"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?

"We've had a coalescence of three different things come together"

In another of golf's worst kept secrets, the tours are taking the WGC World Cup to China. Announcing the move were George O'Grady, Jon Linen, Tim Finchem and various dignitaries from new host site Mission Hills.

Wow, it looks like the World Cup has been sav...eh, maybe not...

Q. So it will not be the World Cup after two years, or it could be?

GEORGE O'GRADY: It could be; it's unlikely.

Q. So Jon, your reaction to that, are you already investigating other possibilities beyond the two year period?

JON LINEN: We would work with the Federation and cross that bridge when we get there. Right now we know we're going to be where we're going to be for the next two years.

We know we're going to be where we're going to be for the next two years. Whoa, I think that calls for a little mop-up from the $7 million man.

TIM FINCHEM: If I could just comment on this, I think what's happened is we've had a coalescence of three different things come together. One is the opportunity to have a World Golf Championship event supported in China for more than a decade; the second is that we feel strongly that at this particular point in time the priority is to bring top flight PGA TOUR level golf to China and to Asia; the third thing is we want to perpetuate the World Cup.

So we've addressed all of these things in a way that we've unfolded here today, which is we're going to take advantage of the commitment that China and Mission Hills has provided, we're going to perpetuate the World Cup for the next two years at Mission Hills. We intend to have World Championship golf for the ten years beyond that, but how that unfolds after the next two years is yet to be determined for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is as George mentioned, the world calendar is reasonably set through 2008. There are issues with the tournament structures and dates after that, in addition to these format issues.

So we will address those as we get to them over the next year, year and a half, but in the meantime we're going to focus our energies on making the World Cup as good as we can make it at Mission Hills for the next two years.

Ah, much better. Those multiple "perpetuate" references are so much tighter than "We know we're going to be where we're going to be for the next two years." That's why he gets the big bucks!

Q. Is there a fear that the World Golf Championship events will be devalued by the fact that most or all will be in America for the next ten years, foreseeable future, and then the next one will be in China for 12 years; will it become stale after so many years?

GEORGE O'GRADY: From a European Tour point of view? I think everybody can have a view on it. I think it's been well chronicled that when all the World Golf Championships or the stroke play events, the Accenture, have been played in America. Not all of us were totally best pleased. But if we have to look at the force of the world economy where it goes, I mean, if we are sitting here, if I'm allowed to say so, a tremendous European victory in the Ryder Cup Matches just finished, and various people have said, why. Now, reading the papers for the last two days, better people than myself can work that out in a playing sense.

Say what?

Q. With that said, George, when is the next window of opportunity for one of these things to be in Europe?

TIM FINCHEM: After 2010 probably.

Nice rescue by the Commissioner. 

MNF at Sawgrass Follow Up

Check out the video of Finchem-Tirico-Theismann-Kornheiser inaugurating the 17th at TPC Sawgrass. (If the link doesn't work, go to the Tour's video page and scroll down a bit). This Monday Night Football synergy plug fest debuted, well, a 3 inch rough tee and dirt stadium mounding. It also revealed that one of the participants had a nice big Titleist tour bag. Commissioner? 

"I'd love to know what all went on, to tell you the truth"

Mike Dudurich sheds a little light on why the PGA Tour is taking some of the blame for the 84 Lumber Classic's demise.

A convergence of circumstances caused Maggie Hardy Magerko, president and owner of 84 Lumber Company, to cancel the tournament less than a month after the PGA Tour announced that the event had been moved to June in 2007, the week after the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.

Hardy Magerko's announcement came soon after she instituted a three-year business plan to make the lumber company more profitable. A $100 million investment over six years -- with an option for a seventh year at the PGA Tour's discretion -- didn't jive with that plan. And when tournament organizers approached the PGA Tour with its concerns, they received no response.

In fact, the PGA Tour didn't sign a letter of intent or a new contract that was submitted. A few days after Hardy Magerko informed Tour officials in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., of her concerns, the PGA announced that the St. Paul Travelers Championship in Hartford, Conn., would take the 84 Lumber Classic's spot the third week in June.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and Tour senior vice president and chief of operations Henry Hughes chose not to be interviewed for this story.

It's unknown why the PGA Tour decided to give St. Paul Travelers a fourth-year deal and turn down 84 Lumber's request.

And how's this...

"I'd love to know what all went on, to tell you the truth," said Joe Durant, a member of the PGA Tour's policy board. "We all have to say thanks to the Hardys for treating us like kings and putting on such great events. We don't get treated like that normally."

