Fall Series Question

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During Tim Finchem's ABC visit, a graphic was posted explaining the parameters of the proposed 2007 schedule. Regarding the post-Tour Championship Fall Series, it said that such a swing would determine the "remainder of the 125 players who will be eligible for next year's FedEx Cup."

So if there was at FedEx Cup in 2004, would only the top 125 from the previous year have been eligible for the 2005 season? Where would that have left a 2004 Q-School grad like Sean O'Hair, or a Nationwide "Battlefield Promotion" like Jason Gore?

Eligible or not?

PS - I just looked at the 2004 money list and these players finished outside the top 125, yet each played in this year's Tour Championship: Olin Browne, Lucas Glover, and Billy Mayfair. 

Finchem On TC Telecast

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Commissioner Tim Finchem stopped by the ABC booth for his annual Tour Championship visit. He noted that the reaction from players to the proposed FedEx Cup has been "very positive" and the dreaded "impactful" was dropped again. Most importantly, the new, more impactful finish will allow the events "to raise more money for charity."

Mike Tirico asked why now, and Finchem launched into the usual lines about how the Tour has been growing and will "continue to grow," then offered this: "The competition in today's environment is strengthening. When you see what other sports are spending to create the theaters for their sport and the fan experience for their sport..." etc, etc...

So the message remains the same: continue to focus on the imagery and mythology, ignore issues with the way the sport is played and how it might be made more entertaining. It's worked so well for tennis and the NBA, why not golf?

Relatable?

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Email from reader Keith: 

I just finished reading The Future of Golf, and I'm thrilled that someone other than me is talking about something so obvious as that golf is NOT in good shape. The parallels to the Rise and Fall of the Tennis Empire are very real, but everytime I bring it up to someone in the golf industry they dispute it. We shall see! I also just visited your website for the first time and was glad to see you question the mighty Tim and his incredible use of the English language. It's amazing how long it takes him to say nothing of interest or value. The one factor Tim and the geniuses who run the PGA Tour seem to have forgotten is that NOBODY CARES ABOUT WHO WINS THE FEDEX CUP or any other tournament for that matter. I have yet to meet one person who gives a &%$# about who wins the Charles Schwab Cup, and at least 9 out of 10 people have no idea what I'm talking about when I ask them. Golf ratings are down because none of us can relate to anything we see on the TV. It is BORING to see nothing but drivers and wedges, and to hear about who hits the ball a mile when I (and most players) are happy to hit one 225 yards! Golf is in for a BIG fall as it moves in the current direction, and I think the new proposal is the roadmap to disaster. America cares about the NFL and NBA and MLB ONLY because of heated rivalries. When Tampa Bay plays the Saints - NOBODY outside of those areas cares. When Houston plays the WhiteSox - NOBODY cares - or tunes in. NASCAR is popular only because of rivalries and the fact that all of the top drivers and teams show up for virtually every race. Golf has part of the necessary equation right - cut back the schedule WAY back and tell every player on the tour they must show up for at least 75% of all events - or go and get another job next year.

Campbell On "Point System"

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Steve Campbell in the Houston Chronicle:

The points system is another potential series of land mines. If the tour puts too much weight and too much money on a fall finish, it runs the risk of undermining the majors and unduly rewarding a player who gets hot at the end of the season. If the tour puts in place a points system that measures a player's entire body of work, how much would that differ from the money list?

Set up a system where too many players are in contention, and the championship cup will runneth over with hold-your-nose champions. Set up a system where only the most deserving players are in contention, and you get the Tour Championship multiplied — a series of money grabs meaningful only to the richest of the rich and their accountants.

Remember, the Tour Championship seemed like a great idea once.

Sandomir On Cup Race

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Richard Sandomir in the New York Times:

How much more money the PGA Tour will reap should be a concern. It has created a new revenue stream by selling the title sponsorship to its championship race to FedEx (the champion will receiver the hitherto nonexistent FedEx Cup), but will the four-tournament Championship Series be alluring enough to networks, whether it is sold as a package or piecemeal?

