A Letter To Tiger...

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Tiger,

Yesterday's announcement of Tiger Woods Design was not--how I can I put this as a prospective design partner--very impressive. Oh yeah, I'm nominating myself to be your associate. All I ask in return is 1% of your design fee based on the International and North American rates that your agent has been giving out.

And speaking of the big guys taking 10%...

I wouldn't have announced this one day after the Tour Championship that you skipped to save your energy for the $6 million in appearance fees you'll be hauling in over the next few weeks. Someone might get the wrong impression that you are in this design thing or this playing golf thing to accumulate more money than you'll ever need. You and I know otherwise. And I know you are probably about to announce your first course in that human rights hotbed China, but I still think another week might have bought just a little more memory loss from the golfing public. That's why you let them take that big 10%...and I could have offered this advice for just 1%!

Also, I think the 10% folks needed to have the web site up and running today when the press release went out. Minor detail, I know. And when this scribbler called the Tiger Woods Design office to ask a few quesions, it would have been nice to get a real person instead of a low grade voice mail message. If we were partners, they could have called here to my suite in the Home of the Homeless and I would have gladly answered questions. Well, until it hit 85 at around 11:15 a.m., an emergency situation that forces me to work out of my western office at 1 Pacific Coast Highway.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for my return call from the TWD offices. I was calling on behalf of a pretty big magazine, but so far, no luck. Not a good sign.

The last thing has to do with the nuts and bolts of this design stuff we both love. 

Your press release said that, "Every project will incorporate its chairman's highest standards and passion for golf."

Great, though I'd lose the chairman thing. I know the corporate people eat that stuff up, but they don't usually build golf courses.

Also, this is a little strange:

Having played on almost every continent, TWD plans to share Tiger's varied experiences with every skill level of golfer. For Tiger, this important goal embodies what he really loves about the sport. Whether it's bringing a traditional American design to Europe; or a links course to America  or Australian designs to China, TW Design knows the possibilities are endless.

So you want to import unique environments to create really cool courses. I hear ya there.

But the very next line in the press release material should not be this:

The belief in the importance of preserving the existing natural environment is another of TW  Design's core values.

See, you can't quite do the whole importing links to America and sandbelt to China, and then say you are preserving the natural environment.

I know, I'm quibbling again. But hey, just trying to show you how I'd earn my 1%.

This I liked:

To help us achieve this goal, we plan to utilize experts from around the  world who are dedicated to environmental preservation. As TW Design continues to grow, so will our roster of experts.

Remember, just 1%, that's all I charge. Shoot, for the Internationals gigs, I'll take .5%...I can still pull in, oh I better not say. I'll even figure out a way to design water hazards that Stevie can drop 9-irons into without losing them. Now, designing for the Nikons he chucks might be a little tougher, but we can work on that.

Yours in design,
Geoff

UK Reaction To Azinger and New Points System

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James Corrigan was easily the toughest when reporting for the Independent: 

America have proved just how desperate they are to reclaim the Ryder Cup by granting their new captain unprecedented powers.

John Hopkins in the Times:

What the PGA of America has come up with is far-reaching and significant...Perhaps the most significant change of all is that the bizarre qualification process used for this year’s match has been abandoned. In its place is one that rewards Ryder Cup candidates for their good play in tournaments on the tour in the US and gives extra points in the major championships.

Lawrence Donegan in the Guardian:

Paul Azinger was yesterday appointed captain of the United States team for the 2008 Ryder Cup match against Europe and began his tenure with the now-traditional swipe at critics who argue that the US team loses because they care less than their opponents. "I think anyone who suggests that our players won't be as hungry as their players might be in for a big shock," he said during a press conference at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky, where the next match will be staged.

And the Principal's Nose offered this:

In one swoop, the PGA of America has reduced the PGA Tour to a mere side show to the Majors and the Ryder Cup, for as they throw their hat into the ring with the Majors, and although they are the anti-Christ of all things good in golf, they see the Ryder Cup as being bigger than a whole season on Tour. In other words, the PGA Tour no longer holds any power.