A member of the PGA Tour policy board doesn't know what transpired? 

"Somebody said the clubs are the ones on steroids. That was pretty funny."

After Tiger Woods spoke on the need for drug testing, voila! Tim Finchem issued a clarification on his bizarre stance while speaking to the press in Canada:

COMMISSIONER TIMOTHY W. FINCHEM: Well, my position has been so misconstrued. I've said several factors that we evaluate on a regular basis that could lead us to take a number of steps. But I don't want to get into, in a press conference forum, answering specific questions on this subject. And the reason is that I've done that a couple of times earlier in the year and pieces of my answer get reported that seem to reflect a sense of what our policies are. And this is a complex issue that has to do with testing protocols and things that would be tested. We've done, as I said last week, a lot of research on what other sports are doing. We will, later this fall, make a comprehensive statement about what we are recommending to our board be done in the area of substance, substance abuse and performance enhancing substances. I'd ask you to be patient, because I would much rather put in your hands a comprehensive statement so that you can report within the context of that statement and understand exactly what our thinking is, rather than answer piecemeal questions about it that get either reported in part or out of context.

Q. I know it's a complex issue in some ways, but whether or not you have testing is fairly simple. Are you open to that?

COMMISSIONER TIMOTHY W. FINCHEM: It's not simple. So if you just bear with us and we will be providing a comprehensive statement in just a few weeks for you. And then you'll have an opportunity to answer any questions you want.

As Thomas Bonk reports in the Thursday L.A. Times, this appears to be conformation that testing is on the horizon. 

Ed Moorhouse, who is also the tour's co-chief operating officer, said drug testing remains on the table when the policy board meets Nov. 13-14 at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

"If we thought testing was needed, we would probably go ahead," Moorhouse said. "Will [the drug testing topic] go away? That's not for us to say. I would very well expect we'll continue to have a discussion on that issue when we meet."

He also offers this from Ben Crenshaw:

Ben Crenshaw, another board member and player from the Champions Tour, said he wouldn't be surprised if a policy was instituted that listed banned substances, followed by some sort of testing program. "There may be something on the horizon," he said.

Crenshaw said he is a strong supporter of Finchem's position.

"There's no policy, and if there's any drug usage on the radar screen, he hasn't seen any indication of it. We haven't either," he said. "Those of us who have played forever, we don't know what in the world that performance-enhancing drugs would do for a golfer.

"Somebody said the clubs are the ones on steroids. That was pretty funny."

"Golf is a power game"

The September 4 issue of SI opens with the traditional "Scorecard" piece, this time with Alan Shipnuck writing about the emergence of golf as a "power game." He then lays out the perks headaches coming with the power shift.

Golf is a power game, a point driven home by a recent confluence of events in Ohio that rocked a sport that has always been resistant to change. In Springfield on Aug. 22, the Ohio Golf Association held a tournament in which competitors were compelled to use identical balls that had been engineered to fly roughly 10% shorter than the average rock. (dead-ball golf is what headline writers at The Columbus Dispatch called the attempt to put the toothpaste back into the tube.) Then, in Akron last week, Tiger Woods took time out from winning his fourth straight tournament, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, to stump for the implementation of performance-enhancing drug testing in professional golf. It was a public rebuke to PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who has staked out a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil position on steroids.

And after considering the recent events and Tiger's feelings on the matter, Shipnuck reminds us that Woods pushed for a pro-active stance on driver testing. And of course not mentioned here but equally as important to the topic at hand, Woods has advocated changing the spin rate of balls.

On the OGA event, Shipnuck writes:

It was an open-minded band of volunteers that showed up when the OGA staged its one-ball tournament, bringing to life an idea that for years has been kicked around by everyone from Jack Nicklaus to recently retired Masters chairman Hootie Johnson, who grew weary of annually having to tear up his golf course to keep pace with advances in equipment. (Augusta National has grown more than 500 yards, to 7,445, since Woods's overpowering victory in 1997.) OGA president Hugh E. Wall III said that maintaining the relevance of older, shorter courses in his jurisdiction was the primary motivation for testing the restricted-flight ball. "[We have] great courses, but many don't have the resources or the real estate to expand to 7,400 yards," Wall told GolfWorld. "[We want] our member clubs to see there may be another option ... other than bulldozers."

