Prepare To Hear About "The Bear Trap" For Another Four Years...

For Immediate Release...

HONDA CLASSIC EXTENDS PGA NATIONAL SITE AGREEMENT

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL - The Honda Classic has extended its contract with PGA National Resort & Spa to keep the PGA TOUR event at its current home for at least the next four years.
 
The Honda / PGA National marriage has been a win-win relationship for both parties as The Honda has blossomed into one of the elite events on the PGA TOUR in its six years at PGA National and the Champion course has become known as one of the most challenging layouts in tournament golf. The Bear Trap, comprised of Holes 15-17, is considered one of the toughest stretches of golf on the PGA TOUR.
 
A world class field now plays The Honda each year and last year Rory McIlroy, the No. 1 player in the world, dueled to the wire with Tiger Woods. The 2012 Honda raised a tournament record $1.85 million for South Florida Children's charities.
 
"We feel like we have the best venue on the PGA TOUR," Honda Classic Executive Director Kenneth R. Kennerly said.

Down boy!

"The move to PGA National has allowed The Honda Classic to emerge as one of the top events of the year. The players love the course and enjoy their time in Palm Beach County which is evidenced by the number of top players who continue to move to this area. We are excited that we will be able to stay at PGA National as we move into the future."

Trouble In Paradise: Pro Golf In Hawaii Edition

It's hard to believe, I know. Apathy surrounds the season opener at Kapalua. The biggest names stay home and the new oversaturation era begins with the PGA Tour's constant loop of action already seemingly exhausting. And it hasn't even started yet!

GolfChannel.com's Jason Sobel says the Hyundai Tournament of Some Champions has been overshadowed by the missing "Magnificent Seven," a "who’s who list of special talents: Rory McIlroy; Luke Donald; Tiger Woods; Justin Rose; Sergio Garcia; Phil Mickelson; Ernie Els."

But just think, they didn't get to pre-tape NFL style introductions!

Meanwhile Ann Miller in the Honolulu Advertiser publishes several ominous quotes from Tim Finchem fishing buddy, Fred Funk favorite and all-things-Hawaii point man, Mark Rolfing. Since it's behind a paywall, SBD summarizes the key lines.

"I know the date is problematic. We've got guys skipping that never skipped before. ... The fact is, it should be one week later. Next year will be worse. New Year's Day is Wednesday of tournament week.” Miller noted the PGA Tour Sony Open, the “first full-field event of the year, is next week at Waialae Country Club.”

It's not great news for the Sony either.

Sony's commitment as title sponsor extends through ‘14, though Rolfing “worries weaker fields and the date's conflict with the International Consumer Electronics Show could mortally wound a tour stop that goes back nearly 50 years.” Meanwhile, this is the final year of Hyundai's title sponsorship for the TOC, and the tournament’s “holiday date and diluted fields make it tough on extension talks.” Rolfing said, "I've talked to a whole lot of players, and I think one week would make a huge difference."

Fifty-shmifty. Sorry Mark, we've got WGC's and the all-important fall events taking priority! Oh and Asia too.

It's not all bad news, as Hyundai's front man sounds positive talking to Jim McCabe, even though they just can't quite seem to put ink to a new contract.

“We are very bullish,” Shannon said. “We don’t have anything to announce this week, particularly because we are so focused in executing another great event. But we’ve had discussions with the PGA Tour, but we just need to get this tournament behind us and then have some more discussions with them.”

Update on 2013-01-05 04:48 by Geoff

**At least they had Chamber of Commerce weather on opening day.

Well, maybe not, according to Jim McCabe on the first wipeout of a PGA Tour round since 2005 and means 36 holes Saturday.

It’s the first time a round has been scrubbed since the Players Championship in 2005, when play was stopped after only 30 players began.

From the opening tee shot, it was a precarious endeavor. Matt Kuchar, in the second pairing, double-bogeyed the par-3 second when he landed beneath the lip of a bunker and couldn’t get the ball out. It rolled back into one of his footprints, perhaps a 6-inch hole. By the time four or five groups had played the 368-yard, par-4 third, it was clear that this was a day unlike another that this tournament had ever seen.

How crazy was it? Well, chew on this, all you moaners and groaners who think the ball goes too far: The driving average for 16 players at the third was a robust 221 yards.

“I hit mine 215,” Rickie Fowler said. “And I hit it good.”

PGA Tour Officials Working Kapalua Without A Contract

Rex Hoggard reports that negotiations broke down between the PGA Tour and its union-affiliated rules officials and this week the guys who run the tournaments will be working without a contract.

