operating officer of the Tour, said options were presented to the players and the Player Advisory Council last week, but there was no support among them for reducing the size of the fields.

Joe Durant, one of four player directors on the board, said he would vote for the current system when the board meets in two weeks. He said he's following the wishes of the 15-member Player Advisory Council.

"It's not going to be perfect in the first year," he said of the system. "We can change it if we need to."

Durant said players would be eliminated from the 30-man field in the three tournaments because poor performance would make it impossible for them to make the field.

What does that last sentence mean?

 
Anyway, on The Golf Channel interview (where I think Potter and others picked up these remarks), I also got this from Pernice, with an assist from TiVo:

Pernice: I don't think it's Tim Finchem's decision. There's a board meeting coming up in a week or two. I think it's up to the board of directors and our four player directors who I think are the ones that should be making the decisions and comments like that. I think Tim needs to realize he works for us the players, he doesn't work for himself. I think our board, as a former board member, I think our board needs to start dictating more and quit getting run over by our staff and Tim. I respect what Tim and these guys are trying to do, but none of them are golfers, and I think it's in our best interests to step up and do the right thing.

After his comments, TGC's Steve Sands asked Davis Love, "who has the final say, the players or the Tour?" Love's reply:

...the players always have the final say. we can, in anything that affects competition, any of the player directors can stop something from happening. If we decided as four player directors that we want Fed Ex Cup points to follow a certain way, that's the way they're going to fall. Then we have to go deal with the players after that.

Azinger On Branding

During the first round telecast at East Lake, Paul Azinger:

...there are not a lot of players in the 25 years that I've played the tour that have actually created their own brand. It's curious to me that the PGA Tour hasn't acutally had a branding division to help brand the players.

Karl Ravech then chimed in on the NBA and baseball's "branding" efforts. Azinger replied:

Well often we're in competition with the tour, so...be hard to sell a player's brand when the tour is selling their own.

After a Vijay Singh birdie putt...

Karl Ravech: But it's a fine line in order to sell your sport you have to sell the stars. And this sport more than any shows what a star can bring.

Paul Azinger: Or at least let the stars sell themselves on PGA Tour property. But that wont happen. I'm going to get in trouble, I better stop.

No Overtime For Rules Officials

In writing about the Tour rules officials losing a court decision on overtime pay, AP's Doug Ferguson says:

U.S. PGA Tour rules officials have been working without a contract since 2003, and they suffered a setback last week in Jacksonville, Florida when a federal jury ruled in favour of the tour over whether the rules officials should be paid overtime.

Rules officials are often at the course at dawn and leave two hours after the completion of play, although they don't work every week. The tour argued the rules officials are administrative employees and exempt from overtime pay.

"The PGA Tour is gratified that the court system confirmed that our long-standing classification of the rules officials was appropriate," the tour said in a statement.

You know, considering how much the Tour is wasting on executive pay and how horrible pace of play is, I think the officials really have no alternative but to start dishing out 2-shot penalties to speed the day up.

They'll be doing everyone a favor.

Questions For The Commissioner

Wednesday of Tour Championship week means it's time for Tim Finchem's annual "state of the PGA Tour" press conference. This is where he says how wonderful things are, even when the two stars that he looked to for FedEx Cup have passed on four rounds at boring East Lake and the Coca-Cola people are really, really grouchy.

As usual, I'd like to offer a few questions for the lucky scribblers working this week. And naturally, your questions posted in the comments section are welcome too. I suspect they'll be better than mine. Anyhow, here goes:

• Commissioner, do you consider PGA Tour players to be role models even though it now regularly takes them 5 hours to finish a weekday round? (I like to warm him up with something benign.)
  

• As a follow up, do you foresee any initiatives that would improve pace of play, which is undermining fan enjoyment of the sport (and scaring off the 18-34 y.o.'s!).
  

• Was your recent $28 million contract extension endorsed and voted on by the player portion of the PGA Tour policy board?
  

• What was it about Tiger Woods's call for PGA Tour drug testing that had you calling for time to "sort out" a drug testing policy?

• At the 2003 Tour Championship you talked about the ShotLink initiative and its usefulness for USGA distance analysis. The USGA has issued an initial report to manufacturers suggesting that U-grooves are de-skilling the game at the highest level. Does the Tour share a concern that U-grooves are dramatically changing the game?
  

• In 2003 you told the Palm Beach Post that "there is some point -- nobody knows where it is -- when the amateur player feels divorced and really doesn't appreciate the game at this level, just because it's so different that it doesn't become particularly relevan. The second thing is, if everybody is driving every par 4, it's not particularly interesting to watch."  
  
  Does the PGA Tour do market research that asks fans if they feel divorced from the professional game? And if so, what kind of feedback have you gotten?
  

• There were reports last week that the PAC boards were presented with the concept of an elimination process in the FedEx Cup "playoffs" so that they are like, you know, like real playoffs.  Is this in reaction to the lukewarm reception that the FedEx Cup has received?
  

• And with apologies to Colbert...Mark Foley. Great Congressman from Florida who you are glad you never gave money to like Greg Norman did, or, the greatest Congressman from Florida who you are glad you never gave money to like Greg Norman did?
  

Okay, that's enough. 

"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.