Thus every competitor at Windy Knoll Golf Club received a dozen balls with an OGA logo and a side stamp of CHAMPIONS 08222306 (the name of the tournament and its dates). All other details about the ball were supposed to be top secret, but by tournament's end word had leaked that it was manufactured by Volvik, an obscure Korean company. (A U.S. manufacturer examined the OGA ball for SI and reports that it was a three-piece, dual-core construction with a Surlyn cover and 446 dimples.) These instant collector's items left most players pining for their regular ball. Derek Carney of Dublin, Ohio, typified the conflicted attitude: He agreed that something has to be done to protect older courses but said that he didn't like the OGA ball "because it doesn't benefit me."

Oddly, such a selfish attitude in other sports would be laughed, but in golf, such an attitude is seen differently. Shipnuck explains:

Such grumbling merely previews the howls of protest that would accompany any efforts to roll back the ball on the PGA Tour, where players have spent years using launch monitors and computers to find optimal combinations of balls, shafts and clubheads. The irony of the OGA event is that it is PGA Tour pros who threaten to make a mockery of classic courses. Yet bifurcation is a dirty word in golf. Differing rules for pros and amateurs would destroy the business model of the $4 billion equipment industry, which is built on stars like Woods being paid handsomely to peddle their gear to weekend hackers.

Golf is still grappling with the ramifications of the boom-boom ethos that has redefined the game, but the almighty buck remains the sport's most influential force. When it comes to reigning in the power game, steroid testing will be an easier sell than dead-ball golf. Especially when Woods is the salesman.

"We have reached a level where we have real brand strength based on our players"

The scribbler's actually asked some tough questions of Commissioner Tim Finchem Wednesday, ranging from doubts about a change in venue for one of the new Fry's events (read here where it was looking like it would be in San Jose), to fairly relentless questioning about drug testing.

So let's get to what's on everyone's mind, an update on the Quest for the Card Fall Finish:

But a lot of this year is spent in getting ready for next year and the next cycle, if you will: our new television agreements, changes in our schedule, new seasonal competition, changes to the Players Championship. I'll just tick off a few of these, and then I'd like to provide you some new detail on the new fall series that we announced earlier in the year, and we have a schedule for discussion today.

Let me start with the Players Championship and just provide you an update.

Oh no, not another Players update! 

The FedEx Cup we announced the details of in June in New York. We are creeping into an all out education campaign for our fans around the country and around the world about the FedEx Cup. You'll see that accelerate during the course of the fall. We believe at this point from the reaction primarily of the players who have learned a great deal about it that it has the opportunity of achieving its primary two objectives: one, to give us a year long competition that enhances the importance of each and every week on the PGA TOUR; and, secondly, to give us a good, solid finish to that portion of our season with the playoff events leading into the TOUR Championship.

How does it add importance to each week if 144 players make the playoffs? Oh, sorry, continue...

And by that I mean that we will have seven tournaments, and those seven tournaments will really determine a lot in terms of a player's capability or ability to compete in the FedEx Cup the following year and how that player will be able to compete because some of the things that will happen in the fall will affect the finish of the Money List and certain things within the Money List that impact a player's eligibility for certain events, certainly the World Golf Championships, all these events will have World Ranking points, certainly access to the invitationals to some degree and access to tournaments generally. So it has significant importance.

Uh huh. Notice he points out how the Fall Finish will determine eligibility in the next year's FedEx Cup. Not who will keep their PGA Tour card, but who will have the privilege of competing in the next year's FedEx Cup.

The second week will be the Viking Classic. We will return to the Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Mississippi, with a new sponsor. Viking is Mississippi based manufacturer of premier kitchen appliances. You're familiar with the first rate sponsor.

Oh of course! Love their stuff. My entire mansion is outfitted with Viking products and of course the twin Sub-Z's.

Again, we want to reiterate what we think is an important part of our schedule. All these events will be broad cast or telecast by The Golf Channel in their entirety. It rounds out the relationship with the Golf Channel and the official money season portion of the year, and I think you would agree that all seven events are solid events, good sponsorship, good purses, and excellent playing opportunities for our players as they compete to position themselves for the following year.

Of course we agree it's all good without ever seeing how they all work.

Hey, we've gone a long time without a platform mention.

With that said, I'll just add that we're also excited about 2007 as we move in to our new telecast phase starting in 7 to 12 with CBS, NBC, The Golf Channel, all of our weekend coverage broadcast in HD television, a good solid platform on The Golf Channel with every Thursday and Friday tape delayed, tape replays in the prime time hours of live coverage in the afternoon, which we think is a much more solid platform leading into our weekend coverage.

Yes, much more solid than silly old USA Network and ESPN. Time for questions.

