Canadian Tour’s best deserve to catch a break from PGA Tour
The timing couldn’t be better for the suits at the PGA Tour to throw the Canadian Tour a bone.
On a talent scale, the Canadian Tour is the third-best men’s circuit on this continent, behind only the PGA and Nationwide Tours, which, incidentally, share space under the same corporate umbrella.
Stricker. DiMarco. Weir. Appleby. Oberholser. Bohn. Watney. Just a few of the names who, at one time or another, have taken their swings on the Canadian Tour.
Quick, how many of you have heard of Graham DeLaet? Not many, I am sure. But DeLaet, with just a pair of Mexico events left in the season, is pretty well home and cooled as the third Canadian since 1997 to win the Canadian Tour’s Order of Merit crown.
Oh, and the guy who did in 12 years ago? Mike Weir. You’ve probably heard of him.
The highest-ranked Canadian-born player in the world after eight-time PGA Tour champion Weir? Graham DeLaet.
For what it’s worth, what kind of promotion is DeLaet looking at for putting on a dominating performance this summer that sees him ranked inside the top 170 on the planet? A free pass through the first stage of the PGA Tour’s three-level qualifying school. A nice perk, no doubt, but if the PGA Tour can dish out 25 cards to the top performers on the Nationwide Tour annually, why can’t they dangle the same carrot in front of the boys on the Canadian Tour, a tour with a track record of supplying a pretty heavy dose of players to the PGA Tour?
And yet the Canadian Tour gets left in the dark when it comes to promotions.
Why not offer five – or even ten – cards straight to the Nationwide Tour for the top ten money leaders on the Canadian Tour? Rick Janes and company have set up attractive reciprocal agreements with faraway tours like the Tour de Las Americans and South African Sunshine Tour.
Why not a pact with tours a little closer to home?
Janes and Dan Halldorson have done yeoman’s work bringing the Canadian Tour back from its deathbed. Now a full-fledged member of the International Federation of PGA Tours, they are now a pretty major player – and not just an afterthought - on the world golf scene. Five years ago, just before Janes took over the Commissioner’s desk, there were five events in all of Canada, and none in Ontario. This season, there were ten full-field events in this country, three of them being staged in the vital Ontario market.
Those numbers don’t happen by accident.
Knowing Janes, he is banging on the PGA Tour’s door looking for those free passes to the Nationwide Tour and, given his track record, it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if he secured them.
Don’t be mistaken. The top players on the Canadian Tour are a break away from moving on to the biggest stage in golf.
A break the PGA Tour, if they are so inclined, could provide.
Tim Finchem needs to play hardball with players
Fewer babies, it seems, have been kissed, fewer autographs signed and, despite Commissioner Tim Finchem getting down on bended knee to plead with his stars to add an extra weaker-field event to their 2009 schedule, players – at least those in the upper echelon of the world ranking – have, for the most part, turned a blind eye.
Now is the time for Finchem and company to drop the hammer.
Being, in essence, independent businessmen, PGA Tour players have the luxury of picking their spots where they want to make ridiculously obscene amounts of money. Got it. But, through Finchem’s eyes, shouldn’t there be an obligation -not a choice - to make an appearance at less-popular events and help out those who are footing the bill?
Of course there is and now it is time to play hardball, no matter whose feathers you may ruffle along the way.
Common logic, a little inconvenience be damned, suggests players can take one for the team, rub shoulders with a few sponsors that go out of their way to pad their bank accounts while helping ensure that said sponsor re-ups come renewal time. When you make millions playing golf, there isn’t a whole lot to whine about.
Paul Goydos can’t hide his sarcasm when it is suggested players clear some room in their schedule books for an event or two that, quite frankly, could use a little star appeal.
“Oh, no, we have to play another $6 million event. Poor us,” says Goydos.