 

Rees On Tiger

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Mark Soltau went right to the top for a reaction to Tiger's entry into the design world:

"I think he'll do quite well," said noted golf course architect Rees Jones. "He's the biggest name in golf, and he'll command a big fee.

Wow, the insights you glean from those Jones boys.

"It's good for the interest of the game. He's going to have to go through a little bit of a learning curve to get his ideas on the ground. It's a craft; you learn by doing it.

"My only advice would be to limit himself to good projects, clients and sites. Concentrate on the game while he's still the best."

Translation: don't you even think of redoing one of my courses that needs redoing. 

Tiger Hangs Out Design Shingle...

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...and whatever you think his fee is, there's a good chance you need to multiply it by 8.

I can honestly say that Tiger's career has been handled so beautifully, but at least to the design world, this could have been handled more tastefully... 

TIGER WOODS LAUNCHES GOLF COURSE DESIGN FIRM

Woods to Apply His Unique Golf Experiences to Course Design

Windermere, Fla. - Tiger Woods is taking a swing at a new venture in the golf industry - course design. Woods announced today the creation of Tiger Woods Design, a golf course design company that plans to embark upon projects around the world.

"My goal is to provide a unique collection of amazing courses all over the world that represent what I love about golf," Tiger Woods Design Chairman Tiger Woods said. "I'm very excited to announce the formation of this company and get to work on finding the right projects for my first few courses."

The company's philosophy is to further elevate the standards of golf course design and create enjoyable, challenging courses worldwide. At the heart of this vision is Woods' desire to apply his first-hand knowledge and personal experience to the design of each golf course.
"I've had the luxury of playing golf around the world, and I've spent a lot of time evaluating how to play all kinds of courses," Woods said. "I'd like to share my experience and the lessons I've learned and hopefully create some amazing, fun courses."

Woods, who has played golf on almost every continent in more than 20 countries, plans for Tiger Woods Design to encompass a global strategy that appeals to all skill levels. The organization will also seek unique properties for course development, while taking care to preserve the natural habitat of each location. 

"There are golfers everywhere that may never get a chance to play a links course in Scotland, a tree-lined course in America or the sand belts of Australia," Woods added. "Hopefully I can bring some of those elements into their backyards."

Woods decided to move forward with forming Tiger Woods Design in 2005 as he approached his 10th year playing professional golf on the PGA TOUR.

"I wanted to wait until I felt I had enough golf experience to launch Tiger Woods Design," Woods said. "I've been working very hard over the last decade to get a feel for all kinds of courses and really understand the best elements of design. Now, I feel I've logged enough time and learned enough lessons to start this venture."

Before moving forward with Tiger Woods Design, Woods sought the advice of friends and experts in the industry.

"I've spent a lot of time talking with experts in this field and gathering as much information as possible about what a great course should be," Woods said. "Friends like Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio have been a tremendous help by sharing their support and advice on this new venture. I hope I can bring as much to this industry as they have over the years."

And the website doesn't work yet...

Tiger Woods Design is currently reviewing projects and bids for theircourse design services. Visit  www.tigerwoodsdesign.com for upcoming announcements, more informationand instructions on submitting a proposal.

Online submissions?

“We got too many people in leadership capacities that don’t understand the game at its core"

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Gosh I love Hal Sutton's diatribes. This time he bent Rich Lerner's ear and it's his best state of the game indictment yet.

“I’m so disgusted with where everything’s gone I don’t even want to play the game,” he told me Thursday by phone.
And when asked about the Ryder Cup captaincy...
“There’s no captain that’s going to make the difference,” Sutton said with a tinge of resignation. Of course now, the phone call was no longer about Azinger.

“We’re in a vacuum in golf in America,” Sutton began, and I knew I was about to experience a strong Texas wind.
Okay, strap in, here he goes...
“We’re consumed by the almighty dollar,” he said. “We’ve forgotten that we all play the game because we love it. Greatness doesn’t worry about money. Greatness worries about bein’ great.”

“We’re a product of our environment,” he explained. “We’re playing a game that requires us to hit it high and long. In the old days we had to do more with different golf shots.”

