This'll Never Happen At A PGA Tour Event Files, Vol. 1

Even Sophie Gustafson had to stop and get a shot of Tillman boarding his way around one of La Costa's many cart pathsI'm making a quick stop-in at the LPGA's Kia Classic to talk to a few players and for the opportunity to see the world's most dominant player tee it up (Yani Tseng) along with some exciting young phenoms (Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda).

You've heard it all before, but the players are tremendously accessible to fans and just as enjoyable to watch as the boys (well, minus the absurd caddy-lining-them-up nonsense).

For those of you not on Twitter--a big part of the LPGA culture evidenced by the pairing sheets--here's one example I Tweeted earlier today of the fun vibe here at La Costa.

Could you imagine if Commissioner Monk found out that one of his players (Irene Cho in the LPGA's case) taped a segment for Animal Planet and his staff let a hound on the property for a quick, fun promotional shoot? And this happened? I give you, Tillman the Wonder Dog...

Arnie's Characterization Of Rory Snub Depends On Who You Read

Simon Evans of Reuters with the story on Arnold Palmer's disappointment at Rory McIlroy passing on the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

"I'm disappointed that they are not here, no question about it," Palmer told reporters on Wednesday.

"I'm certainly not happy that those fellas chose not to come this year. We are doing everything we can to entice them to come and play."

And there was this dry humor from The King:

Q.  Given your goals for this event, how disappointing is it not to have Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald in the field, and how hard did you try to persuade them to play?

ARNOLD PALMER:  Well, yes, I'm disappointed that they are not here, no question about it.  They are the top players on the TOUR right now in the positions that they are in, and I am disappointed.

I had a letter from Rory seeking my consultation and told me he wasn't coming.  And of course that made me feel great.  (Laughter) And if you believe that, I'll talk to you outside afterwards.

Anyway, back to the story that appeared on the Reuters website and at Sky Sports. Check out the different handling. First at Reuters.

And then Sky Sports:

Put The King Down In The Anti-Anchoring Camp

Craig Dolch with one of the highlights from Arnold Palmer's pre-Bay Hill sitdown with the scribblers:

“I’m not a fan of long putters,” Palmer said. “I suppose if I were playing, and a long putter, being totally legal, would help my game, I might use it. But I’m opposed to it, personally. I just think that there shouldn’t be a place in the game for anchoring a club against the body, which is what the long putter does.”

Klein On Big Miss: "The result makes for an alarming look at an athlete whose public glories masked a day-to-day existence of profound superficiality."

I'm early in the book, but Brad Klein of Golfweek has the same positive impression of The Big Miss, as evidenced in this quick online review:

Even more revealing than the swing material is evidence of Woods’ emotional blank wall: his indifference to people around him, his inability to empathize, and an obsession with military training and the Navy SEALS that, according to Haney, probably led to the leg injuries which have hampered Woods’ golf career.

How much of this is Haney’s insight and how much of this is due to his writing collaborator, Jaime Diaz, can only be a matter of speculation. The result makes for an alarming look at an athlete whose public glories masked a day-to-day existence of profound superficiality.

"We make all these changes so that the season ends before football starts, now we're back competing against football again?"

The Ponte Vedra Pravda talks only to players who just love the new Q-School/Nationwide Tour plan announced Tuesday and comedically fails to acknowledge any of the dissenters. This is the only article Commissioner Reality Distortion Field will want to read. He should not look at the comments on PGATour.com, which are running 2-to-1 against the changes with some really interesting questions posed by readers.

Randall Mell was the toughest on the overhaul and may want to keep an extra close eye on the carver at the Commissioner's Pig Roast this May.

It’s like taking a wrecking ball to Fenway Park.

Or Wrigley Field.

A fixture rich with lore and tradition was quietly leveled Tuesday with the PGA Tour making official its plans to overhaul how its season will begin and end and how it will award PGA Tour cards.

Steve Elling wasn't as melodramatic but raised just as many uncomfortable questions.

Finchem, fresh from the board meeting at the nearby Ritz-Carlton, brought in several pages of notes, which is not often a good sign, since he can extemporaneously wing it with the best of them. He's a filibuster in wing tips. But this time, he was armed to the teeth with talking points for the spin offensive. He needed the armaments, because some major change is coming, some of it obliterating a half-century of tour culture.

There was also this from J.B. Holmes:

"So, we're going to end the season in September, then basically start it again a week later?" said veteran J.B. Holmes. "We make all these changes so that the season ends before football starts, now we're back competing against football again?

"Dumbest thing I have ever heard. You can quote me on that."

