Is Tiger's Quicken Loans National Doomed In Schedule Revamp?

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Sure sounds like it if you read from DMV insiders John Feinstein and Ryan Ballengee who each lay out the relatively short history and future of the PGA Tour stop that was started by Tiger Woods.

With the PGA Tour needing to contract to make a Labor Day conclusion work and Quicken Loans having not renewed sponsorship of the stop, the signs are not encouraging. Throw in multiple other anecdotal elements--including the Woods Foundation's involvement in the Los Angeles stop--and we could be watching the last or second-to-last playing of the tour's (mostly) D.C. stop.

All of this is set against a backdrop of a PGA Tour looking to shed a few stops to make the math work on a schedule overhaul moving the Players to March, the PGA Championship to May and a conclusion by early September.

Feinstein reports for Golf World that Congressional will not host the "National" again after contractually obligated playings in 2018 and 2020, all in hopes of luring a USGA event again.

While the members agreed to the deal, it was only to host in alternating years — 2016, 2018 and 2020. And once that contract is up, the tournament won’t return to Congressional. The board is now pursuing a U.S. Open, with USGA executive director Mike Davis telling it flatly that the association won’t even consider the course unless the tour event goes away.

But the event requires a sponsor and Feinstein says it won't be Quicken Loans.

With the contract up after this week’s event, there has been no sign from Quicken Loans officials that it plans to renew. There also has been talk that company CEO Dan Gilbert wants to take his money to Michigan, where he lives, to bring the tour back to his home state, which hasn’t had a tour event since the Buick Open outside Flint went away in 2009.

Ballengee's GolfNewsNet.com report pieces together the other anecdotal signs of an impending demise for the Quicken Loans National. With rumblings out of Minnesota about a likely new tour stop there, perhaps sponsored by a current sponsor, Ballengee writes:

At first glance, the only events on the schedule that appear vulnerable are the Quicken Loans National, with an expiring deal, and The Greenbrier Classic, which is locked up through 2021.

Meanwhile, Tiger Woods' TGR Live now runs the Genesis Open at Riviera near Los Angeles, a tournament with an established, legendary pedigree of winners and located in Woods' home state. The field is also imminently better than the National each year.

Quicken Loans, if they choose to remain a title sponsor, could latch on to the as-of-now sponsor-less Houston Open or taking over the Tournament of Champions from SBS (which sublet their deal to Hyundai before this year), both with better schedule slots and fields.

This year's even features one of the weaker fields in modern memory, with just four major winners and one top ten player. Tiger has stepped away for his back and addiction rehab as well.

Phil Knight: Nike Lost Money For 20 Years On Golf Equipment

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Talking to Bloomberg Television's David Rubinstein, the Nike founder declares that in spite of Tiger Woods, the company could never be profitable on equipment sales.

After mentioning their recruitment of Woods had started three years prior to Tiger turning pro, Phil Knight says the math was simple.

“It’s a fairly simple equation, that we lost money for 20 years on equipment and balls,” Knight told interviewer David Rubenstein, host of “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations.” “We realized next year wasn’t going to be any different.”

The Bloomberg TV interview airs Wednesday at 9 pm ET.

Tiger & Obama's Jackson Park Plan Unveiling Met With Questions

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Take your politics and stick 'em in a drawer, as the plan unveiling for a Tiger Woods design at President Barack Obama's presidential library complex has been met with the kind of architectural scrutiny and perspective you'd hope for in a public project. The effort is of note given the role of the Olmsted Brothers in this area and their influence on Woods' lead designer, Beau Welling.

Ed Sherman sets up the TGR Design from the Chicago Parks Golf Alliance perspective this way:

The Chicago Parks Golf Alliance and TGR Design representatives unveiled the proposed layout Wednesday night during a public meeting at the South Shore Cultural Center.

Let’s just say 2020, the year of the targeted debut for the course, can’t come soon enough after seeing TGR’s plans. A golfer’s imagination truly is in overdrive in trying to envision the final result.

The Chicago Tribune's Blair Kamin looks at the proposal from a landscape architecture perspective and questions elements of the merging of two courses. He isn't thrilled from the Olmsted perspective in part because Tiger architect Welling has not yet been in communication with the folks developing the park aspect.