Sutton emphasized that it’s not necessarily the fault of the players. “We got too many people in leadership capacities that don’t understand the game at its core,” he said. “We’re conforming to what they say the market wants and what manufacturers are giving us and it’s weakening our players.”
The market wants Tiger Woods. And therein, Sutton believes, lay a problem.

“Everyone’s trying to be like Tiger,” said the man who took heat for pairing No. 1 with Phil Mickelson in an experiment gone terribly wrong at Oakland Hills. “There’s no individualism. They’re all trying to swing like Tiger.”

“Look, Rich,” he implored, growing more animated, “it’s 400 yards to the other end of the range from where I’m sittin’ and if Jack and Arnie and Raymond and Lee and Gary and Tiger were hittin’ balls we wouldn’t need to walk down there to tell which is which. You could tell ‘em from 400 yards away.”

“Is that the players fault? No. It’s just that we’ve got it built in our minds that you have to be a certain way to be good.”

“I have respect for Jim Furyk because he doesn’t conform to anybody,” Sutton added. “He’s been doin’ it his way for a long time and he’s been doin’ it pretty damn good hasn’t he?”

Sutton puts some blame at the doorstep of America’s junior golf system.

“We don’t have world class players in their 20s,” he said. “That’s a failure on our part.”

“The greatest in the world learned the game on the golf course,” Sutton said. “People think you can learn it on the range. Mechanics make you tight. It will not free you up to play the game. There were many days when the great players weren’t hittin’ it their best and they still figured a way to win. You don’t need reinforcement after every shot.”

With the promise of PGA TOUR millions, youngsters and parents chase the dream, often spending life’s savings to attend intensive academies while traveling a junior tournament circuit that would wear down even a hardened veteran.

“We need to go back to investing in kids' futures with no agendas and no management fees, try to realign what’s important in the game. Everyone’s taking out of the game and not putting back in. I had people teach me the game and never charged me for a lesson.

“We all have an investment in this game.

“It took us a generation to get into this and it will take us a generation to get out of it.”

And then, Hal had to go, the competitor who once feared no golfer, not even Tiger, now in something of a self-imposed exile. The work of fixing the game too big for one man, he’s content to put the finishing touches on a golf course amidst the rolling hills of Texas, far from the profession he no longer knows.

Talk About Awkward...

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...did you catch the Tour Championship interview of Tim Finchem?

This contractually obligated torture session pits ABC's ESPN on ABC's outgoing announcers with Finchem, who seems to have grown more reticent each year. He struggles to make eye contact and apparently is unable to show any genuine pleasure. (At least for his $10 million a year, the NBA's David Stern tries to crack a joke now and then, and this is a man who told SI's Jack McCallum in the Nov. 6 issue that he wishes he could ban his players from carrying guns...and he's not joking).

So here I was thinking that maybe, just maybe that lame duck ABC ESPN on ABC and loose cannons Faldo and Azinger, we'd actually get a spirited exchange.

After Finchem thanked ABC for "years and years of commitment to communicating the sport so well" and noting that the "production quality has always been superb," you could hear people turning channel Finchem noted that he was excited about the continued relationship with ESPN. Whatever that's about? (Probably the Tour paying ESPN to do "Sportscenter from the Players Championship" or some such thing.)

Azinger then selfishly asked about the schedule in 2008, with 7 of last 8 weeks before Ryder Cup involving the "playoffs."

"Well, we have a one-off," was Finchem's answer before shooting down Azinger's assertion that the situation was in any way messy.

Faldo then tried to make a joke about receiving the Commissioner's annual wine selection, an apparent holiday gift that Finchem naturally pounced on to plug of the tour's wine label (boy we're really reaching the 18-34 y.o.'s now!). Then Faldo asked about getting more WGC's played in International locations, which set Finchem up for some silly assertion that China could grow to 200 million golfers if it keeps on Japan's pace.

So here ABC ESPN on ABC has a chance to ask a tough question and they lob him two that have been asked repeatedly in press conferences this year.

Rivetting television. Actually, I got a big chuckle out of the tension and awkward nature of the whole thing, so it was good for something.
 

"Using our input on it, too."