Bob Harig quotes Davis Love, who may regret these remarks should his McGladrey Classic get only 50% FedExCup points:

"Change is hard. Like when we did the FedEx Cup, there was a lot of talk, why are we changing something that's working. But to get to where we need to be, I think it's all good.''

Garry Smits says how this all works, is "not real complicated." If that was the case, why wasn't the system revealed after all of the work that's gone into it?

It's not real complicated. The top-75 on the Nationwide Tour money list join Nos. 126-200 on the PGA Tour FedEx Cup points list and play three tournaments. The seeding and whether the events will use money or points is yet to be determined but the top-50 get their Tour cards for the next season.

Yes, that won't be complicated!

And now to the transcript of the Commissioner's sitdown, which featured some respectful but tough questioning that the Commissioner handled well initially. But his logic disintegrated a bit as the proceedings dragged on.

His logic on how this impacts college golf, early in the presser:

What's changed is that the degree to which you can manage that is expanded, because in today's world, to manage that, you've got to get sponsor exemptions and get into the 125. In this new arrangement, you have to get sponsorships, but you only have to get into the top 200. And then you have a shot in the finals. So that's the first part of my answer.

Of course this ignores that those exemptions must first happen, and happen in a window of about seven weeks with the U.S. Open wedged in there. This, assuming that a player stays in school and competes in the NCAA Championships, a pretty strong likelihood if we're talking about true tour caliber golfers. That is, unless he quits school early, or never goes to college at all, both realities in the face of the new proposal.

Secondly, I would just point out that the number of players on average the last ten years who have come out of college, gone to Qualifying School and got their card is about 1.4 per year. So we'll see how that expanded access through the finals works, but it may be zero change. But certainly there is an Avenue there. It's just a different kind of avenue.

Yes, it's called, European Tour Here I Come!

Q. And lastly, I hope this is more philosophical than detail oriented, if you are making the Nationwide the pathway to the PGA TOUR and a guy completes the Nationwide season in the Top 20 or 25, what would preclude him from just getting his card without having to go through? Hasn't he done all the work at that point?

That would be the season long body-of-work argument used against Q-School...which doesn't hold up when the dreaded "R" word is used:

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, you're talking about if we end up with a seeding process that guarantees a player a card early without competing, is that what you're talking about? Well, if we end up there, you're still incentivized to play, because you're in the reshuffle. So you want the highest possible finish.

The reshuffle. Not a very free-market driven concept, is it? Ah, but what do these guys care about the free market!

Q. Are you close on a title for the Nationwide?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: We are in discussions with several different companies, and close might not be the right word.

That's encouraging. What sponsor wouldn't want to take the chance of becoming a verb? "What happened Bobby Joe, you finished tenth on the money list then missed your last three cuts and are headed back to the Nationwide Tour? "Well, I got Hyundai'd."

Here's where the Commish really dug himself into a corner. He was asked about the possible impact official fall FedExCup points might have on the West Coast Swing and launched into his on the backs of energetic new talent.

I think the fans clearly are demonstrating that what they want to see and be covered are good, young players, because like what they are watching, and that's what's driving the interest we are seeing in the tremendous ratings bump we have had this year. And it's not about this young player or that young player; the research we have done is, it's about the young players coming up. That's really a change from a focus on a small number of players.

So the young players coming up are fueling excitement, yet just about everything about this proposal speaks to delaying their arrival?

This next argument sounds a little silly considering the current clubhouse leader for rookie of the year never played the Nationwide Tour.

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, it's an awkward system, but we are not changing the Qualifying School. The Qualifying School is staying there. It just means something else. It means Nationwide Tour. I think the real question is, why would we be comfortable with that, and the reason we are comfortable with that is that we, the PGA TOUR, benefits a lot from a player going to the Nationwide Tour. He's a better player. He's better able to compete. If he's a player with personality and other ways to contribute, he's going to have a better chance to stay out here for a longer period of time.

I can't fathom how he feels this is a good idea. No other sport does this…for a reason:

Again, I think bringing the season to a conclusion and then setting, reloading quickly, and going out with players just having earned their card is a great way to do it. Because we just turned the corner, we got the fans's interest, we finished the season, Player of the Year is named, we are off and running two weeks later. We have a bunch of rookies in the hunt and down the road we go.

The notion that such a turnaround will create the best possible "product" defies any and all common sense, not to mention will wear everyone involved with the tour out. Especially since, as J.B. noted, the current system was set up to end the season sooner, give players opportunities overseas or to rest, and to give fans some downtime to get refreshed.

On that note, the most palatable video clip of the Commissioner that the PGA Tour Productions staff could muster up: