Six of Seven Weeks

An AP story that doesn't shed too much new light on the Tour schedule announcment, but I did notice this buried at the end:

The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone would switch to the week before the PGA Championship instead of the week after. That means players like Woods or Phil Mickelson might have to compete in six events in seven weeks.

"We kind of have to if you want to have a chance of the playoff system, especially toward the end of the year,'' Woods said. "If you're playing well, you're going to have to play them all.''

Woods has met with Finchem at least four times this year, and presumably has signed off on the changes.

Tour Schedule Question

Tim Finchem is expected to announce the parameters of the 2007 Tour schedule this week. So I'm wondering, and wondering if anyone else is wondering...

The British Open and PGA will likely be played on their current dates (although wasn't Finchem trying to get the PGA to move up or back a week?).

The season will then conclude with four mega-purse events (New York, Chicago, Boston, Tour Championship), creating a "playoff" that will theoretically prove exciting because of a huge bonus pool.

So besides theoretically asking the players to enter four straight events after a major (!?) at the hottest time of the year, won't this kill the chances of luring big names to the events between the British and PGA? And do they really expect these guys to play five weeks in a row?

Sherman on Western Open Move

Ed Sherman in the Chicago Tribune joins the Tour schedule frey but raising the question everyone is already starting to ask.

...will fans be interested in seeing a multimillionaire pocket another $10 million? The tour will have to embark on a massive campaign to make this proposal fly. Indeed, the Western could be a big winner. However, if the tournament isn't played at Cog Hill every year, Chicago fans will be the losers.

And I think it's safe to say Ed Sherman is not a big fan of the Western Open's rumored move to September and a downright nutty idea to return the event to its rotating roots.

Moving the Western to September is radical in itself. But the biggest and most troubling change is a proposal that has the tournament site rotating out of the Chicago area every other year. In addition to Cog Hill in Lemont, the PGA Tour likes the idea of taking the Western to Crooked Stick in Indianapolis and Hazeltine in Minneapolis.The Western, which dates back to 1899, used to move throughout the Midwest. However, it has been anchored in the Chicago area since 1962.

"Nothing has been completed," Kaczkowski said. "The Western Golf Association is working with the PGA Tour to explore all options to make the Western stronger and more prestigious. We want to maximize the charitable dollars we raise for the Evans Scholars."

"The Tour wants to do it," Jemsek said. "The Tour has all the power."

Moving the tournament would be a huge blow to Chicago-area golf fans. The tournament draws nearly 200,000 spectators per year.

The players love coming to Chicago, and Cog Hill has been a popular venue among the players ever since the Western moved there in 1991. Also, Jemsek is on the verge of signing noted architect Rees Jones to do major revisions to further enhance the course.

There also is a risk in moving the Western from its July date. The Western has been a summer tradition, and placement on the calendar midway between the U.S. and British Opens helped attract solid fields. Of course, all that any tournament needs these days to be a success is one certain player. Luckily for the Western, Tiger Woods has been a regular at Cog Hill.

Said one local golf official: "If they think they can draw people in September for golf, they're nuts."
 

Elling On Points Race Idea

Steve Elling writes what figures to be a recurring theme: this PGA Tour NASCAR points idea stinks:

Rather than maintain the status quo, a formula that has worked in tour circles for, oh, about eight decades, Finchem is photocopying NASCAR, which unveiled its critically mixed and unproven points chase all of two years ago.

Mind you, this year, mega-stars Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon didn't qualify for the 10-event points playoff race, which is like Woods and Vijay Singh missing the cut last week at Disney, times 10. What if they held a points race and nobody cared?

The tour points chase is expected to look something like this: After the season's final major, the PGA Championship, a series of three events will award points to players based on their finish or other performance-based criteria. The three events are believed to be the Barclays Classic, Deutsche Bank Championship and Western Open. Not coincidentally, those events are located in New York, Boston and Chicago, where the marketing impact is hoped to be as big as the number being floated as the points-race bonus -- a cool $10 million to the winner.

The Deutsche Bank event is a whopping 3 years old and contested on a course that frequently has been criticized by players, so its inclusion is mostly attributable to one thing -- the proceeds from the tournament benefit Woods' charitable foundation. It's no surprise that Woods, who has had several private conversations with Finchem on the forthcoming changes, is on board with the points format and says he definitely would play five times in a six-week span, or whatever is required, to lend credibility to the plan.

"We kind of have to," Woods said, "if you want to have a chance in the playoff system, especially at the end of the year with the playoff system being four in a row like that."

But it's not the end of the year, really. And fans thought a viable points system already was in place: It's called the money list, right?

"They are trying to have the perception not be about money," Woods said. "You don't have any idea how much money the guys in NASCAR or Formula 1 are making."

Uh...it's not about the money, but it really is all about money. And it Tiger or Vijay or Phil cashes a $10 million bonus at the end of the  year, who will care about the rich getting just a little bit richer?

Players Speaking Up

Bob Harig talks to players about possible changes in the 2007 PGA Tour schedule, and they are starting to say some interesting things. 

[The PGA Tour's] theory is that a condensed schedule will bring the top players together more often, because they will have fewer events from which to choose.

"Tiger and Phil talk about a long schedule; I don't know what they would know about that," said Hunter Mahan, who plays his 33rd event this week. "They play very few events because they need to be ready for the majors. To play a lot would not benefit them. They're trying to win majors, obviously they're trying to win tournaments, too, but majors are their main concern. That's why they don't play as much. (If they change the schedule) I don't see him (Woods) playing 25 events. He has his schedule."

 "I feel bad for any tournament that might not get in those top-tier tournaments and getting - I don't want to say second-hand guys - but you're not getting the top players playing them," Chris DiMarco said. "And I don't think that's fair to the tournaments that have been around forever."