“We’re operating without an agreement as of Dec. 31st. They are (in Hawaii) right now and unless the Tour says otherwise they are going to work,” said Christian Dennie, an attorney with Fort Worth, Texas-based Barlow Garsek & Simon who represents the officials’ union. “These guys really take their job seriously and we’re going to try and help them as much as they can.”

“Like we do with other negotiations we don’t comment on the status of those discussions,” said Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour’s executive vice president of communication and international affairs.

Hoggard also notes where the PGA Tour officials fall on the pay scale and they are well below colleagues in other sports. And while most people think they just sit in carts all day, they do a little bit of everything to ensure that tournaments go off without a hitch.

It's pretty amazing that a tour which lavishes absurd pay on an army of eminently replaceable vice presidents would nickel-and-dime the people who run their tournaments. Well, amazing, but considering the commissioner also laid low-level people off while not touching bloated executive pay? Not really that amazing.

PGA Tour Statement Saluting The Now-Defunct, 41-Year-Old Disney Event...

...it's still in the works apparently.

Doug Ferguson's story on the tournament's end. Sadly, the Orlando Sentinel no longer has a golf writer so naturally, there was nothing to be found on their website.

Minimalism Coming To Dallas, And Other Changes To The Nelson?

With AT&T becoming the new title sponsor of the Byron Nelson Championship in 2015, and the tournament likely to move to a new golf course designed by a minimalist to be determined, there are several storylines here.

- The PGA Tour announces a new sponsor while the current sponsor has two years left on their deal. That has to be fairly unprecedented, no?

- The many-times-renovated TPC Four Seasons Resort is a lame duck venue, even after a recent renovation supervised by the PGA Tour. D.A. Weibring was the most recent designer to attempt resurrecting the course.

- This would seem to end any chances of AT&T's long term interest in the "National" event at Congressional in conjunction with the Tiger Woods Foundation.

- The Friday news came on the same day an AT&T representative and some other suits announced a plan to build a golf course in southern Dallas, which will benefit SMU and eventually, the tournament along with a First Tee facility.

There is no truth to the rumor that the phone call listeners erupted in laughter when the Commish said "the odds are quite high," that with support from the Salesmanship Club the Nelson could find a new home.

Candace Carlisle described the project this way:

The 400-acre golf course development will include an 18-hole championship golf course, a nine-hole short course, an administrative and teaching facility, a practice facility, and a practice academy for Southern Methodist University students. The golf course will anchor the university's golf program and there's plans to pony up a significant investment in the project, said President R. Gerald Turner.

Bill Nichols says "AT&T officials have already interviewed several renowned golf course architects, including Coore & Crenshaw, Tripp Davis and Associates and Tom Doak’s Renaissance Design."

Quick PGA Tour & LPGA Tour Q-School's Primer

Both PGA Tour and LPGA Tour Q-School's are this week, the final time for the PGA Tour in which top qualifiers earn the right to play a few west coast events before the re-shuffle. Now they'll get in through the Web.com playoffs, before they face a reshuffle in the fall!

PGATour.com has set up a convenient one-stop shop here.

Golfweek.com figures to have it covered well too. Here are the opening round groupings.

Meanwhile the LPGA kicks off Wednesday and many will be rooting on Melissa Reid, who has endured a brutal year off the course.

Your one stop shop at LPGA.com can be found here.

Fan favorite Christina Kim is also back at Q-school but most peculiar of all is the appearance of Japan's Chie Arimura, ranked 19th in the world. In case you're wondering, Dustin Johnson is ranked 19th on the men's side. I'm guessing he won't be at a qualifying school anytime soon!

Golf Channel will not be covering the golf live, instead doing this:

GOLF CENTRAL Q-SCHOOL SPECIALS WEDNESDAY-MONDAY – All of the action at the PGA TOUR Q-School Finals will be covered in nightly Golf Central Specials Wednesday-Monday (Nov. 28-Dec. 2) at 8 p.m. ET, with extended highlights, live interviews from PGA West and special features. Wednesday’s two-hour Golf Central (8-10 p.m. ET) – hosted by Whit Watson and Jimmy Roberts – will feature a roundtable panel discussion with several Q-School alums, including Jerry Foltz, Dicky Pride and Tripp Isenhour. Monday’s live show will be a two-hour recap capturing all of the action from the final day of Q-School and featuring live interviews with players who secured their PGA TOUR cards for 2013. The network’s team of correspondents will report live and on-site from PGA West, including Curt Byrum, Matt Gogel, Billy Ray Brown and Phil Blackmar. The special also will incorporate the PGA TOUR card ceremony, when the PGA TOUR’s newest members will receive their PGA TOUR cards.

GOLF CENTRAL SCHEDULED FEATURES
· The future of Q-School – Golf Channel will examine the new process of earning a PGA TOUR Card during Golf Central’s Q-School coverage.

Good luck with that!