www.globalgolfpost.com
MARCH 26, 2012
Tour’s Latest Recipe Half-Baked
MIKE PURKEY
E-MAIL MIKE
You wanna make it about money? All
right, we’ll make it about money.
First, it doesn’t matter what month
you start the season, Tiger Woods and
Phil Mickelson are not going to play their
first event of the new year until January at
Torrey Pines. And they’re not going to play
past September unless they get a boatload
of money to do it.
Speaking of which, second, if you make
the HSBC in China and the Malaysian
event regular Tour events or WGC events
or whatever, sponsors will no longer be
allowed to pay appearance money and
Tiger and Phil for sure won’t play in them.
Third, speaking of not playing, the PGA
Tour is going to pick the pockets of the
1. 4 players per year who go straight from
the Qualifying Tournament to the Tour. By
preventing those 14 players in a 10-year
span from getting immediate access to the
Tour, you’re making them play for 1/10th
the money on the Nationwide or whatever
you’re going to call it now Tour. Attorneys
refer to that as restraint of trade.
Fourth – you want to keep going? – the
FedEx Cup just lost whatever signifi-
cance it managed to muster in the first
four years. By starting the season in the
fall and making all those events worth a
bunch of points, it limits who’s likely to
win. As Bubba Watson said on Golf Chan-
nel, he’s not going to play in 30 events a
year, so the FedEx Cup is off the board for
him. Which means that Martin Laird or
somebody is going to win the $10 mil and
let’s see how FedEx founder and chairman
Fred Smith likes that.
the “season” in October with what are now
Fall Series events. Then, around Thanks-
giving, there will be a break of a few weeks
for the holidays, and start back again
after the New Year in 2014 at the Hyundai
Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. The
season will end in September with the
The commissioner of any sports league
is charged with the sole job of protecting
the integrity of the game. ... Instead, the
commissioner of the PGA Tour is more
concerned with brand development than
player development.
Instead, the commissioner of the PGA
Tour is more concerned with brand development than player development. And that
upside-down set of priorities is all set to
confuse the fans, tick off the players – and
other worldwide tours – and leave some
sponsors in for a big surprise.
Tim Finchem’s grand master plan to
turn the Tour into one big TV show – with
the ad buys fully subscribed – is designed
to promote products and services and if a
golf tournament with some stars happens
to break out in the bargain, well, maybe
the fans might like some of that, too.
Starting in 2013, the PGA Tour is going
to turn the calendar inside out and begin
Tour Championship.