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Zach Johnson is either a big Kool-Aid drinker or, unlike most other players, he's actually been consulted on the FedEx Cup...
"We're going to learn as we go, but the potential is phenomenal," Ryder Cup member Zach Johnson said. "The Tour's done a great job making great decisions and using our input on it, too. It means a lot of positive things."

Durant: No Drug Testing Anytime Soon

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Since none of the slingers assembled for Commissioner Finchem's press conference asked about his about face on drug testing, policy board member Joe Durant was asked about it after second round play. It would seem--shocking as it may be--that the issue has been tabled for the foreseeable future.

Q. Is drug testing on the agenda? I think Finchem raised the possibility that that would be something you would raise at this one.

JOE DURANT: We talked about it at the PAC meeting in Tampa. We talked about setting some type of standard or some type of process, trying to be proactive about it. But as far as details, not at this time.

And...

Q. On the drug testing thing, was it a lack of consensus or just too complicated an issue to get into this late in the year? What was your gut on that from what they were telling you?

JOE DURANT: More just the complication of the thing, because there's obviously different criteria or different screening done for different sports. We just want to make sure that we go about it the right way.

Q. Do you think it'll happen?

JOE DURANT: I would be surprised if it didn't at some point in the future.

Q. Do you think it'll happen during your tenure on the board?

JOE DURANT: Don't know.

Q. Do you think it's good from a credibility standpoint to kind of get in front of it versus waiting for something to happen and lightning crashing down and all bad things?

JOE DURANT: I personally do, yeah. I think the sport has been clean for this long and I want to keep it that way. We all do.

"The ball got away from everybody."

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Yes, add Michael Bonallack to the list of rehabilitating golf executives who wish they'd done more then so we would have the game we have now. It's touching I tell you to hear this kind of remorse, documented by John Huggan in his Sunday column:

"The most fun I've ever had was being secretary of the R&A. I was there when the Open was really starting to take off, in financial terms. We were able to use that money to aid the development of the game."

However, representing the public face of golf's rules-making body outside the United States and Mexico could prove uncomfortable. During Bonallack's tenure, the battle between administrators and equipment companies was joined in earnest, and it rages on to this day.

"The biggest problem was with Ping and the grooves on their irons. That was very unpleasant. I remember sitting at dinner after watching the Walker Cup matches at Peach Tree in 1989 and being tapped on the shoulder. It was a sheriff telling me I was served.

"The writ said they were suing for $100m tripled. They have what they call punitive damages in the United States, and it wasn't only the R&A they were suing, but me personally. That got my attention!

"We had good lawyers, though. They showed that the US courts had no jurisdiction over us. We were making rules for golfers outside America.

"The wider equipment issue was a problem then, and continues to be so today, at the top level of the game anyway. There are a number of things I wish we had done, but obviously we didn't do.

"The ball got away from everybody. The scientists said the ball could go only ten more yards, but they were wrong. New materials kept on coming out, and then along came metal woods. They have taken a lot of the skill out of the game for the leading players. As have the new wedges.

"The shots only Seve used to be able to play with a 50-degree wedge are now routine for everyone who buys a 63-degree wedge. All of that crept into the game without anyone really realising the significance. I wish we could go back, but we can't."

Perhaps sensing that he has already said too much about the one subject that golf administrators tend not to enjoy discussing, Bonallack pre-empts the next question.

"There is no use asking me what I'd do if I was in charge today. When I retired I said I wasn't going to get involved in any of these controversial things. Besides, if I started announcing what I would do, people could quite rightly ask why I didn't do those things when I was in charge. Certainly, we missed some opportunities with the ball and the metal woods, but they crept up on us."
One other sadness for Bonallack is the knock-on effect modern equipment has had on course set-ups. As so many did at last year's Open, he looked on askance at the amount of rough growing on the Old Course at St Andrews.

"It does upset me to see what they have to do to golf courses nowadays. There is no doubt that the modern equipment has caused many good courses to be altered. I hate to see long grass around greens on any course. I like the ball to run off to where players can hit all kinds of recovery shots.