Q. As it relates to the fall series, can players who don't qualify for the TOUR Championship, for East Lake, can they still finish inside the Top 30 by the end of Disney if they choose to play some of these fall series events, that question pertaining to qualifying for say U.S. Open or British.

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: Sure. If a player yes. I mean, the Money List is different than points. If a player is not in the TOUR Championship, which I think is your question, could he end up in the Top 30 on the Money List? Absolutely. But in our eligibility structure now for '08, the number one eligibility category will be the Top 30 players in the FedEx Cup points. In other words, those players that go to the TOUR Championship.

Uh, no offense, but no one cares about the Top 30 for the following years Tour. Top 30 for U.S. Open or British, that's kind of a big deal.

And now for the drug questions. [Commissioner steps down from podium, Bob Combs helps him with his tap-dancing shoes.]

Q. This is sort of for a survey story, but unlike other sports like baseball and track & field, there's never been much rumors of performance enhancing drugs in golf. Is that because of the inherent honor system in it? And also, can you conceive of any sport in which it would not be an advantage of a player wanting to cheat and use them?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: There has never been any study that well, to answer your question directly, and then I'll comment on the question, I believe the reason we don't generally in this sport have certainly the level of issues that we have in our sports is because of the sport. The culture of the sport, the history of the sport, it's just as important to a player that he is playing by the rules as it is how good he hits the shot. We all learn that when we learn how to play golf as kids, and that is carried through to be one of the dominating characteristics of play at this level of golf.

Oh yeah, that's really going to play into someone's thinking when there are millions on the line.

Q. You just said that you believe you are paying close attention. What exactly are you doing in regards to paying close attention?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: We've done a lot of work in the last several years with respect to monitoring closely the testing that goes on in other sports, how testing occurs, what substances they're tested for, what happens with the information when it's collected. We've put a lot more energy behind telling players what the do's and don't's are with respect to illegal drugs.

We don't have a list of performance enhancing drugs in golf at this point, but we have certainly made it clear that in golf, utilizing an illegal drug from a performance enhancing standpoint is the same thing as kicking your ball in the rough. They both might enhance your ability to compete.

He's really got to get a new metaphor. The kicking the ball in the rough thing isn't working.

Q. Given that every other sport in the world, even ones that might have been deemed a good social background such as golf, but sports like cricket and rugby, for example, they've all tested and everyone has found someone taking drugs within their sport. The R & A is going to test at this year's Eisenhower, so why is the PGA TOUR not prepared to test given all the evidence in every other sport?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: Like I said, at the top, the fact that players in cricket and rugly and baseball, the fact that players take steroids is not evidence to me that players in this sport are taking steroids. I have no evidence of players taking steroids in this sport. If you have some, let me know, but I don't have any of that evidence.

Isn't testing the only way to produce evidence?

Frankly, this subject is not any different to me than any other set of rules. I mean, I noticed the media seems to think it's different, but in my view, it's not. It's not any different. There are rules and they are to be followed, and we expect our players to follow them, and thankfully, over the years, we've had a pretty good track record in that regard.

I don't know of other sports where players have come in and made a mistake on their score card or called a penalty on themselves that's cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars. That happens every year on the PGA TOUR. So the culture and the history is somewhat different, and I'm not prepared to throw all that out just because somebody is waving their hand and saying, gee whiz, all the other sports are testing, why aren't you.

Q. We just don't understand how you would know ever if a player was taking drugs if you don't test for it.

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: But I wouldn't know ever for certain that a player wouldn't be moving the ball in the rough unless he comes and tells me because he could mismark his ball, move it around, tap down a spike mark and he can do it without anybody knowing. That is a performance enhancing violation of the rules, and my guess is if we had a problem on this Tour with players taking, would we know about it?

I know some people say Tim is naive on this, he's got his head in the sand. I don't think we're naive. I think we're very aggressive in having the capability to do whatever is necessary, but we need more than somebody just saying why don't you go test and make sure.

Okay, his position is clear. Let's move on.

Q. Let me be devil's advocate on this one. With the posturing and positioning of the FedEx Cup as season ending playoffs, which are terms that we've heard from the publicity side, what makes you think that fans are going to care about the fall series? It seems to me that they've been put in a position that they're almost irrelevant given the fact that there's no guarantee the top players will be there.

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: Well, there's no guarantee the top players will play in the Players Championship. There's no guarantee the top players will go play at AT & T. There's no guarantee the top players will play the EDS Byron Nelson. Sometimes they don't.

I think the PGA TOUR is past that. I think we have reached a level where we have real brand strength based on our players.

Not brand strength. REAL brand strength.