It would seem somewhat easy to point the finger at golden boy Tiger Woods and perhaps even suggest that Woods, the premier drawing card in the sport, show up for an event or two that could use his help. But Woods has done his fair share of keeping tournaments afloat and that, combined with his endless charity work, recent recovery from surgery and the fact he is now the father of two, means the odds of adding to his annual schedule is a longshot at best.
Cross out Woods and Vijay Singh, if you will, since both are bound to have lingering effects from their respective surgeries and will have to ease their way back into game shape. Prior to Bay Hill, of the remaining 28 from the top 30 on the 2008 PGA Tour money list, 12 had played in fewer events than one year ago while another seven had played in the exact same number as 2008.
So, even at this somewhat early stage in the season, 19 of those 28 have ignored the request. Take that, Mr. Finchem.
Maybe the time has come for Finchem and Co. to red-flag a handful of tournaments that traditionally draw weaker fields. Say, for the sake of argument, ten events. A rule is then implemented that states a player must play in a minimum of three flagged events per season and –here’s the catch – the player cannot use any of those again the following year to meet his quota.
If a player selects tournaments A, B and C this year, he has to choose three between D and J a year from now.
Fail to live up to your end of the bargain results in a fine or, worse, your official earnings not counting on the money list.
Tough love, baby.
Should players continue to whine about wanting the week off before a major, make the decision for them. There are no tournaments, for anyone, the week prior to any of the Big Four. Everyone, or no one, gets the week off. Problem solved.
It’s time the tour ruled with an iron first with its players.
Maybe, for the most part, PGA Tour “superstars” don’t get it. But, with 18 tournaments up for renewal after next season, they may get it soon enough. They may be getting many more weeks off than they bargained for.
There are far too many sponsors getting gun-shy from seeing the world’s best take a pass on their tournament.
It’s time Finchem fired a warning shot of his own.
Tiger Woods can throw lifeline to struggling tournaments by showing up
A door-to-door salesman Tiger Woods is not but, with his long-awaited return to the game being met with a collective exhale from the offices of the PGA Tour, now would be a pretty good time for Tiger to take one for the team.
Things just aren’t the same since Woods won the U.S. Open playing on one peg last summer. He became a daddy again. The guy that carries his clubs began to think his opinion really mattered. He lost a sponsorship deal with Buick.
And the PGA Tour, like everything else these days, is in a lot worse shape than it was when he left.
And this is where Tiger’s return can indeed be bigger than the game itself.
As Tim Finchem pleads with players to go out of their way to schmooze sponsors, sign a few extra autographs, kiss babies and show up for tournaments they normally wouldn’t give a passing thought to, it is the Tiger effect he is counting on most. Mickelson, Garcia and Harrington will sell tickets, but it is Woods, and he alone, that may twist the arm of sponsors to re-up on their deals, if not save events altogether.
By making an appearance at a handful of lightweight events on the tour schedule, Woods becomes the most valuable member of Finchem’s marketing team.
One could make the same redundant argument that Woods does enough for the PGA Tour with his tireless charity work and is not obligated to do anything more. A tough, gruelling schedule will take its toll on any millionaire, we know, but we’re guessing Tiger is pretty well-rested these days.
There are more than a few tournaments that have been wobbled by this economic uppercut, and only Woods can break the fall before they hit the canvas.
Now no one is suggesting the RBC Canadian Open is on the endangered list, but we’ll use them for the sake of argument because, well, Tiger has a tendency to take a pass on Canada’s national championship. The Canadian Open, thanks to the efforts of the RCGA and the deep pockets of RBC, has enjoyed an impressive resurgence, but imagine, if you will, the demand for tickets if Woods decided to hop on a plane from the British Open and make a rare appearance in Canada this summer.
The Canadian Open doesn’t need Tiger to survive, but there is more than a few other tournaments that aren’t nearly as fortunate.
Woods has been a blessing to the game, but let’s not forget the game has been pretty kind to Woods as well. The kids aren’t going to have to worry about the old college fund, if you know what I mean.
