"With the Order of Merit giving way to the 'Race To Dubai'"

I just want to take this moment to apologize to the gang in Ponte Vedra for ever implying that you ever sell naming rights in tacky fashion.

Because after reading the slew of stories covering the European Tour's Monday announcement of a new sponsor--scooped a week ago by Lawrence Donegan--it really is hard to imagine a more dramatic whoring sell-out by the Euro Tour. Oh, and by the way, what rich coverage from the various writers who made it to Dubai, reportedly on the European Tour's dime. Or Leisurecorp's? Or, well, they're one and the same now.

The Principal, who did not accept a free trip, naturally has a less than positive take on the news.

From Lewine Mair's Telegraph story:

The man who wins the inaugural Dubai World Championship, which is to take place at the Jumeirah Golf Estates from Nov 19-22, 2009, could make off with a cool £1.8 million. Aside from a winner's cheque of £800,000 from a £4.9 million prize-fund, which will make the championship the richest individual tournament in the game, he could also bag the top prize of £975,000 from a bonus pool worth another £4.9 million.

And how about his buried item:

Aside from the Dubai World Championship and the bonus pool, Leisurecorp will construct an international headquarters for the European Tour in the city which will take in a centre of excellence. Again, the Tour will combine with the company to create a global property operation to develop new tournament venues around the world.

Isn't that special?

James Corrigan notes the improvement with a traditional calendar year schedule:

With an overall prize pot of almost £10m, the Dubai World Championship will replace the Volvo Masters as the grand finale to the campaign – which will now run, blessedly, from January to November instead of October to October – with the Order of Merit giving way to the "Race To Dubai".

Douglas Lowe speculates that Tiger may be enticed to join the European Tour so he can spend even more time enjoying life in bucolic Dubai:

Woods, through his management company IMG, has already inquired what would be involved to join the club and he is not far away from meeting requirements which, critically, involves playing in 11 European Tour events, or 10 plus the new season-ender that will be limited to the top 60 in the order of merit that will be renamed Race to Dubai.

With major and world golf championships counting as co-sanctioned events, Woods starts off with seven. Add in tournaments like the HSBC Champions in which he played last year and the Dubai Desert Classic and he is just one short. The rules may even change as the European Tour's influential players committee are meeting in January in Abu Dhabi to discuss the rule of 11, although it is believed a reduction is not on the agenda.

John Hopkins pretty much (I think) finds the whole thing hard to fathom:

The $1.66 million that will go to the winner of the Dubai World Championship in 2009 and the $2m that a golfer will receive for winning what we now know as the Order of Merit but will be renamed The Race To Dubai at the same time undeniably add up to loads of dosh, much moolah and all that. But to win the bounty for TRTD the golfer will have had to compete very successfully on the European Tour for the previous year. And to win the DBC he will have to play very well for 72 holes in November 2009. It might be a lot of money that he is receiving but that is a lot of golf, too.

And...

Has the world gone mad? How many more nurses could be employed if a fraction of that sum was diverted into the National Health. How many more teachers? How many more doctors?

Market forces, as well as a good any other things, were present at the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai when the Dubai World Championship and TRTD were announced on Monday. A burly Australian with an accent you could cut with a knife spoke of his pleasure at being able to announce that his company was investing $200m dollars in these two events and a few others and said that though the investment was for five years initially it would probably be extended to ten years. And George O'Grady, executive director of the European Tour, spoke of his pleasure at being able to announce two such whopping events as the DWC and TRTD.

Norman Dabell features this gem of a quote from George O'Grady:

"With the combined prize funds of the Dubai World Championship and The Race to Dubai we have the prospect of a player standing over a putt for $3,666,660.

And you thought deferred compensation was tricky to explain.

Speaking of The Road To Dubai, Lawrence Donegan, who does not appear to have accepted the complimentary junket to file from Dubai, puts things in perspective by considering those who build the roads.

The fanfare will sound next Monday when the European tour officially announces it will be staging the most lucrative golf tournament in the history of the game. Twenty million dollars (£10m) at stake over four days on a course in Dubai. Nice work if you can get it, or at least nicer work than the work done by the immigrant labourers in the so-called "world's greatest tourist destination" who went on strike last week in support of a claim that would see their wages rise from £52 a month to £79.

The good news is the labourers got their rise. The bad news they returned to a life - to quote the 2006 Human Rights Watch report Building Towers, Cheating Workers - of "wage exploitation, indebtedness to unscrupulous recruiters and working conditions that are hazardous to the point of being deadly".

No doubt the European tour would object to any suggestion that its willingness to accept the backing of the United Arab Emirates government for a $20m tournament is an endorsement of the kind of practices, unchecked by the very same government, described in the Human Rights Watch report.

Enjoyed this too. Score another one for Greg's brand.

