Beyond Belief

I've read about some pretty silly things coming out of the golf executive suites in recent years, but nothing shocked me more than this from Geoff Russell's "Mid-Year Report" in the Golf World British Open preview.

Under Most Disappointing (off-course), Russell lists a series of PGA Tour miscues, but this is beyond belief:

"most extraordinary, the refusal to allow Bob Tway to miss the BellSouth Classic pro-am to attend the funeral of Bradley Johnson, 17, who lost the 2005 U.S. Junior Amateur final to Tway's son, Kevin."

Hawkins: Alternatives To FedEx Structure

John Hawkins offers some great suggestions on fixing the clearly broken FedEx Cup. (And since they're good ideas, they have NO chance of flying.)

But I'm not in agreement with his idea of padding points for strength of field to encourage more play from top players.

Problem: Making the Players Championship worth the same number of points (27,500) as the four majors is yet another example of the tour’s petty arrogance. Please. It’s an excellent tournament, but the Players is not worthy of such status, and the harder Camp Ponte Vedra tries to ram the notion down our throats, the less credible it becomes.

John, be nice to the fifth of golf's four majors! They have a new logo that really...oh forget it.

Solution: The tour’s point-allocation formula is as follows: 27,500 for the majors and Players; 26,250 for World Golf Championships and 25,000 for “regular” events. My scale is 30,000 for the majors and 27,500 for the Players/WGCs. Weekly tournaments start at a base of 24,000, but for every player in the top 50 of the World Ranking in the field, the total increases, with a maximum value of 26,000.

This changes the distribution values as well. The tour will pay 4,500 points for a regular win, 4,725 for a WGC victory and 4,950 for a major title. My numbers are obviously slightly higher, which spreads the field and has a positive effect on player incentive. All I know is, the guy who wins Memorial should get more points than whoever wins Hartford. That’s just common sense.

Fair point, but as we've learned with MacDuff's points system, awarding equal points throughout the year actually rewards those who play well and play often.

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? 

Elling On FedEx Cup

Steve Elling weighs in on the FedEx Cup and he's not excited either:

It has been a fortnight since the PGA Tour raised the curtain on its new money misdirection play, a cash-rich contrivance called the FedEx Cup. Or maybe that's pulled back the curtain, because Commissioner Tim Finchem is starting to look like the Wizard of Blahs.

The innovative notion of a seasonlong points race has generated mostly yawns of indifference. Whenever fans pass at examining, if not exhuming, a plan that purports to change the DNA of a decades-old pro sport, that's not a good sign.

Those who bothered to delve into the details, however, have come away picking SPAM out of their teeth. They chewed on it but aren't quite sure what it was. Sure, it's different, but is it any good?

And...

Philosophically, though, it's about the money, stupid -- keeping the big-gun players rich, propping up purses, capitulating to TV and title sponsors while allowing Finchem to fill his increasingly fat wallet.

And...

What's thrilling about seeing the roughly 240 players with tour status being culled to a list of 144? That means less than two-thirds of the tour roster, including players who will be losing their cards at year's end, qualify for the FedEx "playoffs." What is this, hockey?

Finchem says players have been "incentivized" to compete in all four FedEx Cup series events to win the $10 million. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will play all four this year, yet do you really think Woods regularly will play six times in seven weeks under the FedEx Cup scenario? Me, neither.

And...

The galling go-for-the-green attitude of the modern tour was never more in evidence than when the plan was unveiled June 28 in New York City, when Finchem shamelessly trotted out corporate shills from the four title sponsors of the FedEx series. Worse, the announcement was held on the first day of the most important event in women's golf, the U.S. Women's Open. That's just bad karma.

Shapiro Reviews Prospects For Washington Golf

The Washington Post's Leonard Shapiro on the PGA Tour pulling out of Washington:

I think the commissioner heard loud and clear that Washington was not about to accept a second-class golf event played at what has become a second-class venue at TPC Avenel. He heard it from his own players, from the press, from talk radio, from letters to the editor, from e-mails on the internet and other correspondence to his office in Ponte Vedra. And finally, I believe he got the point.

Now it seems as if the tour may also finally be getting serious about fixing up Avenel, ostensibly the reason there will be no tournament here in 2007, and probably 2008 as well. If the tour is going to spend what they say is $18 to $20 million and what others say likely will balloon to the $25 million range, they want to do it right.

They really can't re-route the golf course, but they can certainly move enough earth to make it a more challenging venue, and perhaps also upgrade the infrastructure Avenel never has had to support the thousands of golf fans who have flocked to the course year after year.

So does anyone know if these $20 and $25 million figures represent just what is being spent on the course, or also include a clubhouse redo?

Is The Open Really Open?

Golfweek's Alistair Tait makes some good points about the Open Championship qualifying, which is down to 12 spots after all of the exemptions.

Here are the recent qualifiers according to the R&A, with two spots remaining:

<sup>Qualifiers for The Open
 
Recent qualifiers for The Open through exemption categories 8, 15 and 16 and at Local Final Qualifying are: -
 
8. The leading player, not exempt, in the first 10 and ties of the 2006 Open de France, the 2006 Smurfit European Open and the 2006 Barclays Scottish Open. *
 
Marcus Fraser (Australia)
Anthony Wall (England)
 
15. First 2 USPGA Members and ties not exempt in a cumulative money list taken from the USPGA Tour Players Championship and the five USPGA Tour events leading up to the 2006 Western Open.
 