If Tiger leads, thousands of fans – not to mention his PGA Tour colleagues – will follow. It’s time the biggest name in professional sport gave a shot of adrenaline to tournaments getting far too close to having the plug pulled.
It is a sales pitch that only Woods can deliver.
Ginn lawsuit could be first of many for PGA Tour
Anyone caught by surprise with the news that PGA Tour is suing Ginn Resorts for breach of contact hasn’t been paying attention.
Get used to it. In the coming months, the PGA Tour lawyers could be spending an awful lot of time in court.
Prior to this week’s bombshell that Ginn was yanking all golf sponsorship immediately, there had been hope there would be enough in the kitty to cover this year’s Ginn Championship, a Champions Tour event to be held in the first week of April. Turns out that was nothing more than wishful thinking.
That sound you hear is the cash register slamming shut.
Just as you can’t fault the PGA Tour for dropping a lawsuit in their lap, it’s tough to point the finger at Ginn for rolling the dice and trying to get out of their agreement early. It’s what is known as survival.
One need look no further than this past weekend’s FBR Open to see just how close the tour is getting to the ledge when it comes to sponsors bailing out. Although official numbers are not available as of yet, attendance in Scottsdale was expected to have plummeted compared to recent years. Around the 18th green, there was far too much empty space where, at one time, hospitality tents once stood.
The PGA Tour’s pact with FBR is slated to expire in 2012. No longer is the concern whether or not sponsors will re-up come renewal time. Getting there could be the largest hurdle of all.
Just five years ago, their stocks were at $28 a pop. On Friday, FBR closed at 18 cents a share. One doesn’t need to be a math professor to know that isn’t good news.
Of course, the PGA Tour is not the only sports entity feeling this current sledgehammer blow delivered by the economy. Far from it. But if you’re Finchem, you’ve got to be hoping there is something strong enough behind the bar to erase the memory of a very painful week.
First, U.S. Bank announces they will not renewing for the Milwaukee event. Then Ginn drops their bad news on both the Champions and LPGA tours. And in Arizona, one of the PGA Tour’s most popular events showed signs of the tanking economy.
To top it off, the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, the biggest event of the year on the North American golf retail calendar, saw a significant drop in attendance – some forecasters predicted a downturn at the turnstiles as high seven percent.
Like everything else these days, in business, it’s all about keeping your head above water until the economy takes a turn for the better. Right now, that day looks a long way away.
Shelling out millions for a golf tournament is an expense that many can no longer afford.
It’s a sign-of-the-times reality check.
“We did the best we could, but the economy got the best of us,” Ginn CEO Robert Gidel said this week.
The betting line is they won’t be the last to sing that tune in the near future.
Stellar field in Qatar while in California they can only Hope
Taking a gaze down the leaderboards at the Bob Hope Classic and Qatar Masters, you get a sense of what exactly must be going through Tim Finchem’s mind.
We would repeat it, but the adjectives are not suitable for print, unless you can translate $!&$@*&$@#!
At the Hope, where the legendary Arnold Palmer is hosting the 50th anniversary of the event, they are getting by with, at best, has to considered a 1B field. When Anthony Kim pulled the plug on the Hope with an injury earlier in the week, the field no longer boasted a player inside the top 15 in the world.
Meanwhile, at the Qatar Masers, there are six inside the top 15.
Granted, with Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh on the shelf recovering from surgery and Phil, well, just being Phil, you knew the Hope wouldn’t be mistaken for Augusta.
But look down the leaderboard at each event. Who has the more impressive field isn’t up for debate. It isn’t even close, and that must be giving Finchem something to think about.
Boo Weekley, the PGA Tour’s favorite redneck who is quickly becoming a huge draw in the States, took a pass on the Bob Hope to chase the Qatar crown. With a $20 million pot at the end of the European Tour rainbow in the form of the Race to Dubai, you can bet many more will head overseas in the coming weeks and months.
This not long after Finchem pleaded with his players to show a little more commitment to the PGA Tour or, namely, to events that are considered also-rans on the schedule.
