Tour Schedule Question

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PGA Tour logo.jpg 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?

Driven to a Billion

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drive to a billion logo.jpgThe Tour will reached $1 billion in charitable donations thanks to the Charles Schwab Cup (Champions Tour event played this week in case you were wondering what that was).

This ought to silence all you cynics out there who thought it would magically happen at the Tour Championship.

Nope, it happened the Sunday night before...so they can milk it all week. Why didn't I think of that!

"It's pretty special," Tim Finchem said. "It's nice to celebrate a milestone like this. If more people and more companies really understand what's happening, that can help you grow. This is part of our mission. It's part of our culture."

Part of our culture? 

Golf Isn't Out Of The Woods

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From a front page L.A. Times story today by Greg Johnson:

Operators are dangling discounts and promotions in front of customers — and courting a new generation of duffers who prefer T-shirts to polos and wouldn't think of playing without their iPods and Bluetooth-enabled cellphones. To survive, some courses are taking Palm Desert's approach: plowing under acreage to build homes that will finance improvements.

This isn't the scenario that golf's gurus envisioned in the 1990s, when the "Tiger effect" — a surge in interest in the sport inspired by the arrival of Tiger Woods on the pro tour — and dot-com stock options fueled the belief that a course a day could be built for the foreseeable future.

That euphoria extended into 2000, when 400 courses opened nationwide. This year, about 150 will open, still far exceeding the 50 or so that will shut down.

The build-it-and-they-will-come mentality has been fueled by demand for high-end communities anchored by alluring courses. It comes after a heady half-century of growth; only 3.5 million Americans played golf in 1950, compared with 27.3 million in 2004.

But the number of rounds played increased by just 0.7% in 2004 after three years of decline. The ranks of serious golfers — the roughly half of all players who account for the vast majority of rounds — fell by nearly 5% last year.

"We've gotten to the point where we could probably stand to close a course a day for the next 10 years," said Walt Lankow, the owner of a family-run golf business outside Boston.

Woods has lured newcomers, including many minorities, to the game. Latinos, Asians and African Americans now account for one-fifth of all players, according to a 2003 National Golf Foundation survey.

But many new golfers quickly retire their clubs because of the game's high costs, its inherent difficulty and the time it takes to play 18 holes — or because they come to agree with Mark Twain's observation that golf is a good walk spoiled.

That leaves golf's near-term success in the grip of baby boomers, those now in their 40s and 50s with time and money to play, their fascination with the game ingrained after watching Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer turn it into a television staple.

Bonk on Ratings, Woods

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Thomas Bonk's golf column, like a lot of other things in the L.A. Times' once meaty sports section, became a web exclusive this week. Besides a preview of Tiger's west coast schedule, Bonk offered this:

Ratings update: With Woods missing the cut, the overnight Nielsen rating for Sunday's final round of the Funai Classic on ABC was 1.4. Though that's still an increase over last year's 1.2 (when Woods wasn't entered), it still wasn't even close to NBC's "U.S. Open of Supercross," which had a 3.1 rating.


PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch Vol. 5

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PGA Tour logo.jpgI was away and forgot to check the numbers. Those soggy fairways at Disney really took a toll on the Drive to 30 Over 300. The number of players averaging over 300 yards dropped from 26 to 25, yet another reminder how it's all about roll and has nothing to do with equipment.

30 averaging over 300 yards is going to be tough with only the Chrysler and Tour Championships left. These guys need to hit the weight room if we're going to do it: Charles Warren, Nick Watney, Dennis Paulson, Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Allenby and Michael Long. Come on guys!

Of course, after 18 weather delayed events, doubling the number over 300 this year isn't bad, especially since the line was drawn on this distance increase stuff in 2002.

Just our (third to last) friendly reminder: in 2004, 14 players averaged over 300 yards. 9 players averaged over 300 yards in 2003.  John Daly was the only player averaging over 300 yards for the 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 seasons.

Sherman on Western Open Move

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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."
 

Getting Down To (Tour) Business

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SI's John Garrity profiles future PGA Tour policy board member Joe Ogilvie, who has established himself as an independent thinker (wait until he downs some of that special Ponte Punch  they serve up at Tour policy board meetings! He'll sound like Rick Fehr in no time.)

Ogilvie also pronounced the Tour "guilty" of bad communication and failure to stamp out rumors about its '07 schedule. "At the beginning of the year they handled it very poorly," Ogilvie said. "They talked to Tiger, Phil and Vijay," but not to the rank-and-file players, who were "pretty much spectators."

Showing a willingness to step on even the most talented toes, Ogilvie later addressed the rumor du jour on Tour -- that third-term Policy Board member Love will be awarded the contract to rework the TPC of Avenel in Potomac, Md., if tournament sponsor Booz Allen decides to return to the unpopular venue. "There's clearly a conflict of interest," Ogilvie said. "Davis probably wants the business, which is fair enough, but there's been a lot of discussion about it, and I think ultimately the Tour will give somebody else that contract." A Tour spokesman told SI that no contract has been awarded, and before one is, the matter will be the subject of full Policy Board discussion.

Golfweek's Forecaddie recently reported that the Avenel redo is pegged at $24 million. Amazing they know that without hiring an architect. And what a bargain!

Questions for the Commish

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SI's Farrell Evans presents nine questions for Commissioner Tim Finchem going into his annual Tour Championship press conference (early over-under on Finchem's MBAspeak: brand, 12 mentions, platform, 6 mentions, brand platform: 2).

It would be a miracle if the assembled scribblers ask just one of the questions suggested by Evans.

Oh, and someone get him few dozen free balls, because this question just can't be allowed:

Will you do something with the golf ball and driver technology and the golf courses to encourage shot-making and less muscle-packed golf? 

 

He'll Even Wear a Kilt and Shave His Legs

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Jean Van de Velde is going to try to enter the Women's British Open.

"I'll even wear a kilt and shave my legs," he said Thursday after shooting a 7-over-par 78 in the first round of the Volvo Masters.

Van de Velde became infamous in the 1999 British Open when he led by three strokes going to the 72nd hole, then wound up losing the tournament in a playoff.

The 39-year-old Frenchman is upset with a recent policy set by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club to allow women to qualify for next year's British Open.

"My whole point is where do we draw the line?" Van de Velde asked, and called the rule change a farce.

"If we accept that women can enter our tournaments, then it applies that men can play with women," he said.

The Frenchman said he would get an application and attempt to qualify.

Next year's women's British Open is set for Aug. 3-6 at Royal Lytham. The event is run by the Ladies' Golf Union, which established a gender policy this year.

The policy says: "It shall be a condition of any competition organized by the Ladies' Golf Union that players must be of the female gender."