"It is fascinating to watch someone like Tiger working out what shot will work best after he has missed a green. Long grass eliminates all of that, and takes a lot of the skill out of the game."

 

"Azinger's mottos: Cash."

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Craig Dolch reports that the U.S. Ryder Cup points standings will be compiled differently under Captain Azinger:
The problem with the current system is the only way a U.S. player can earn points is by finishing in the top 10 at a PGA Tour event. But with the Tour becoming more international - Azinger said 85 foreign players are exempt on the PGA Tour - fewer Americans are earning points by finishing in the top 10 (less than 60 percent of the available points were awarded for the 2006 team, and most of them went to Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk).

So look for the PGA to get away from top-10 finishes as its only measuring stick and use one of Azinger's mottos: Cash. Azinger said at the recent Chrysler Championship it was obvious to him the changes the PGA made to the system in 2004 didn't get the best team at the K Club.

"If you looked at the way it played out ... the last five guys on our team were not secure the last month and a half. If they would have had some high finishes, they would have secured their spot and nobody did," Azinger said. "The two guys that were picked (Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank) had opportunities to make the team. They didn't get hot and make the team.

"The reality is, Phil (Mickelson), his confidence might have waned a little bit after the U.S. Open. And David Toms and Chad Campbell won in January. It didn't put our hottest players on the team, not at all."

Week(s) In Review, October. 20-Nov. 4: FedUp Already?

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WeekInReview2.jpgJagsheemash! Wouldn't you love to see Borat interview say, Scott Hoch? Oh well, we can only dream.

Meanwhile, in the real world I'm catching up on a couple of weeks here worth of posts that started with Frank Hannigan's letter on the latest USGA activities.

I was called out by the Bomb and Gouge bloggers over at GolfDigest.com and I'm working hard on the low self-esteem issues they diagnosed me with.

In the mean time, reader Scott S made this point that might ignite a few introspective thoughts in Bomb and Gouge:  I find it interesting that while so many bemoan even the shadow of regulation, no one seems to think it would be a good thing if distance went totally unchecked, and equipment was totally unchained. "Any more and it will break". The unfortunate thing, as with many diseases, is that if you have to wait for a major malfunction, you're usually already in the terminal stages. Why not start the chemo today, and save a long agonizing death for another century?

And from Smolmania: "A problem that does not exist?" If there's no problem, then why does their blog exist?

News that Winged Foot netted $1.5 million at a significant cost to course and club, elicited many views.

JPB: I understand the members' frustration. The US Open isn't a quaint event anymore that takes a week's play away from the host club. The USGA rakes in the cash. NBC rakes in the cash. The extreme set up hurts the course. All the add ons hurt the course and the membership. I understand why the members don't want the hassle unless the club benefits in a real way. If the membership feels like hosting a tournament at their excellent course, why not a mid am or senior am?

NRH didn't agree: The traveling circus of the USGA wants to come along for the first time in 22 years and the club signs on the dotted line. They sacrifice a couple of months of the status quo in exchange for a major, then some big mouth members complain for selfish reasons? Boo-hoo.

News of excessive executive pay down at PGA Tour headquarters prompted Sean Murphy to ask: We have a money manager who never lets us know what he's doing or what the balance of our accounts are......would this make any of you nervous????

But Sean, look at the results! Bill Fields and Steve Elling wrote about Rick George hyping the Champions Tour upswing, which readers here didn't quite buy into.

Four-putt:  We had a Senior Tour event in Chicago (third biggest market in US and golf-crazy with 1.7 million golfers) from 1991-2001. The first few years saw over 20,000 spectators each of the three days, with about 25,000 on Sunday. The last three years, though, less than 5,000 people showed up at the course to watch the final round on Sunday -- and that number was under 1,000 the last year, right before SBC mercifully pulled the plug. While they're nice guys, Dana Quigley, Tom Kite, Loren Roberts, Criag Stadler and Allen Doyle alternating in the final pairing on Sunday don't add up to a "helluva product."

jneuman: Men like Gil Morgan, Tom Kite, Hale Irwin, D.A. Weibring and the rest were fine players, but they weren't Nicklaus and Palmer and Chi Chi, and fans discovered they liked watching older golfers who had personalities and seemed to care about entertaining them. Today, and for the last five-plus years, those same boring figures who made the Senior Tour a necessity -- because they were so boring in PGA events -- ARE the old guys. Why should we care about watching them over 50 when we didn't care about them in their 30s?  The problem for the old guys is that they're a product without a reason to exist, something that's carried on long past its time, like Negro League baseball in the 1950s-60s, or the Harlem Globetrotters today.