Even if direct culpability could be established, it would be unfair to single out the European tour alone for criticism. Only this week Greg Norman turned up in Dubai to launch the Greg Norman Limited Edition Range Rover Sport - given away free to those who purchase one of the 66 luxury homes at the "Fireside by Greg Norman" estate. "Dubai has put itself on the map as the ultimate destination for golf and residence," declared the Great White Property Shark. Poor Greg, he probably thinks Human Rights Watch is a limited-edition timepiece.

Update on 2007-11-20 23:54 by Geoff

Derek Lawrenson really swoons over the Dubai deal, reporting from Dubai?

Elling's Year In Review

Steve Elling inexplicably kicks off the year-in-review onslaught before the Ames-Johnson-Wetterich-Couples Skins Game is even played. Imagine that? 

Here are both parts on a single page. My favorites:

It's the money, stupid

So, if the season is too long and top players need their offseason rest, which precipitated the creation of a FedEx Cup structure that ends in September, what's Mickelson doing playing in two events in Asia this month? If Els is leading the European Tour money list with one week left in the season, why is he playing in Asia instead of trying to fend off Justin Rose at the Euro Tour season finale in Spain? Chinese cha-ching, that's why. Draw your own conclusions about any apparent hypocrisy.

Oh the "H" word. You go!

Worst-course award, 2007 version

This is a crowded field with several deserving contestants, but the winner has to be the new host track for the Bob Hope event, the Classic Club. It was classic only if you happened to be born a camel, a roadrunner or a horned toad.

Built so far out in the desert along Interstate 10 that trees actually grow sideways from the prevailing and persistent winds, the final round was all but unwatchable as scoring skied and six players failed to crack 80. The experience was so awful, the lone top-10 player in the field, Mickelson, gave strong signals that he might not return in 2008. After he got through picking sand out of his eyes, anyway.

Once a popular event featuring the late comedian and his high-powered celebrity friends, the event has deteriorated into the weakest link on the early schedule. The sands of time on this fading event might have run out.

But they have George Lopez.

Speaking of Bob Hope ...

Or established entertainers like Glen Campbell, Sammy Davis Jr., Danny Thomas, Jackie Gleason, Andy Williams or Bing Crosby, for that matter. They all hosted tour events over the years and were huge stars of their era.

Saving one of its most head-scratching decisions for last, the tour this week elected to prop up former boy-band singer Justin Timberlake as the host of the largely overlooked Las Vegas event beginning in 2008. The sparsely attended Vegas event is in dire need of sizzle, but what key demographic in golf is he supposed to be attracting here, 13-year-old girls? To wit, here's a sample of the lyrics from his tune Rock Your Body:

I'll have whatever you have; come on, just give it up girl,
See, I've been watching you, I like the way you move,
So go ahead girl, just do that ass-shaking thing you do."

Ah, remember the painful throes of puberty? For another example of Timberlake's recent pop stylings, do an Internet search for the Saturday Night Live tune he recorded called D--- in a Box, which was so racy, NBC refused to air the uncensored version. Funny, yes. Classy, hardly.

With Timberlake as a front man, I'll never again poke fun at former M*A*S*H star Jamie Farr, even if it is ironic that the dude most famous for wearing a dress now hosts an LPGA event. Actually, it could have been worse. They might have picked their favorite purveyor of mindless Muzak, jazz musician Kenny G, who proved while serenading Players Championship winner Mickelson in May that it is indeed possible for a mediocre sax player to both suck and blow at the same time.

Skipping The Masters

The Australian version, that is. Trevor Grant criticizes Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy for skipping this week's Australian Masters, apparently unaware that Ogilvy's wife, Julie, is pregnant and due soon.

"How, for instance, did Taylor manage a four-round total of 295 in 1909 over a course measuring 6,500 yards? Sheer brilliance is the answer."

Peter Dixon plays Deal with hickories in uncomfortable clothes and comes away impressed by the golf of yesteryear as well as the club also known as Royal Cinque Ports.

Jimenez Platforms His Brand

The PGA Tour fines for behavior like this, don't they? From golf.com, Miguel Angel Jimenez after winning the Hong Kong Open. Thanks to reader Christopher for the heads up:

"I'm hoping to make it for the opening."

Thanks to reader who spotted this post on The Golf Forum. Apparently a Herald-Sun piece on golf included this list (not available online):

'In one of the centre spreads, [Robert] Allenby lists his top five favourite golf courses'

1 - Royal Melbourne (Sandringham)
2 - Augusta National (Georgia)
3 - St Andrews Links (Fife)
4- The Forest Resort (Creswick)
5 - Riviera Country Club (Pacific Palisades)

I couldn't help but notice the explanatory paragraph for number 4 on the list

"It's in this list because I've just designed it. I based it on Royal Melbourne. I can't wait to play it. I'm hoping to make it for the opening. It's about an hour's drive from Melbourne, near Ballarat, just a lovely part of the world."

