MIKE PURKEY
E-MAIL MIKE
Who in his right mind would turn down
a ticket to paradise? And how is it that
Tiger is skipping Torrey Pines? And what
in the name of Frank Chirkinian is Nick
Faldo doing sharing a television booth with
Johnny Miller?
If the golf world looks upside down,
well, folks, welcome to the game’s new
day. Wasn’t it just a day-and-a-half ago
that Luke Donald was cashing big paychecks, we had four first-time major
champions and Woods was winning again,
sort of?
As we begin the year of our Finchem,
2012, we find that the first event of the
PGA Tour season, the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, is also the one in the
most trouble. Only 28 of 2011’s Tour winners signed up for a trip to Maui and only
27 actually started in Friday’s first round.
It’s no secret that the Tour’s biggest
names – Donald, Phil Mickelson and Adam
Scott among them – don’t like to start
their new seasons this close to the end of
the old year. And the Hyundai was never
expected to attract major winners Rory
McIlroy, Charl Schwartzel and Darren
Clarke. Dustin Johnson might have been
there except for a little knee surgery.
Perhaps the players don’t like
the Plantation Course at the
Kapalua resort. Let’s face it,
Kapalua is not a great track.
It has 75-yard wide fairways,
huge, undulating grainy greens
million under to have a sniff at winning.