But the planning process for that park, which took on new layers of complexity Wednesday with the unveiling of a design for a $30 million Tiger Woods golf course in the park's southern end, almost surely would have given Olmsted pause.

He believed that all elements of a park should be subordinated to a greater whole. That's what the designers in charge of a Chicago Park District push to draft a new plan for Jackson Park said at a public meeting Wednesday.

Yet such an all-encompassing vision is not yet evident. Latent conflicts between different priorities for the park have not been brought to the surface and thrashed out. The designers of the golf course have yet to talk to the designer of the landscape that will surround the planned Obama Presidential Center. The lack of coordination threatens the promise that the center and golf course will endow Chicago's south lakefront with a park equivalent in quality to Millennium Park or Lincoln Park.

For decades, the south shoreline trailed its North Side counterpart in everything from acreage to amenities, a result of racially discriminatory under-investment by the Park District. A 1999 plan for the south lakefront has helped alter that separate-but-unequal reality. In recent years, the city has poured millions of dollars into Burnham Park south of McCormick Place, including a new harbor and playground at 31st Street as well as a new pedestrian bridge at 35th Street.

From a golf point of view, Teddy Greenstein outlines the positives he sees (10!) and sees plenty to like.

• Holes 12-14 will have the million-dollar views, with No. 13 sandwiched by two par-3s. The 13th will play 362 yards for mortals, but if the course gets a BMW Championship (aiming for 2021) or Presidents Cup, players would hit their tee shots over the public beach, stretching the hole to 543 yards.

"We asked ourselves: How can we maximize the experience on the lake?" Welling said. "The holes are going to be absolutely spectacular. (No.) 12 will have a peninsula green, water right, left and long, with a marquee snapshot of downtown Chicago. And it could be windy."

• Lake Michigan should be in view from a half-dozen holes, and others will play along the Jackson Park Harbor. A recontoured lake will swallow balls short of the par-3 eighth green.

Forbes: Rory 7th Among Athletes, Ahead Of Phil, Tiger, Jordan

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As always take these numbers with a grain or two, but at least we see where golfers are lining up with the highest paid athletes.

Rory McIlroy landed T6th on the Forbes list at $50 million, tied with Andrew Luck and ahead of Steph Curry. The year comes on the heels of winning the FedExCup and finishing fifth in the Race To Dubai. His $16 million in on course earnings accounts for his 2016 PGA Tour play, FedExCup and European Tour play in the June 2016 to June 2017 window used by Forbes.

Phil Mickelson ranked 12th, with $43.5 million overall, of which $40 million was from off course endorsements. Tiger Woods at No. 17 is credited with $37.1 million of which $37 million was made off the course. And Jordan Spieth ranked 21st, making $34.5 million, with $29 million of that credited to endorsement income.

Tiger Faces Legal Issues, Mounting Sympathy

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On Morning Drive, Tim Rosaforte reported to Gary Williams that Tiger's DUI arraignment has been set for July 5 and also includes a charge of improper parking.

Besides being asleep at the wheel of his parked 2015 Mercedes, the police reports says his car featured two flat tires and damage to the vehicle. TMZ also features this timeline of erroneous reporting on their end, with splashes of possibly accurate tales.

Brian Wacker at GolfDigest.com talks to lawyers about Tiger's options and much depends on test results.

Given the 41-year-old Woods’ lack of a criminal record (he was cited for reckless driving in the infamous 2009 crash into a fire hydrant outsidehis then-Orlando home), his standing in the community, his cooperation with authorities—which included submitting to a urine test—it seems plausible, according to those contacted by Golf Digest, that the charges could get knocked down to lesser offense. Also working in Woods’ favor is the fact that twice he blew a 0.00 when given a breathalyzer after his arrest.

In more analysis of the situation, the sympathy continues for Woods. Rex Hoggard writing for GolfChannel.com:

Only time and an ongoing police investigation will tell if Woods’ version of the events on Monday dovetail with reality, but the mountain of evidence released on Tuesday suggests that Woods made a mistake – a terrible mistake, but a mistake, nonetheless. And not only did he do so, but in a complete break from the norm it appears he has owned that miscue, no excuses, no qualifiers, no subterfuge.

“I understand the severity of what I did and take full responsibility for my actions,” Woods said in a statement. “What happened was an unexpected reaction to prescribed medications. I didn't realize the mix of medications had affected me so strongly.”