Okay, take this part slow.

I remember my first year as Commissioner in a golf cart with Jack Nicklaus driving across the golf course at Memorial, and he had 27 of the Top 30 players on the Money List in the field and he had a number in his hand reading a local article complaining about three guys that weren't there. He said to me, "how can these guys write about three when we've got 27?" I remember the old phrase "prosecution is the enemy of excellence." You get wrapped around the excellence trying to be perfect, you're never going to be excellent. We're seeking excellence.

Well that clears...wait, you have a follow up?

Q. I guess maybe I didn't phrase the question enough. You just used the term grand finale with regard to the FedEx Cup and you've got seven tournaments left on the back end schedule and I'm wondering what the relevance of those tournaments are going to be?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: As I said at the top, I think you have to look at the fall schedule as unique unto itself for a certain set of reasons. It has a certain import. These are PGA TOUR events with PGA TOUR players competing on good golf courses with good sponsors raising a fair amount of money for charity. You start with that.

Is there really anything else? And now, a question from Fresno.

FRESNO: This is the first time we've had anything like this here in Fresno, and if you could just take a minute to tell people what we might expect, who we might expect and as we build up to this tournament.

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: I think we'll have to wait and see in terms of who's going to come and play. That's true with every tournament and certainly every new tournament.

I think important in your case is that our people, and what we think is an excellent golf course getting finished at Running Horse, it's important that the players learn about the quality of the golf course. We'll be encouraging players during the West Coast Swing to get in and play the golf course. That will result in what we hope will be very strong word of mouth. Assuming the golf course performs as well as we think it will, that will translate by the second year, we hope, into a situation where the golf course helps attract a field, which is a very positive thing.

The course in question isn't open, but for a good chuckle, check out the Running Horse web site photos in the home page banner. Just wait until Jack and Jackie disappear, to see what the cart paths will look like, and to see a group of golfers playing as the irrigation system is running. Fun stuff! 

"Give us a chance to sort this out"

Nice to see the PGA Tour Commish Tim Finchem acknowledging that not visiting Chicago annually starting in 2007 was not such a hot idea. Ed Sherman reports:

"The reaction has been strong, and we take that into consideration," said Finchem, in town for the PGA Championship. "It's not often I get e-mails from fans who don't like what we're doing. . . . Give us a chance to sort this out. There may be a change in plans."

"I know people are disappointed about '08 and '10, but I'd like them to think about what they are getting in '07, '09 and '11," he said. "We ask the fans to hang with us. Out of six years, the best players in the world are going to be here at least four years, and maybe [twice in 2012]. That's not bad."

"Will Golf's Integrity Stand Test?"

Damon Hack in the New York Times looks at the possibility of steroids or beta blockers in golf and offers some interesting perspectives.

“Up until this point in time, I would have said it is a fairly laughable question,” Joey Sindelar, a seven-time PGA Tour winner, said in a recent interview. “The guys in my era weren’t workout guys. It didn’t used to be such a brute strength thing. But we’re getting some serious 6-1 baseball-player-type guys. There’s probably going to be a time when you’re going to look at guys and say, ‘Well, sooner or later somebody is going to cross that line.’ ”

And why love him, Joe Ogilvie:

“We market the long ball,” said Joe Ogilvie, a PGA Tour professional and member of its policy board. “We market the guys who hit it 300 yards. If that’s your message, and people see that beginning at the high school level, I think as a tour it is very naïve to think that somebody down the line won’t cheat.

“As it gets more popular and the zeroes continue to grow to the left of the decimal point, I don’t think there is any doubt that there will be cheaters,” Ogilvie added. “Golf is all about length, and the U.S.G.A., the P.G.A. of America and, to a certain extent, the PGA Tour are perpetuating it by blindly lengthening every golf course. It doesn’t seem like they have a whole lot of rhyme or reason.”

Now Joe, we know there's plenty of rhyme and reason: because it's so much easier than altering the ball! And the side effects are wonderful too. Possible drug usage, adding misery to the game, inflating costs. It's all good!

“Maybe I’m naïve, because I have a hard time believing that anyone would cheat, I really do,” said Tom Lehman, the 1996 British Open champion and the 2006 United States Ryder Cup captain. “The culture of golf is such that you play by the rules.

“If you read in the paper that Tom Lehman just won the U.S. Open and he just took a drug test and he’s been using the clear for the last two years, the guys out here would vilify me,” he added, referring to the steroid tetrahydragestrinone. “It’d be over. For that reason alone, almost, it would keep guys clean.”