JJ Henry (USA)
Billy Andrade (USA)
 
16. The leading player not exempt having applied 15 in the first 10 and ties of the 2006 Buick Championship, the 2006 Western Open and the 2006 John Deere Classic. *
 
Hunter Mahan (USA)
Matthew Goggin (Australia)
 
 
* Still to be played

 
Local Final Qualifying
 
Conwy (Caernarvonshire)
Jon Bevan (Wessex Golf Centre)
Warren Bladon (Unattached)
Mikko Ilonen (Finland)
 
Formby
Jim Payne (Southport & Ainsdale)
Andrew Marshall (Unattached)
Darren Parris (North Foreland)
 
Wallasey
Danny Denison (A) (England)
Gary Day (Cookridge Hall)
Marcus Brier (Austria)
 
West Lancashire
Nick Ludwell (Selby)
Gary Lockerbie (Unattached)
Adam Frayne (St Mellion)</sup>

"Just write the truth. Golf has enough press agents."

The Houston Chronicle's Doug Pike offers an entertaining Q&A with author Curt Sampson on a range of subjects, including the best writing advice he ever got from Desmond Muirhead.

Finegan on Hoylake

Jim Finegan offers a short and sweet Links Magazine introduction to Royal Liverpool.

TGC Adds Faldo, Will He Have To Fly Coach Too?

The Golf Channel makes it official, Nick Faldo is on board as the lead analyst for their PGA Tour four-round coverage events. Will he have to fly coach like the rest of the Golf Channel talent?

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.

Hawkins: Minus Criticism, FedEx Cup Gets No Ink

John Hawkins on his GolfDigest.com blog:

If not for a smattering of scathing criticism, last month’s “official” unveiling of the FedEx Cup format wouldn’t have gotten any attention whatsoever.

He goes on to write about Ed Sherman's recent blog post on markets the Tour is visiting and drops this Western Open stunner:

My sources tell me that Cialis, which picked up title sponsorship of the Western in 2004 after the tournament had struggled to find a successor to Advil, was eager to renew its commitment with the tour, even if it meant spending almost twice as much ($14 million) to subsidize a playoff event. Camp Ponte Vedra, however, was never crazy about aligning itself with a company that makes erectile-dysfunction pills. The tour basically told Cialis to take a hike, then courted BMW throughout the second half of 2005.

How can you turn away a major sponsor when so many other events are in need of them? Something just doesn't add up here. 

“I think they were probably bombarded"

Tod Leonard reports that the USGA has reversed it's decision on MacKinzie Kline, the 14-year-old whose doctors want her riding a cart in the U.S. Junior Girl's and U.S. Women's Amateur because of a heart condition.

USGA spokesman Marty Parkes said yesterday the ruling was made by the organization's three-person medical panel after receiving more documentation from the Klines last week.

“The more we looked into it, it was clear that because of her condition she needed a cart,” Parkes said.

“They stepped up and did the right thing,” said John Kline, MacKinzie's father. “They did more investigating rather than falling back just on what the rules were. They made the right decision.”

John Kline said he was deluged with e-mails and phone calls last week from supporters, many of them strangers, who vowed to contact the USGA to voice their displeasure.

“I think they were probably bombarded,” Kline said.

Of course, one wonders why they would have to be bombarded with emails and calls to figure this one out? And one wonders why one wonders about any bad USGA decision at this point?  

Catching Up With The Morrises

Thanks to reader Chris for this Craig Howie piece on Old and Young Tom, which ought to help you get in the mood for the Open Championship.

Bivens: "I do speak in complete sentences"

John Branch of the New York Times weighs in on the struggles of Carolyn Bivens. Nothing new here except for brilliance from the commissioner:

 “I really don’t have three heads, I don’t have an eye in the middle of my forehead, and I do speak in complete sentences,” Bivens, the L.P.G.A. commissioner, said in a telephone interview Friday from the organization’s headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Branch drops this mini-bombshell, but leaves it up to someone else to explore what the Brand Lady has in mind.

Even re-evaluating the majors is on her mind.

“If a fairy godmother dropped down tomorrow, what would be the criteria for a major?” Bivens said.

Thanks to readers Noonan and John for sending the link to this. 

Spontaneity

After Phil Mickelson's comments last week about knowing in advance what clubs he would be using off of tees, I tried to raise the question of whether this is a sign of the times, or a statement about course setup and design.

And as interesting as it was to read the Phil-hitting-driver-on-18-debate, I'm still curious what you think of the notion of "spontaneity" in course setup.

Is it a better test of a player's skill if they are forced to adapt to either via (A) weather conditions or (B) radical day-to-day changes in tee/hole location placement?

Obviously, by the leading nature of that question, I think we see true skill when players are asked to adapt and execute shots "on the spot."

When a player is made uncomfortable by an unexpected decision (as opposed to a 25-yard sliver of fairway), and overcomes that doubt to pull off a shot, again I think we find out who the better all-around player is.

So if they are asked to hit 3-iron on a hole for two days before surprisingly finding a tee up with a 7-iron the shot to a difficult hole location, it would seem that such a departure genuinely would tell us who can "hit all of the clubs in the bag."

Do you agree that spontaneity in course setup is a good thing, or would you view it as a form of trickery trying too hard to match the unpredictability of links golf (and that can only be created without a backlash by Mother Nature)?