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
I was unable to sit in on Tim Finchem's year-end press conference but all of the questions I would have wanted to ask came up. It's a fascinating, slightly shocking and at times mesmerizing script to wade through. It's also one that I think we'll look back on a year from now and think either,
A) the man really knew his partners, the corporate world and his "product" and its ability to lure the networks into a lucrative new deal
Ann Miller reports on announcer Mark Rolfing's charity becoming the beneficiary of the renamed Hyundai Tournament of Champions. It pays to go fishing with the Commissioner!
Note how Miller puts the current PGA Tour buzzwords in quotes. Underpin! New energy! Energize!
Now SBS will "underpin" the tournament through 2019, according to the tour. That will include hospitality and other on-site activities. The Mark and Debi Rolfing Charitable Foundation became the non-profit host organization, required by the tour, in August.
Back then Rolfing, an NBC golf analyst from Kapalua, characterized his involvement as a "last-gasp" effort to keep the tournament in Hawaii. Hyundai's sponsorship gives the event room to breathe.
Rolfing's vision is to bring "new energy" to the tournament, which he considers vital for its future. Starting in 2011, there will be no admission charge -- a first for the PGA Tour. Rolfing plans to turn the TOC into a weeklong event that will attract people from the whole state and "energize" the world about the start of the golf season.
There will be a Hawaii Junior Golf Festival the Sunday before the tournament and three days of special events similar to baseball's all-star week, with a long-drive contest and pros interacting with amateurs, juniors and celebrities. The night before the tour tees off (Jan. 5), Golf Channel will have a 2-hour prime-time special from the first tee.
"I felt if we could create energy for the tournament by doing different things it would make it more attractive to a new sponsor and, lo and behold, it did," Rolfing said. "I don't think anybody imagined we'd get a new sponsor two months out, but this is going to continue because the new sponsor basically bought into the concept."
And don't you know we'll hear all about from Rolfing during the telecast.
Doug Barron continues to make a convincing case for a Therapeutic Use Exemption while raising questions about the tour's desire to single him out.
I played four Nationwide events early in 2009 and was never tested (I think because officials knew about my condition). In June, I received a sponsor's exemption to the Tour's St. Jude Classic. As the tournament approached, I was so depleted I could hardly get out of bed, so I took a shot of testosterone. I knew I was tempting fate.
I shot 72 in the first round, and was then asked to supply a urine sample. Last November, I was notified that I'd tested positive. I was suspended and blocked from Q school. I planned to appeal, but commissioner Tim Finchem, the sole arbiter in such cases, told me I'd never win.
Other players have reportedly received TUEs. Why? What are their levels and what are they taking? I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but one Tour round, one drug test, for a guy with a widely known issue, didn't feel right. Was I being made an example?
Of course. But why is the question that will inevitably be answered in court. And we know how well that worked out last time.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