But there is no drug test, so you don't have to worry about being villified...

Commissioner, care to dance?

“We are monitoring the situation very carefully and we are making sure that players understand that steroids and other illegal substances are in violation of the rules of golf,” Finchem said. “It’s no different taking a steroid to prepare for a golf tournament than it is kicking your ball in the rough.”

Oh, good one! Though I like David Fay's baseball metaphors much better. Of course, they don't work too well on this subject.

“We don’t think it’s prudent to test just because somebody someplace thinks all sports should test,” Finchem said. “Having said that, if some pattern emerged or, candidly, let’s say that didn’t happen, but it just got to the point that no sport was considered clean, then we would have to take aggressive action.

“If we did test, we would not fool around. We would test aggressively and effectively. We would convince people that we are what people think we are in 2006. If we did it, there would be no hesitation on the part of the players. I would predict 100 percent participation.”

Hack offers this:

While there is no evidence suggesting steroid use on the PGA Tour, two players — Jay Delsing and Joe Durant — said they have heard of competitors taking beta blockers, which are often prescribed for heart ailments but can also be used to combat anxiety.

The extent of beta blocker use — and its effectiveness — has been debated for years on the PGA Tour. In 2000, Craig Parry of Australia said that three players, whom he did not identify, had won major championships during the 1990’s while using beta blockers.

His comment prompted Nick Price, a three-time major champion who took beta blockers during the 1980’s because of a family history of high blood pressure, to say that the drugs hurt his golf game by making him sluggish. (Price has said he won his three major titles after he stopped taking beta blockers.)

Durant, also a member of the PGA Tour policy board, said the anecdotes he had heard about beta blockers are similar. “I have heard of guys taking them and saying that they didn’t help them at all,” he said.

Delsing added: “As an athlete, you want your senses. It would be like, ‘I’m calm, but I don’t know where I am.’ ”

These folks really need to read up on the latest anti-depressants!

Dr. Linn Goldberg, a professor of medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University and a spokesman for the Endocrine Society, said beta blockers could affect people differently, but that they are often used to combat a person’s adrenaline flow.

“You can see that happen with someone putting, or shooting archery, or a doctor using it if before giving a talk,” Goldberg said in a telephone interview. “It does steady your nerves because it combats adrenaline when you get nervous or your palms get sweaty and you have a crowd of people around. It mellows you out.”

When Finchem was asked if he was concerned about players using beta blockers on the PGA Tour, he said the Tour’s research found that beta blockers did not help golfers. He said the Tour had anecdotal evidence from three or four players.

“At least two of those players were on prescription, Nick Price being one,” Finchem said. “They had such a negative impact that they saw a dilapidation that made it very difficult to play the game.

“We have never had much of an indication by players that there is use, and in the isolated incidents we’ve seen, it has been as much as a negative as anything.”

Haven't we worn out this Nick Price anecdote enough? How about a study? You know, after the ball study wraps up sometime this decade?

When Woods was asked for his opinion on testing, he answered the question with his own set of questions. “I think we should study it a little bit more before we get into something like that,” he said. “Where does it start? Who does it? Who is in control of it? What are the substances that you are looking for?”

Sindelar, too, said he recognized the complexity, but he also acknowledged the time for testing may be near.

“It’s at the Olympics, it’s everywhere,” Sindelar said of steroid use. “That’s what goes through my mind. If you said you needed a name, I couldn’t say, yes, it’s that guy. But if it’s everywhere, what that says to me is, why do we think golf is insulated?”

Because it is Joey. Isn't that good enough, because we say so?

"To have someone like Steinberg in the room when decisions were being made...Can you put a price on that?"

Thanks to readers Scott and Noonan for this Robert Bell story exposing the interesting relationship between IMG's Mark Steinberg and PGA Tour brass in delivering an improved 2007 date to Greensboro despite having no sponsor on board.

In May of last year, Brazil suggested to Long and other foundation board members that he contact Steinberg about lobbying on behalf of Greensboro.

Brazil knew the tournament, which had struggled in recent years under the Greensboro Jaycees' direction, was turning the corner. The Jaycees were about to relinquish control of the event to a board of directors made up of some of the Triad's most influential business leaders -- a move that would give the tournament much-needed credibility with the tour.

The problem, Brazil said, was getting the tour to recognize this. Like other tournament directors across the country, Brazil couldn't get an audience with PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, who was counseled in the restructuring by two trusted advisers.

One was Ed Moorhouse, the tour's executive vice president.

The other was Steinberg.

This is fun... 