Ian O'Connor of ESPN.com is longing for different times.

Yet here we are with Woods in the middle of another ungodly mess of his own design. Some are reveling a bit in his latest downfall, and perhaps that's the price Tiger has to pay for wearing that invisible yet very clear "Do Not Disturb" sign around his neck while becoming the world's most recognizable athlete.

But we all get into the business of watching and caring about sports for a simple reason: We want to see athletes do things physically that were once thought impossible. Their warmth and generosity of spirit along the way is merely a bonus, not a prerequisite.

So yeah, I'd like to see Woods find his way home sooner rather than later. So what if he has spent most of his career as a taker instead of a giver. I just want to fully appreciate the artist at work one last time, in one last tournament, on one last Sunday.

Michael Bamberger of Golf.com suspects Tiger doesn't know what to do with himself these days.

Every chance he gets, Woods talks about the role he plays in his the life of his son and daughter and what it means to him. It's moving and telling. But few 41-year-old men want to be a fulltime dad and nothing else. Woods used to have golf to fill his time, to give him drive, to let him exercise his vast competitive urge. For now, anyway, he doesn't. Still, the time must be filled. Tiger Woods faces the challenge we all do: how to fill that time productively. The answer to that difficult question for him now seems more pressing.

Sad: The Operative Word In Assessments Of Tiger's Latest Episode

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There is no other way to characterize Tiger's latest driving mishap but sad.

He is blaming the DUI on prescription medication issues and not on alcohol. According to this AP story, that position could be verified as soon as Tuesday when a toxicology report may be released. Tim Rosaforte reported a similar possibility for GolfChannel.com.

Tiger issued this statement, writes USA Today's Steve DiMeglio. The full statement denying he was under the influence of alcohol:

There are other stakes for Woods, including possible loss of driving privileges and imprisonment. From a MorningRead.com staff report:

Under Florida statute 316.193, a first offense for DUI carries a fine of $500-$1,000 and up to six months’ imprisonment.

Celebrity website TMZ.com, citing unnamed law-enforcement sources, said Woods was driving a 2015 Mercedes-Benz “erratically, all over the road,” adding that he was “arrogant” during the stop and refused to take a Breathalyzer test. Under Florida’s “implied consent” law, that refusal would trigger an automatic license suspension.

Jaime Diaz writes that the saddest part of an increasingly sad story may be the news that many would be shocked by the arrest. Nor will they be surprised if his approach to recovery is less than pretty.

It would seem unlikely that Woods will publicly be forthcoming about his inner life, including this latest ordeal, even though some professionals in the mental-health field would advise him that it would be productive. If he follows precedent, after an initial statement he and his camp will never voluntarily mention the DUI, and hope that if and when Woods begins playing competitively again, public curiosity will have dissipated, and even transformed from condemnation to sympathy and forgiveness. Especially, as has been the pattern, if Woods gives indications that he can play well again. His historical greatness is such that the majority of those who love golf will continue to hope that he can again exhibit a genius the game has arguably never seen.

I'm saddened that this is who an entire generation will remember, not the great athlete who gave us so many thrills. Throw in the modern day recency bias and his latest mishaps, and it's hard not to conclude his legacy is tarnished. In an open letter to Woods for Golfweek.com, I suggest that maybe playing the legacy card is a way for those around him could help him change course.

Ryan Lavner also plays the sad card, noting...

Sad because one of the most recognizable athletes on the planet has been reduced to this new low.

Sad because the most dominant golfer ever has been betrayed by his body, and undone by his ego, and his competitive future is a mystery.

Sad because he needs support, and guidance, and it’s unclear who will provide it.

Sad because he has meant so much to so many, because he has touched so many lives, and his fall from grace has been staggering.

Jason Sobel for ESPN.com:

Look at those sunken eyes in that mugshot and we no longer see the mercurial golfer who once seemed so invincible inside the ropes. There often was debate during his prime over whether Woods intimidated his opponents. He wasn't just better than them, the argument stated, he also was tougher. It's difficult to beat a guy who holds not just a physical and technical advantage over the field, but a mental one, as well.

This, though, is Woods at his most vulnerable. It is an image he never wanted to portray to anyone, let alone the entire, gawking world. And it's a sad one, the very portrait of a man who has made mistakes.