"It could be on different networks," Moorhouse said.

Who will carry the playoff? CBS and Fox are out, because they televise the National Football League on Sundays; ABC will return to Nascar in 2007 (replacing NBC); and NBC will be showing Sunday night N.F.L. football.

Moorhouse sees some daylight. ABC won't have Nascar every Sunday; NBC might have Sunday afternoons open; and before Labor Day, CBS might have some time. But there might not be the consistency of a single network carrying all four events. The last eight races of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, for example, are all on NBC.

Early Reaction To Finchem

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TGC's George White is undestandably confused.

SI's Chris Lewis says the press conference left a lot of unanswered questions, and proceeds to analyze how much of the new schedule is network driven, and how much is player driven (hint: he says the networks are in control, and after Finchem's press conference, it's hard to disagree).

GolfDigest.com has...wait, they don't have anything.

Jeff Rude looks at Phil Mickelson's unusual decision not to play at East Lake and how it relates to Finchem and the TV situation.

Finally, the 2006 schedule was also released. No big surprises. 

Thoughts On "State of the Tour"

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Without seeing what the inkslingers filed for tomorrow, I have to say that based on what I heard today and their questions for Tim Finchem, they probably left the "State of the Tour" press conference with more questions than answers.

Basically, we learned FedEx is going to put up a lot of money for a year end points race where the PGA Tour really hasn't figured out what the"playoff" seeds will do for anyone (I suggest seeds 1-10 have the option of saying no to a Ben Crane pairing).

I find it  amazing that after all this time, the Tour brought nothing other than FedEx to the table.

The fact that they can't even commit to the Players moving to May means that if a network wants to play it on the Moon in January, the Tour might consider it.  

But hey, we may get to see FedEx Cup finish events at Bellerive every three years. Oh joy!' 

Questions From the Press

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Some of the more intriguing Q&A moments from Tim Finchem's State of the Tour press conference:

Q. Of the number of players, 175 or whatever that start the season, how many do you imagine would be in the running to get to the TOUR Championship? Once the first stage of the points system is over, how many do you imagine would have a chance to compete for those 30 spots in the TOUR Championship?
COMM. TIM FINCHEM: It depends entirely on the way the point system is developed. We intentionally last summer put off the discussion of points because it's detailed, it's involved. The players are going to want a lot of opportunity to comment, and frankly, it wasn't necessary to complete it for television or discussions with FedEx.
Now, we expect that if player A goes through the first part of the season, is seeded No. 1 and has amassed a 4,000 point lead over No. 2, those seedings are going to bring that No. 1 and No. 2 back very close together because playoffs are all about starting over. You position yourselves. It will probably be worth like a small home field advantage.

Uh, home field advantage? In what way? Oh sorry, I interrupted. This is bound to make sense shortly.

But what those increments are will tell you what the mathematical chances of making the TOUR Championship are. I don't know that. It could be 144, could be 110, could be 90. It will be a healthy number of players, though, and there will be great volatility going through those three weeks in jockeying back and forth because it's our assumption everybody is going to play. It's going to be difficult for a player not to play and have a chance. The rewards at the end of that stream are significant, not just at the No. 1 position but down. So your competition is all playing, you have to play, and the point structure is going to be such that there's a lot of volatility.

And apparently we'll care more as viewers? Hmmm...

Q. Commissioner, the outlines of what you have suggested, they sound a little bit like the way NASCAR restructured themselves for the Nextel Cup. How much did you look at that organization?

COMM. TIM FINCHEM: Well, you might note that we have had the Schwab Cup Championship on the Champions Tour now for a number of years. So we think that we have some experience in the year long competitions, and we frankly think that that competition has had a very positive effect on that Tour.

A little touchy about the copying-NASCAR thing aren't we?

Q. How do you address some of the concerns of the tournament directors or individual tournaments that all of this is leading toward a two tier system, between has and have nots, where you have a wider gap in purses, maybe lesser fields for some of these tournaments? Is there an issue there?