Seems more than a few of them weren’t listening.
Golf may indeed be a global game, but one has to think the suits over at the European Tour aren’t about to join Finchem’s pity party. Once a licence to print money, the PGA Tour, led by Finchem, had no problems walking over lesser colleagues as the PGA Tour continued its vast ascent in recent years.
Now, with a U.S. economy in tatters and the threat of struggling sponsors bailing out en masse very real, Finchem is left holding the “help” sign while some of his own chase paydays on distant shores.
Palmer, for one, isn’t pleased.
“I would just hope that they (the players) would understand that they need to support tournaments as much as they possibly can,” he said. “I know that you can’t play every week, but when I hear some of the reasons for not playing it disturbs me a little.”
Rest assured Arnie isn’t alone. Here’s betting Finchem is quite disturbed as well.
Did Finchem’s video plea fall on deaf ears?
So much for begging, huh, Mr. Finchem?
Just a few weeks after the head honcho stepped in front of the camera for a little holiday message for his players – OK, it was actually a plea for them to show up for a couple of events that no one really cares about – it seems the world’s best may - and I stress, may - have turned a deaf ear to their leader.
This week, the PGA Tour season kicks off in Hawaii with the top four players on the planet – yep, count ‘em, four – deciding to take a pass.
OK, so Tiger gets a mulligan seeing how he still learning to walk without having to drop an f-bomb or two in front of Elin and the kid. But in reality, you were more likely to see Woods scooting about town in a Buick than seeing him teeing it up at the Mercedes, bum knee or not.
Phil Mickelson isn’t at the Mercedes because he doesn’t play well in Hawaii –take that, Commish - and Harrington and Garcia just can’t find it in them time to travel halfway around the world.
So the problem really isn’t what kind field we’ll see Thursday, but why Mercedes, in an broken-wing economy that shows no sign of improving anytime soon, would continue to ante up millions when the best won’t be there and the TV ratings are pegged to fall somewhere around reruns of Full House.
Come to think of it, why would any sponsor?
Don’t be fooled – there are plenty of players in Maui to make for a pretty entertaining week. Among those looking to get out of the blocks quickly and get a lai wrapped around their neck Sunday are Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els. Seeing how the Mercedes is only open to PGA Tour winners from a year ago, you could do a lot worse than that lineup. Just ask the Puerto Rico Open.
But eventually, you have to think sponsors, like those in Hawaii and numerous weaker-field events, are just going to pull the plug and stop writing the cheques. There are no sure things, especially these days, and they may choose to pick up their ball and go home if the world’s best aren’t going to play in their sandbox.
In an exclusive, champions-only season-opener, it is tough to get a handle on how many traditionally weak-field tournaments will get an injection of star appeal over the next eight or nine months.
There’s little doubt players both heard and saw Tim Finchem’s plea last month. Finchem sees the turmoil, not to mention the potential exodus of title sponsors, looming on the horizon.
Only time will tell if his players take the warning seriously.
John Daly has screwed up, but PGA Tour blowing off sponsors with suspension
This is how bad things are for John Daly. The big lug has actually been suspended from an association he doesn’t really belong to anymore.
Talk about rubbing salt in a wound.
Six months banished to golf’s version of Sing Sing. No, not Vijay Vijay. Prison. Banished. As in suspended, kicked off the tour for half a year.
So much for that New Years resolution of trying to get his career back on track somewhere on the North American continent.
Sure, Big John, as a past champion, can still squeeze his rather rotund posterior into a starting field every now and then based on his number. You know, if about 200 other guys get the flu and pull out. You get the picture.
So really, Daly is a member of the PGA Tour in name only. So the suspension is kinda like being sent to detention by your Grade 8 teacher for pulling the school fire alarm. In college.