Finchem and Moorhouse did not return phone calls, but Henry Hughes, chief of operations for the tour, said Greensboro did not receive consideration over other tournaments because of Steinberg.

"But certainly when Mark comes to us with an idea, the tour is going to listen," Hughes said. "That's what we did in this case. He's very knowledgeable on this business. It would have been foolish not to consider his expertise."

Long said Greensboro had little choice but to hire Steinberg. Since he sold his insurance company three years ago for $403 million, Long has been inundated with business and charitable requests. One of his financial advisers is charged with screening who gets an audience with Long and, more importantly, who doesn't.

"There's a big difference between sending a letter to an executive and knowing someone who can get you an audience," Long said. "A letter might sit on the executive's desk for weeks -- if it even gets to him. To have someone like Steinberg in the room when decisions were being made ... Can you put a price on that?"

Of course, now that we know this final event before the FedEx Cup finale amounts to a shootout between spots 140-150 for those final places in the playoffs, and that it's before a stretch of four straight weeks of golf, is it really that great of a date?

Why would Tiger, Phil or Vijay or any other stars play Greensboro after playing the PGA/WGC Firestone and before the four-week stretch?

Hawkins On The Commissioners

John Hawkins in the latest Golf World:

In 2006 we've learned Carolyn Bivens and Tim Finchem share at least one common trait: a zeal for prioritizing revenue generation over the game's competitive welfare, then trying to disguise their corporate mentality by peddling it as progress.

And...

The FedEx Cup format has been panned both inside and outside the ropes, becoming the first playoff series to include more participants than are eligible for the regular season.

Coming off the controversial decision to forsake ABC/ESPN and sign for 15 years with an endemic network such as The Golf Channel, Finchem appears to have bartered his legacy to strengthen the tour's fiscal standing. He calls title-sponsor suits to the podium at news conferences, a practice that further reveals his transparent motives. He uses his own time at the microphone to embark on tangents about the tour's economic prowess, then fends off pertinent questions with his patented semantic splendor.

Jeld Win Teleconference

The PGA Tour held a teleconference to unveil yet another new THE PLAYERS logo and to announced another presenting sponsor. Some nice Finchemspeak for your files.

One of the most important things about next year's tournament is the telecast. To think that we're going to have later air times, that's important, but we're going to have limited commercial inventory, with only four minutes of commercials an hour.

Limited commericial inventory. Is that why we have all of those The Villages ads?

So over the years we have been blessed in the last few years with our relationship with Price Waterhouse Coopers and also with UBS. And today we're delighted to announce that Jeld-Wen, which is the largest manufacturer of reliable doors and windows in the world, will become our third sponsor.

That is particularly important to be able to generate the kind of television presentation that we want to present. It's also important to help underpin all the changes and presentation that will occur with the players going forward.

Underpin...nice verb choice Tim. 

Jeld-Wen is -- why Jeld-Wen? Not just that we have a relationship with Jeld-Wen that goes back several years, when Jeld-Wen has been sponsoring a major championship on the Champions Tour, the Tradition. The Jeld-Wen Tradition has quickly become a fixture on the Champions Tour.

Is that like one of the nine majors in a row they're currently playing?

But the nature of the people at Jeld-Wen, the executive team at Jeld-Wen are a group of people that believe in the game of golf. They believe in what the game can do for a brand. They have demonstrated in their relationship with the Tradition out in Portland, a commitment to charity as well, a million dollars have been raised for charitable causes in the Portland area. So they are a natural, big company, global brand to align not just with The PLAYERS, but in association with The PLAYERS with Price Waterhouse Coopers and UBS. So that rounds out our charitable mix and gives us the basis where we can move forward and have the security to know that we can accomplish the things we need to accomplish to create a better PLAYERS and bring it to our fans.

So many words, and yet so little actually said.

Ah but here's the best part, the report on course and clubhouse renovations from David Pillsbury.

DAVE PILLSBURY: Well, first, I can assure you that the windows and doors are in fact Jeld-Wen through and through. We are very proud to say that. A great product for a great clubhouse, building a platform really for the next 25 years.

And you wonder why I'm cynical? 

Ferguson: Blame Tiger and Phil

AP's Doug Ferguson says that Tim Finchem is not entirely to blame for the changes in Chicago and Washington D.C.

Finchem was a convenient target, the czar behind these changes aimed at making the golf season shorter and more interesting.

But it's not all his fault.

If anyone has complaints, look no further than Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. They were the catalysts who first started barking about the PGA Tour season being too long. All the commissioner did was respond to his two biggest stars.