I'm constantly astounded by the devotion of these players architects!

"Never, ever touch a Tour player's clubs."

Golfweek's November 10th Forecaddie writes that some USGA staffers were at the Ginn sur Mer Classic to check out the grooves of PGA Tour players.

The USGA has spent almost three years collecting data on grooves and some see the testing at Tesoro as the next step in possible rules changes to modify grooves.

The USGA tested roughly 30-40 sets of clubs by making a small plastic mold impression on the face of the irons and wedges. The tests were random and were not supposed to involve the players, although some bristled at the procedure.

"I'm on the putting green and this guy comes up and starts messing with my clubs," said Tour player David Branshaw. "I don't know what they were looking for, but they got that blue stuff [the substance the USGA used to take the mold] all over the grips. Took me an hour to rub all that stuff of."

The USGA must have forgotten the three "don'ts" in life. Don't tug on Superman's cape; don't play money games against someone with a "traveling handicap;" and never, ever touch a Tour player's clubs.

They're such consensus builders!

Way to get players on board with a controversial rule change.

"Keep trying seemed to be the consensus."

Ken Klavon at the USGA blog reports on the PGA Tour's now-annual excuse to gather everyone in Ponte Vedra to try out the latest MBASpeak they've picked up in Forbes (and yes attendees, I'm still awaiting a transcript in my email box...chop, chop!).

Judging by the tone of Klavon's piece, not much progress was made in improving media access to players. Then again, PGA Tour players are pretty accessible one on one. Dealing with their agents is another story.

More interesting was the context in which Klavon put the decline of newspapers as compared to Internet numbers. Granted, I still wonder if these U.S. Open and PGATour.com page views include those automatic leaderboard refreshes, but even cutting the numbers, the are staggering.

In my humble opinion, online journalism still isn’t being fully embraced. For those of us who have made the transition from traditional media to the digital age, there is an element of credibility that has been brought along. But that wasn’t the crux of the question. It was based on the following: (and this is where I throw dazzling stats at you):

Consider that in 1990 the total U.S. newspaper circulation equated to roughly 60 million readers. Now chew on this: this year that figure is down to 40 million. Why is this significant? Because the advent of the Internet, with its slew of deliverable content platforms over the past 10 or so years, has overtaken this fossil. (And you’re talking to someone who worked in newspapers and continues to hold it dear to his heart).

Last year usopen.com gleaned 265 million page views. The year before the number came in around 112 million. The reach of the Internet seems limitless. Those figures are more than the entire newspaper circulation combined in the United States. Incredible. Yet some still are having a hard time embracing it. Hate to say it but the ship is sailing. Or has it sailed?

To get back on track, few of the panelists except for Bob Harig, a golf writer at ESPN.com, had much in the way of a solution to my question. Keep trying seemed to be the consensus.

Ochoa Caps Off Another Classic ADT Championship

Doug Ferguson captures the excitement that the NBC announce crew kept suggesting was almost inevitable: Lorena Ochoa and Trump International's perilous 17th hole:

Despite being the No. 1 player in women's golf, Ochoa has a short history of blowing tournaments, and this would have been a doozy. After blowing away the seven other players who qualified for this 18-hole shootout, she had a four-shot lead with two holes to play.

But she butchered the par-3 17th with an 8-iron over the back of the green, a putt that got hung up in the fluffy rough, and three more putts from 20 feet for a double bogey. Gulbis made a 7-foot birdie putt, narrowing the lead to one shot with one hole to play.

It was about the only drama of the balmy afternoon, certainly more than Ochoa needed.

"It was fun for the fans and for all of you," she said, "but it didn't feel very good."

Ochoa hammered a tee shot over the corner of the lake and the bunker, but it wasn't enough to hop out of the rough, and the ball sank to the bottom of the grass. Gulbis hit first, a hybrid 3-iron that covered the flag and put even more pressure on Ochoa.

"Lorena was spending a lot of time looking at her lie, so I was assuming that the lie was not very good," Gulbis said. "She's the best player in the world, so I thought that at least we'd get kind of an eye-for-an-eye putt at it."

Steve Elling considers Ochoa's 8-win season and offers these incredible numbers along with her place in the game:

Most impressively, she finished in the top 10 in 21 of 25 starts and won five of her past nine starts. It was her eighth victory of the year, or for those who like their news with a lyrical bent, ocho for Ochoa. It has been a long, productive year.

"It's time to go home," Ochoa said.

As further testament to her emergence, the tour is doing likewise with its events. Next year, Ochoa will become the second active player to host her own tournament, one of a trio of events scheduled in Mexico in 2008. In 2004, there were nada.