COMM. TIM FINCHEM: I don't think so. Eight years ago I heard those concerns when we added the World Golf Championships to our schedule. I think the fundamental is that over the years, the PGA TOUR as a brand and a concept as something in sports has grown significantly, and that growth has underpinned all of our tournaments. Any tournament that's on our Tour now can market itself successfully with good management.

But who besides the top players $ees the World Championship events as a rousing success? Sorry, continue...

I've often said that we're jealous of some of the team sports if you walk into an NFL stadium or NBA arena, you could close your eyes and not know which city you're in. Because of the nature of our sport, we have to deal with different real estate and golf courses. But from the positioning of the tournament in the marketplace and the staging of the tournament, there shouldn't be that much difference, and I honestly think that with the FedEx Cup and some other things we're going to do, we're going to be there in '07, and that's going to diminish any concerns that our Tour has. We'll be able to grow their charitable functions across the board, they'll all have quality fields, marketable fields.
Q. Could you talk about how the seeding would work, like what the benefits of being a higher seed as opposed to a lower seed would be going into those final four events?

COMM. TIM FINCHEM: Well, you want to be a high seed because, like I said, you're not starting from zero in the seeding. You will have a certain number of points walking into the first event as a base, and if you're the No. 1 seed, it's going to be this much comparative difference between you and No. 5 over three events to get to the fourth event, that much more between you and No. 10, 15 and 20. So you're going to be heavily incentivized to achieve the highest possible seed because mathematically you're better positioned given your playing level to get into the Top 5 or 10 in the cup, and again, the financials are going to be heavily weighted toward the Cup.

 

He was asked about player thoughts on this and whether it would "incentivize" them to play more. The transcript is not correct here, but you get the point:

You will be able to run you'll get this because we'll be showing it to players next year anything we show to players is not confidential.

Ah, so that's why the players are totally in the dark on the new schedule! They are free to talk to the press about what they know.

MBASpeak Box Score

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The Commissioner delivered his usual convoluted, tortured take on MBASpeak, invoking the usual business jargon to make even the simplest point sound complicated. The final count on the key buzz words:

  • 1 brand (it's so yesterday)
  • 2 platforms (this was a shocker)

  • 2 incentivize (but it sounds so good)
  • 5 impactfuls (Uh, Oxford, you have a new word to add)
  • 6 marketing partner(s) (who are these people?)
  • 11 marketing (what else is there in life?)
  • 21strong or strongest's, stronger or strengthens (we have a winner!)

Finchem's Statement

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Lesson #1 from today's State of the Tour press conference? Leave the joke telling to Jackie Burke.

COMM. TIM FINCHEM: Thank you, Bob. We're delighted to be at this venue. The word "venue" reminds me of when we went to Champions in Houston and Jackie Burke took me aside and said, we're delighted to have you here, this is about ten years ago, and your people have sent me this contract to play here. You used this word "venue." I want you to know when I played on the PGA TOUR we played on the golf course and I don't know what a venue is, but we're going to play some golf this week.

Deafening silence from the assembled inkslingers. We continue... 

This morning rather than recap the year, I think all of you have done a good job recapping the year as we've gone through the year. We had a great year and have had a great year...We spent most of the year focusing on the future. And as we look at the future, we look at we reevaluate ourselves. For the past year or two, we've asked ourselves where are we and where should we be headed.

Okay Yogi, are you cutting tournaments or not?

We're not going to talk about the details of our schedule today, but when we do announce it after television I think you'll look at it and see that it's stronger, it has a better flow, we have better golf courses, better sponsor groups, et cetera, to make a good schedule. 

Oh good, better courses means Bellerive and Hazeltine. Can't wait. So for all of the betterness, things aren't so bad today, right? 

In terms of the business side of the equation, our sponsorship today is by far the strongest it's ever been. We have the strongest collection of sponsors on the PGA TOUR, we have the strongest collection of marketing partners, and the number of marketing partners we have, that's tripled in the last five or six years from 18 to 54. And we have a good group of marketing partners.