The Tour Championship arrived, Tiger and Phil blew it off, and for whatever reason, all hell broke loose.

Scotty on Tiger: One flaw in this money doesn't matter argument: Tiger Woods is skipping the Tour Championship to rest up for three unofficial events that will pay him guaranteed almost six times what he would take home by WINNING the Tour Championship. I think money matters to him more than you think.

Steven T.: I think TW might have altered his schedule this year if Coca-Cola paid him 10-20M/year to be a spokesperson. As for PM, he's happy with his endorsement money and half year schedule. I heard Dave Pelz, his new shill, on TGC saying that Phil is getting in shape for next year and is looking good even though he could lose 15-20 pounds.Perhaps Phil will win Phoenix and Palm Springs and San Diego and then quit real early next year.

This seemed to open the floodgates on the doomed FedEx Cup concept, which we've known was a mess for some time. Starting with playing opportunities for Q-school grads...

Bill N.: Sean's antitrust characterizations in this instance are well founded, Finchem has problems. How does he provide playing and earning opportunities to his membership while at the same time cutting playing and earning opportunities? He's dividing the market place covering independent contractors, and his graduates coming from the Nationwide Tour and Q-School will have a horrendous schedule that will not provide them a fair level playing field, as Jeff Rude and Lee Trevino pointed out earlier this week, but will be all the evidence a faction of the membership needs to file suit. I'm starting to understand what Trevino meant when he said he'd be heading to the courthouse. Restricting members (grads) from having a fair (rule of reasonableness) chance of making these playoffs is where the whole FedEx Cup jumps track, after a lawsuit is filed and sucessfully contested, this will go down in history as the Fed Wreks Cup, and Finchem's FECES. 

Hawkeye: Actually, when 144 guys make the "playoffs" and everyone seemingly has a chance for player of the year, that pretty much sends the message that the FedEx is the only thing making the PGA Tour relevant... I mean, why should the big boys bother showing up in more than eleven tournaments (yep, that's but four regular Tour stops for you, considering the four majors and the three WGC's) prior to it???

F.X.  FedEx and Finchem are just trying to put a different label on this long-existing system, and the business of coming up with points instead of money and identifying post-PGA tournaments as playoffs is just a dumbing-down of what already exists, which is why it attracts so much criticism and confusion. Wouldn't FedEx be just as well off taking over various events, and, like Buick, having a continuing presence throughout the season that way? What's the point of trying to invent a new prize that nobody is going to take seriously?

cmoore: The only thing interesting about the FedEx Cup is all of the fighting that it is generating. The concept of a playoff where no one really loses or gets eliminated is ludicrous.

Also from cmoore: How about a season-long points accumulation ending with a 32-man match-play event? Then I could use the word "playoff" without reservation.

Tom Pernice joined the frey and slammed the commissioner and the FedEx Cup

Smolmania: The fact remains that Tom Pernice wouldn't be making the money he makes if Tiger wasn't playing on the PGA Tour, just as all of those guys wouldn't be making the money they make if not for the King.

Bob S.:  I think a more important question is how the heck did Tom Pernice qualify for the Tour Championship?

Pollner: Tiger could completely neglect the US tour now and still be considered the most succesful golfer ever. And I imagine if Tiger left the tour that every single sponsor would pressure the Tour to allow him to play in every tournament he desired. What's Pernice going to say then?

Ames WD, Tiger, Phil?

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Thanks to reader Al for noticing that Stephen Ames is listed as WD on the Tour Championship leaderboard while Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are not listed as WD or DNS or CCL (Could Care Less).

I don't know how to do a screen grab, so just hit the link above.