Tiger Woods Arrested For Driving Under The Influence

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WPBF's Terry Parker Tweeted the mugshot and arrest report.

Notah Begay and Mark Rolfing discussed the news on Golf Central. Both were admirably honest about their pasts and hopes that this sets Tiger on a new course.

ESPN ran Tiger's mug shot through a glow filter, combed his hair and trimmed up his beard for their lefthand stories list.


But did run the full shot eventually.

Tiger "Hasn't Felt This Good In Years"

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On the good news front, Woods seems to have finally had a successful back surgery (on the fourth try with a new doctor).

But given that he's feeling good, it's hard not to notice that he passed on his annual Tiger Jam fundraiser for the first time ever. TigerWoods.com reports:

I heard so many great things about last weekend’s Tiger Jam. It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year and it’s the first time I couldn’t attend. Special thanks to MGM Grand and to all my friends who pitched in to make Tiger Jam a big success. Kate Upton played poker and hosted our Saturday night dinner. I knew she would crush it, and she did.

Kate crushed it!

As for his back...

It has been just over a month since I underwent fusion surgery on my back, and it is hard to express how much better I feel. It was instant nerve relief. I haven’t felt this good in years.
I could no longer live with the pain I had. We tried every possible non-surgical route and nothing worked. I had good days and bad days, but the pain was usually there, and I couldn’t do much. Even lying down hurt. I had nerve pain with anything I did and was at the end of my rope. The process leading up to my decision to have surgery was exhaustive. I consulted with a specialist, and after weighing my options, that’s when I decided to go to Texas to have surgery.

Fantastic news. As with Steve Kerr, perhaps these surgeries gone wrong will help others learn from the misery suffered by Woods and the Warriors coach.

Most fascinating was this from Tiger, who clearly has heard the rumblings about his desire, commitment or determination to play again.

But, I want to say unequivocally, I want to play professional golf again.

Presently, I’m not looking ahead. I can’t twist for another two and a half to three months.

Maybe that's why he passed on Tiger Jam? He couldn't do a proper samba!

Right now, my sole focus is rehab and doing what the doctors tell me. I am concentrating on short-term goals.

You know how I know he's feeling better: Tiger's handing out compliments like Phil hands out $100 bills. Including a well-deserved tip 'o the cap to his ghost writer, Lorne Rubenstein, for a job well done on The 1997 Masters.

Steph On Tiger: "He made me want to watch every single shot of every single tournament he played."

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As Kyle Porter notes at CBSSports.com, the Players ratings news seemed conveniently timed with Steph Curry's comment to David Feherty that Tiger Woods inspired him not just as a golfer, but as an athlete.

"He was a ground-breaker obviously. For me when I was watching him, he made me want to watch every single shot of every single tournament he played."

And isn't this ultimately at the heart of why it's so hard to pinpoint the sagging numbers in pro golf?

There is no one like Tiger, except Phil at his best, who exudes a must-see quality due to their ability to surprise, excite and awe.

There are other factors to the recent ratings drop, from the presidential campaign, to the daily dramas in Washington, to cord cutting. The absense of mega-star power is one thing. But more than anything, the absense of players with an indefinable crossover intangible is dragging the numbers down. As the kids like to say, it is what it is.

The full clip:

NY Times: "Chicago’s South Side Golf Courses in Line for a Tiger Woods Upgrade"

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Julie Bosman of the New York Times went to Chicago to check out the proposed public-private partnership with the Chicago Park District that would see Jackson Park Golf Course and South Shore merged into a Tiger Woods redesign capable of hosting the BMW Championship. The alliance headed by Mark Rolfing needs to raise around $30 million to fund the Woods redo and operation once completed.

As usual and as should be expected (and understandable), the debaters seem pro-redevelopment, but not at the cost to affordability for those currently enjoying the facilities now.

On a recent morning at the 18-hole Jackson Park Golf Course, two employees lingered in the building near the first tee, where golfers could buy a $1 cup of coffee and a $6 Polish sausage at the snack bar.

Keith McGrue, 60, a South Side resident, said he had heard chatter from regulars who wonder what a Tiger Woods-designed course could bring.

“A lot of people have been playing here for 25, 30 years,” Mr. McGrue said. “The question becomes, Who benefits from the change? Who loses out and who wins? Most people that play here, especially the black folks, live in the neighborhood. This is our golf course.”