So Tim Finchem, in his infinite wisdom, decides to flex his muscles and give Daly the boots when he is down. But does Finchem actually have that right? Fact: Daly is not getting into many tournaments on his number anyway. So he is left to beg for sponsor exemptions, and not sure how the PGA Tour can dictate who sponsors dish out their free passes to, which seems to be exactly what they are doing.
I’ve had my fair share of laughs at Daly’s expense, but the suspension isn’t as black and white as it appears.
If Tim Finchem feels the need to prove his might and suspend Daly as a Tour member, fine. That’s his call. But the PGA Tour in no way should have an influence on how sponsors choose to hand out their exemptions. If so-and-so sponsor decides to give OJ an exemption, the only concern the PGA Tour should have is what time does the prison bus arrive at the course and how in the hell does someone hit driver in leg irons?
No matter how screwed up his life may be right now, no matter how much of a thing he has for beer and Hooters girls, there is no denying Daly is still a draw and, especially these days, sponsors are looking to get bang for their buck now more than ever.
No matter that Daly can only find a place to play in Asia and Australia and not as much on his home soil.
Sponsors still see something in Daly, most likely dollar signs.
They should be able to give their exemptions to who they want. If that is John Daly, Finchem and the PGA Tour should step aside.
After all, they’re not the ones picking up the tab.
Tiger wrecks Christmas for his colleagues, Finchem turns to pleading on video and I wonder how many times Boo had to use SpellCheck…
So, Tiger holds court in front of his disciples – OK, so it was only a press conference – and tells the planet the stump is fine and he’ll be back - and better- in 2009.
And there goes the holiday spirit sucked from every golfer on your not named Eldrick. Merry Christmas.
Not the best of news when you consider the only thing to knock Tiger off his feet in the past year or so has been a surgeon’s scalpel. Well, and maybe Mrs. Woods, but that is pure speculation.
Chin up, boys of the PGA Tour, things could be worse. There will still be millions to go around – just not those big, fat championship cheques. Most of them are spoken for. It feels something like winning the lottery only to get hit by lightning on the way to cash your ticket.
Deep down, I’m sure some were hoping additional surgery would be required. Like, I don’t know, amputation just below the knee.
-I have a hunch I’m not alone, but I can’t wait to see Fred Couples on the Champions Tour. There is no wonder why Couples is one of the most popular players on the planet. Even at 49, the guy can still keep up with the best. Something tells me he’ll do all right with the greybeards.
-If, as Steve Williams wants you to believe, calling Phil Mickelson a “p—k” was a joke, we’re thinking Williams needs to find some new material. Not only is Williams not all that bright, it would appear he isn’t all that funny, either.
-To no one’s surprise, the PGA Tour could be feeling the pinch of the current economic nosedive. Tim Finchem sent a five-minute video message to players, asking they show up for less popular tournament or two that they hadn’t penciled into their schedule. In other words, it is renewal time and the only way some of these events will re-up is if some of the so-called stars on tour take one for the team.
-Come to think of it, right here, as we speak, wouldn’t Williams be the perfect caddie for John Daly?
-Food for thought: number of major wins notwithstanding, if Golfer A does in six months what Player B does in a year, how, exactly, does Player B get named Player of the Year? Math was never my strong suit, but the numbers don’t add up. Especially when Golfer A has won the crown three years running. Sorry, but you have to knock the champ out to take his title.
-Boo Weekley writing a book and the words “Spot” and “Run” are not in the title, nor is it a picture book? We know, it’s an act when it comes to Boo, but he dumbs it up well.
-Oh, and before I forget, wishing you and yours a safe and happy Holiday Season and all the best for 2009. Two weeks until the start of a new PGA Tour season, but really, does the season ever end? Happy Holidays from the staff of Fairways!
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World Cup of Golf needs more support from world’s best, money talks for Tiger and Wie gets her chance
-It would be nice to see some of the best players on the planet take the World Cup a little more seriously. Good on the Swedes for taking top honours in Shenzen, China, seeing how Stenson and Karlsson are that country’s two best players, hands-down, at this moment. At least Sweden sent their best.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the Spanish team would have been stronger with world number-two Sergio Garcia on board, but Pablo Larrazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez are probably the next best thing.