Not that pesos are the best yardstick of success, since the purses only continue to head north, but Ochoa obliterated the old earnings mark, set by Annika Sorenstam during her 11-win season in 2002, by $1.5 million. She finished the season with $4,364,994, roughly 2½ times what runner-up Suzann Pettersen took home.

"It's been amazing from the start to the end," Ochoa said.

"I'm not Rain Man, so I wasn't able to calculate whether it was actually $1 million"

Doug Ferguson seems to be warming to the ADT Championship, which again proved incredibly compelling. It doesn't hurt that Sunday's final 8 chasing $1 million includes Ochoa, Webb, Creamer, Kerr, Gulbis, Mi Hyun Kim, Sarah Lee and the charismatic Christina Kim.

Especially impressive is how well the LPGA seems organized when it comes time for the sudden death playoffs, starting them on the 17th hole as soon as the last group is in.

Another nice touch is the $1 million in cash sitting by the 18th green (pictured, left, courtesy of golf.com).

Kim was asked about it:

As if they needed additional pressure, the LPGA Tour placed $1 million cash -- or what looked like it, anyway -- in a glass case with a big lock and big bodyguard nearby, a reminder of what's at stake.

"I'm not Rain Man, so I wasn't able to calculate whether it was actually $1 million," Kim said. "You always see in the movies they've got the $1 million, and it's a very think briefcase. I don't know. Maybe there's just a lot of air packed in there. It's awesome."

Update on 2007-11-18 17:37 by Geoff

From Steve Elling's write-up of Saturday's wild finish:

In other words, perhaps the most unpredictable event in golf followed the LPGA headquarters' script to the letter. Well, make that the current brass' script, anyway.

You want an eyeful of awful irony? Sophie Gustafson was the poster child for the volatile cruelty of the format, blowing up with a double-bogey and bogey on the last two holes of regulation, forcing her into a four-way playoff for two spots. Her first swing in sudden death went in the water on the 17th and she was officially toast.

The funky format was the brainchild of Gustafson's husband, former LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw, who was on hand to watch the carnage. They must have had a wonderful drive up Interstate 95 to their home in Ponte Vedra Beach, huh?

Second Stage Roundup

Rex Hoggard does a nice job summarizing who made it and who missed at PGA Tour Qualifying School.

ADT Day Two Roundup

Ron Sirak reports on the ADT Championship's exciting Friday cut that included a Gulbis-Sorenstam-Miyazato playoff and now a clean slate for tomorrow's round of 16. Sirak writes:

Unlike the FedEx Cup, which extends playoff drama over four weeks, the ADT Championship compresses it into four days. There are some players -- make that quite a few players -- who don't like the $900,000 difference between first and second place, feeling that is too severe of a punishment for what could be a one-stroke loss. But it is exactly that drama that gives this event its identity.

While it seems odd that the goal of the first two days is to finish 16th and Saturday's mission is to be no worse that eighth, that's part of the charm of this tournament. And with the quality of the players that advanced, it seems certain that Sunday will be a scintillating shootout for a million bucks.

Meanwhile Greg Stoda misses the point of the ADT and laments the entire thing, longing for rewards to those who play well along the way.

Where's Marty Hackel When You Need Him, ADT Championship Edition?

Mi Hyun Kim probably could have lost the ear muffs for this interview. Where's the LPGA brand team monitoring their own  product to prevent fashion boondoggles like this?

 

"I believe the commissioner mis-spoke"

Shocking as it may seem, apparently the Brand Lady was not entirely accurate in her Wednesday remarks about control of the ADT Championship's television production. Craig Dolch reports:

Who's calling TV shots?: When LPGA Tour Commissioner Carolyn Bivens said Wednesday that for the first time her tour would be producing all nine hours of television for this week's ADT Championship, that was news to NBC Sports executives. Especially executive producers Tommy Roy and Tom Randolph.

"We are doing the production of everything," Bivens said. "That means we are covering the nine hours of this tournament. We've worked in combination with the Golf Channel and with NBC, but for the first time the LPGA will be guiding what is seen on television."

Jon Miller, executive vice president of NBC sports, said Thursday that's not the case.

"I believe the commisisoner mis-spoke," Miller said. "They are producing some of the below-the-lines aspects of the telecast on site and the LPGA did oversee the productions of some vignettes on some players.

"But clearly the television you see this week, the guys calling the shots and having the final say will be Tom Randolph (Thursday-through-Saturday on Golf Channel) and Tommy Roy (Sunday on NBC). No golf ever goes on air of our 29 golf telecasts without our executive producers doing the producing."

To The Far Hills Affiliates...

...I'm wondering if you are still able to read this site? I understand that in rapid response to dreadful events from earlier this century, the webmasters have finally gotten around to restricting USGA staff access to MySpace, YouTube videos and some blogs.

While traffic from the greater Far Hills area has remained steady here, I am curious if this web site made the, uh, cut?