Alan Brothers, 71, who was playing at the South Shore course, said that he was hoping for the sort of growth that a new facility could bring to the South Side.

“This neighborhood has been in need of economic development for a very long time,” he said, pointing to the south, where several blocks away, four people were shot dead in a restaurant in March in an apparent act of gang retribution.

Is Tiger As Fatigued By A Comeback Hopes As (Much As) Some Fans?

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With the fourth back surgery in the books and no sign that Tiger Woods will ever play again at a level to his super-human standards, we are left to wonder if he's actually been over this whole competitive golf thing for a while.

Hank Haney, Tiger's former instructor, wondered this out loud on his Sirius show last Friday. From Golf.com:

“I don’t buy a lot of these theories that people have," Haney said. "I don’t buy that...this is the end all be all for him, coming back and beating Nicklaus’ record. That’s never gonna happen. I mean, come on people, get real."

Haney went on to explain that he does believe Woods is capable of winning again, if he can return to the game for an extended period of time. "I'll never give up on that part," he said. The problem? "I don’t believe Tiger is that enthralled by this whole comeback idea. [The media] believe that he's got this burning desire to come back and play. I don't think he does."

Joel Beall at GolfDigest.com wonders if we are looking at a Tiger who is resigned to his place in golf history, but also possibly leaving fans with memories of a figure that is far less incredible than the one we knew in his prime.

Willie Mays' remarkable 22-year-career cannot be encapsulated without mention of his final two seasons, especially as the indelible image of Mays falling down in the World Series has become the go-to comparison for any athlete that's stayed past their prime. (One that was conjured after Woods hit three balls into the water at Congressional last summer.) Evander Holyfield, at 42 years old, was banned in 2006 from boxing in New York due to diminishing skills; his nine bouts following the decision did little to refute that stance, slowly but surely deteriorating his standing in the sport. Brett Favre's annual retirement waffling -- coupled with a nightmarish final season and allegations of workplace misconduct -- turned one of the NFL most popular personalities into a punchline.

I do wonder if there is a generation that has already forgotten how incredibly dominant Tiger was--shoot, even those of us who lived it are starting to forget.

Sometimes I wonder if we long for a comeback to just ensure the legacy that gave us so many thrills? And if so, is that such a bad thing?

Tiger Undergoes Fourth Back Surgery With New Doctor

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I suspect we are all heartened that Tiger did not go back to the doctor credited with the first three (ultimately unsuccessful) back surgeries and, according to TigerWoods.com, this time entrusted his back to Dr. Richard Guyer of the Texas Back Institute.

From the report:

"After he recovers from surgery, he will gradually begin his rehabilitation until he is completely healed," Guyer said. "Once that's accomplished, his workouts will be geared to allowing him to return to competitive golf.
 
"If you are going to have single-level fusion, the bottom level is the best place for it to occur. Some individuals are born with one less vertebrae, which would be similar to someone who had a single-level fusion," Guyer added.

Tiger Unveils New "Public Course" Design As Only He Could

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I'm trying to be positive, and like many, struggling to decide how much energy to give Tiger these days given the dramatics and public indifference (noted by John Strege based in part on book sales for the 1997 Masters book). But he's still Tiger and I was still excited when he Tweeted last week about a public course design unveiling.

Most of us were hoping this meant the funds had been raised for the Chicago re-imagination project near the Obama library, but it turns out this was, as Andy Johnson at FriedEgg.co predicted a few days ago, another course at Big Cedar Lodge for Johnny Morris.

Open to the public yes, but calling it a public course with an unspecified green fee is a tad ambitious.

Jim Connell reports that Woods is also doing a par-3 course as he has at several of his projects and that Payne's Valley, named in tribute to Springfield's late Payne Stewart, is to be built on the site of Murder Rock Golf Club, a John Daly course "that has been closed since it was purchased by Morris in October 2013."

Joe Passov's Golf.com account includes more details and the course routing plan.

Sporting the makings of a beard and cargo pants that earned Twitter...scorn...Woods tried to hit a green without much apparent warm up and donated a ball to the water.

That, and Woods's comments on his back, seemed to overshadow the golf course opening proceedings. Oh and the cargos.