IM'ing With The Commissioners II

Well my NSA sources have scored with another IM chat between Tim Finchem and Carolyn Bivens. As with the first of these IM exchanges obtained, the more recent chat provides a wonderful opportunity to better understand two of golf's most powerful leaders.

DaBrandLady: tim are you there?

twfPGATour©: Yes Carolyn. Hello.

DaBrandLady: how things?

twfPGATour©: Fine, though we hit a bit of a rough patch with some of the media reports lately on the 2007 platform shifts.

DaBrandLady: yeah i saw some of the brand hits you’ve taken. does the market research indicate any concerns?

twfPGATour©: No, all good there. Everyone is very pleased about our new alignment with BMW, the fans in particular are excited to interact with such a positive brand.

twfPGATour©: And all of my Vice Presidents are excited that they might get employee pricing on the new 7 series.

DaBrandLady: that’s wonderful. it's such a great brand.

DaBrandLady: and what about Washington D.C., we’re doing some benchmarking on a possible event there…

twfPGATour©: Solid demos, tricky permitting issues when you are trying to rebrand a golf course. Thomas Boswell is a bit of a pain, too.

DaBrandLady: speaking of rebranding, as part of the many exciting initiatives we are embarking on, i think we have something you will love

twfPGATour©: Oh?

DaBrandLady: i been reading that you love cooking

twfPGATour©:  Oh don’t believe everything Greg Norman and Sean Murphy say

DaBrandLady: not that kind of cooking silly! i meant food cooking, you know like on The Food Channel

twfPGATour©: Oh right, of course.

DaBrandLady: I was hoping you would buy some copies our new LPGA and Canyon Ranch branded cookbook

DaBrandLady: we’re leveraging the equity of both brands for charity!!!!!

twfPGATour©: That’s great Carolyn. Good for you. You know giving back is the heart of the PGA TOUR(C)

twfPGATour©: Just send a couple dozen copies over and I’ll give them out to policy boards for Christmas

DaBrandLady: oh, that's such an old demo, can’t you skew a little younger?

twfPGATour©: You know I’m always trying.

DaBrandLady: the pga tour should consider its own book cooking

DaBrandLady: I mean, book on cooking

twfPGATour©: You mean harnessing some of our young, athletic and young players?

DaBrandLady: like villegas! if i were you’d, I get him to the oscars after parties next year

twfPGATour©: Huh?

DaBrandLady: didn’t you hear about our oscars night branding?

twfPGATour©: Oh yes, yes, great idea, I’ll note that. Uh Carolyn, while I have you here...

DaBrandLady: Yes Tim?

twfPGATour©: These points standings and playoffs you have…

DaBrandLady: yes?

twfPGATour©: It’s connecting with the fans, right?

DaBrandLady: oh absolutely, you should see the hits we are getting on the desktop wallpaper download

twfPGATour©: Wallpaper?

DaBrandLady: yes, check it out:  LPGA Desktop Wallpaper

DaBrandLady: the 12-24 year olds love it. i use karrie webb in her nabisco robe for my computer desktop.

twfPGATour©: Oh I’ll check it out. Is there one for Brittany Lincicome?

DaBrandLady: oh tim, you identify with her can-do attitude, don’t you?

twfPGATour©: Yep, she’s a fighter. And I think I’m going to have to be one of this points thing doesn’t work out.

DaBrandLady: it’ll work out great tim, I know it. trust me, I have good instincts on these things

twfPGATour©: Thanks Carolyn, it’s reassuring to hear that from you.

DaBrandLady: anytime tim.

twfPGATour©: Well, goodnight Carolyn, give my best to…to...

DaBrandLady: he says hi back too! night!

Questioning Finchem

Ed Sherman on his Chicago Tribune golf blog:

...to hear people talk, rotating the tournament to other Midwest cities also was part of the price. No way. The Evans Scholars would make just as much money if the tournament stayed at Cog Hill.

We spent the entire week in the press room trying to figure out why PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem made this decision. There has to be something we're missing, perhaps some grand marketing scheme that is way over our feeble brains.

I don't think so. There can't be a reasonable explanation why the PGA Tour would leave the nation's third largest market to go to much smaller towns in the Midwest.

Even worse, do you realize in 2008 the Tour won't be in cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.? When I asked Jim Furyk about that situation last week, he tried to be diplomatic, but you could see he was troubled by the Tour's lack of presence in the major markets.

Perhaps, the Tour wants to go small-time.  That has to be it, because its thinking certainly is small time.