Men's Golf Edges Out Track And Field, Bowling On Annual American Sports List
/2% cite men's golf as their favorite U.S. sport to watch, down 50% from 2009 in SBJ's annual survey.
The LPGA Tour gets an asterisk along with the WNBA.
When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
"You can’t just look at ratings and say the sport has a problem. People who say that don’t know what they’re talking about.”
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Nice reporting by SBJ's Michael Smith and John Ourand on where the tour stands with its television partners (who sound positively giddy) and we learn that the 30% ratings really doesn't mean much. Get our your value-count reference clickers...Bill Clinton And That Means What, Exactly?
/As Larry Bohannan writes, "And what about a sponsor?"
That and a long list of questions will hound the PGA Tour's pursuit of its very own original idea to pursue Bill Clinton for a Bob Hope Classic partnership.
My questions:
PGA Tour: Clinton Was Our Idea!
/Yesterday when John Strege reported Joe Ogilvie's suggestion that Bill Clinton and his Global Initiative could help jumpstart the Bob Hope, he clearly ruffled feathers in Ponte Vedra, where they oxford shirt set rolled up their sleeves and spent Friday evening crafting a statement to let the scribes in La Quinta know they were already on the Clinton initiative!
Read MoreEls, Westwood Vie For Center Spot On Tim Finchem's Dartboard
/You be the judge of whose picture is going to be placed in the center for the Commissioner's daily C-level dart throwing and general male bonding session.
Ernie Els, talking to Doug Ferguson about missing the Presidents Cup (possibly). The problem rests with the European Tour's scheduling of the South African Open.
Hyundai Tournament Of Some Champions Field Still Dwindling
/With Geoff Ogilvy's unfortunate finger injury and Zach Johnson iffy despite pledging to play, the Hyundai Tournament Of Even Fewer Champions just can't buy a break.
Read MoreDrug Testing Still An Annoyance Tim Finchem Would Like To Fiddle With!
/The big takeaway from Tim Finchem's presser Wednesday was his generous comment that a healthy European Tour is in everyone's best interest. But I got a big chuckle out of Finchem's answer on the success of the drug testing program that he initially resisted. On the future of testing:
Read More"SiriusXM Announces Comprehensive Coverage of 2011 Golf Season"
/Quite a schedule they've put together...
Read More"The Tour needs to help Golf Channel and the networks deliver a much better broadcast product than viewers currently are getting."
/Martin Kaufman, writing about the Golf Channel's new graphics package and desire to mike players at Kapalua this week, pens this cautionary note to PGA Tour players who are resisting the mikes.
Read More“If you look at where we are compared with other sports, we’re pretty far behind."
/You can't say the Golf Channel isn't trying. Besides unveiling a slick new graphics package this week that'll make network graphics look antiquated. And Doug Ferguson reports that they've been given permission by the Deathstar Ponte Vedra to mike players this week. Assuming they have any willing participants.
Read More"Each week, from both sides of the Pond, the twosome of Huggan and CBSSports.com's Steve Elling will kick at corpses and hornet's nests, tip over a few sacred cows, poke and prod..."
/Great news Ty! Your two favorite writers will be gathering in the same spot every week to bicker about golf!
From the first Pond Scrum between Steve Elling and John Huggan at CBSSports.com. The topic is the Hyundai Tournament of Some Champions:
Elling: I have no problem with the notion of appearance fees. The purses in Europe are lower. They need to draw the top guns. The point being, if the PGA Tour's season opener was any more sleep-inducing, they'd need to give hammocks to the 1,000 fans that are actually in attendance. Maybe Mark Rolfing of NBC Sports has it right. Open field to guys who have won over past two years. More warm bodies that way. Then, maybe Hawaii is the right locale for the opener. It's a sleepy start. The whales are cavorting in the Pacific. Sharks like Tiger and Phil stay home. Everybody in the States gets to watch the palm trees swaying in prime time. No stress, no strain ... little drama?
Huggan: Open it up to European Tour winners! What a concept, eh? Cooperation between tours.
There was also this from Huggan on young players to watch:
Huggan: Matteo Manassero also springs to mind. But that is hardly an original thought. Pencil this 17-year-old Italian in for the next Ryder Cup in Chicago. Schwartzel wants it more than Oosthuizen, who already shows signs of being happy with what he has already achieved.
Ooshuizen did his best to confirm that fact with this quote about staying in South Africa to play a minor event instead of flying to Hawaii to test out that new PGA Tour card.
"I decided not to go and play the two tournaments in Hawaii because that won't leave me with enough off time before the start of the new season," Oosthuizen said in a story posted on the European Tour's website
"THIS is why the Euro tour is just cool."
/Reader Alex sent the latest Euro Tour viral video, which I had watched with amusement a few weeks and about 500,000 viewers (!?) ago. Alex wrote, "THIS is why the Euro tour is just cool...somehow, I can't imagine Finchi and a couple of tour pros getting together for something like this."
I have to say, he has a point. Hard to imagine the PGA Tour filming a spot without a script that hasn't been vetted by the briefcase brigade.
Of course after watching it also begs the question, how many PGA Tour brats players would have the personality and disposition to spend all day filming such a spot?
"A US Tour official spotted James Nitties picking up his courtesy car in board shorts - shortly after came a $US2500 fine."
/Mopping up a few links I had open but not read. From Peter Stone in the Sydney Morning Herald:
Read More"The tour basically has said, 'Hey, we don’t want to lose this.'"
/Steve Elling delivers the great news that the PGA Tour has kicked in some money to save their satellite radio deal with XM/Sirius. Granted, this means the announcers are now paid by Ponte Vedra and thus will be monitored by those dreaded censors who work from the bowels of the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse.
Read More"Nobody could have predicted this kind of sponsor retention.”
/Michael Smith reports on the PGA Tour's rosey sponsor picture and gets a chatt Tom Wade to say a bit more than he probably should have.
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