I think we have our key word of the day...marketing partners. Or is it strongest? What is a marketing partner anyway? Forget it. What about the Players Championship? Excuse me, THE PLAYERS Championship.

And then with respect to our tournaments themselves, starting with THE PLAYERS Championship, we will rebuild the infrastructure for THE PLAYERS Championship and changes the marketing approach for that tournament. We will bring and heighten the impact of our tournaments across the board going forward after 2005. So all that is in play.

And the way to do that?

...there is one pressing need, we think, to help us compete, and that is the need to define our season. You may remember 20 years ago almost now, this tournament started. And the reason it was started was to deal with the challenge of defining a season for our fans. We have a long season, a very long season. And in that season are tournaments which are week in and week out much more impactful than some other weeks.

(Note to the Commissioner: impactful gets a big nasty red line underneath it from MS Word).

Here's a little 135 sentence that I bet you can't read without rolling your eyes:

We think it's a system that will relate well to fan interest in trying to bring to those 112 million fans something they can focus on week in and week out, something that will create more value for our sponsors, something that will create more compelling television for our television partners, something that will create more excitement for our players, more opportunities for our players to be involved in something meaningful each week, and obviously more financial benefits to our players, and also something that we think will help us drive toward that second billion because we now have announced the commitment to get to the second billion so working with our tournament structure to really build the strength of our charitable giving back is fundamental to everything we do, including a year long competition.

Isn't it something that allows us to catch our breath after this first Drive to a Billion before we plug the daylights out of the Second Drive to a Billion?

As for the newly announced FedEx Cup points race:

Let me now turn to the FedEx competition, the FedEx Cup, and talk a little bit about the details. I want you to know that the details at this point stop at a certain point because a lot of the detail is not going to be worked out until 2006, and when that detail is worked out, we will have another visit where we lay out the promotional schedule and promotional themes of the Cup and our relationship with FedEx and how that's going to work, how the point system is going to work and things of that nature.

I know fans are on the edge of their seat about that promotional schedule and promotional theme concept, but here's where the details stop:

Players will compete for position on a points list starting the first week in January and going through late August. There will be a point where that portion of the competition stops, players will then be seeded for a four week championship series. The four week championship series will culminate here at the TOUR Championship presented by Coca Cola, but the first three weeks of that four week series will be at other tournaments around the country. 

What these seedings actually mean remains a mystery.

One, the players need to play to position themselves in a seeding position for the championship series, and the championship series will then be structured on points, which will be the most impactful series of events in the history of the sport.

There's that impactful stuff again. Here's where it gets confusing:

After the TOUR Championship, you can think of the fall series a number of different ways. One of the ways is that actually what players are doing is playing to position themselves to be in the Cup the following year. But in addition to that there will be overall eligibility on the PGA TOUR, securing a card, possibly a continuation of the Top 70 for certain events. 

So in the fall they'll be playing to keep their cards and position themselves for the following year's Cup (really original name idea there by the way, Cup...I wonder where that came from?). Later on someone asked for clarification on this and I'm not sure they got the answer they hoped for.

Okay, warning, MBAspeak answer of the day:

There are a number of benefits strategically to the stronger season. First of all, we think every one of our events is going to be strengthened. We think players are going to be motivated and incentivized to actually play more. Our television we think is going to be not only more impactful but more balanced because we'll have a better number of huge profile events at the end of the season which can tie to our different television packages. We think overall field strength will be supported, as well, and we think fan interest and some of the other things we're going to do, different platforms, can bring fans to be related to FedEx Cup competition during the course of the year. 

Incentivise, impactful, strength, strengthened and of course, platform. Great stuff.

He opened it up to questions from there, which will be looked at in a later post. Oh, and they also presented Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia and Olin Browne to confirm how great everything is, even though they didn't get to see a schedule either.

Finchem Press Conference Broadcast

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According to the Tour's media site, Tuesday's "Briefing by PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem" will be viewable via a webcast on PGATOUR.com, starting at 10:00 a.m. ET Wednesday, November 2, 2005. Of course a full autopsy and tally of MBAisms will follow here as soon as a transcript is posted.