But what about the rest? The top 18 available players had exemptions into the World Cup for their country. Tiger, at home gearing up for 2009 following knee surgery, obviously gets a mulligan.
But where was Mickelson? Garcia? Singh? Harrington? Villegas? Els? Of the top 20 on the Official World Golf Ranking, only three went to the World Cup – the two Swedes and Jimenez.
Cue the violin for the whiners.
Long season, gruelling travel and a tournament on the other side of the ocean may be seen as an inconvenience. We get it. Sometimes, though, inconvenience should trump selfishness and a player should do the right thing for the fans, the sponsors and the sport.
The World Cup is one of those times.
Instead of being a highlight of the year, the collective selfish attitude from some of the world’s best makes the World Cup an embarrassing, also-ran tournament when it is anything but.
-I guess in this day and age, anything Tiger Woods does is news. So it came across the wire Monday that Woods, less than a week after seeing his nine-year partnership with GM come to an end, is not looking for a long-term car sponsorship deal.
Really. That is actually news. I wouldn’t steer you wrong.
According to Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent, it is “highly unlikely” that the striped one would be hawking wheels for another car company.
Yeah, right. Tiger reportedly makes $120 million a year in endorsements, give or take. If an auto maker in Holland calls tomorrow with a multi-million dollar sponsorship offer, Tiger will be wearing wooden shoes and speaking Dutch by Friday.
He may be able to pick his spots, but one thing Tiger is not is stupid.
-Tim Finchem made about $4.8 million in 2007, down $400,000 from the year before but still not bad for a guy that just has to remember to pick up the phone and thank Tiger once a week. But – sit down, now- Finchem may consider himself underpaid. I mean, the NHL’s Gary Bettman made more. What the heck does a guy have to do to get by these days?
-The Michelle Wie hype machine gets revved up again this week as The Big Queasy steps up to the tee at LPGA Tour Qualifying. Slam Wie, her family and everyone connected to her for some astoundingly stupid business decisions, but Wie should help boost the LPGA sagging reputation if she can secure a card this week. It might be a stretch to say the LPGA needs Wie, but it’s not that far off.
-Honesty does pay off, at least if you are J.P. Hayes. Seems Hayes, just days after disqualifying himself at PGA Tour Q-School, has already received a handful of PGA Tour exemptions for next year. The story has taken on a life of its own, and if things keep going at this rate, Hayes is going to have plenty of opportunities to play his way back on tour.
FedEx Cup changes should do…well, for another year
If he was so inclined, Tim Finchem could get a little risqué and devise a slogan that truly reflects the passion, the excitement, the utter confusion, of the PGA Tour playoffs.
We’re thinking something along the lines of “The FexCup Delivers. Well, after three freakin’ tries.”
Delivers? FedEx? See the tie-in?
Yep, another overhaul is done, meaning you get a sneak peak at the FedEx Cup, v. 3, prior to ringing in the New Year. And what’s different? Well, for one, Tiger the champion won’t be able to pen his acceptance speech a few weeks before he drops the final putt and apparently will have to play well – never mind just showing up and signing his scorecard four times – to be crowned FedEx king.
There is still the complex point system that will have most math professors calling for a straitjacket, but it’s an improvement. Granted, the top couple of players in 2009 could conceivably skip the playoff-opening Barclays and still be sipping bubbly once its all over, but I guess the world’s best over the course of the season – or, in other words, Tiger and the next best guy – should get some type of perk, don’t you think? We’re thinking a date with Anna Rawson, but if they’d rather play hooky for a week, they’ve earned it, I guess.
Finchem stresses that the beauty of the new format is that the guy in 30th spot at the Tour Championship can still win the FedEx Cup. Of course, the other 29 will have to miss their wake-up call, but no sense splitting hairs.
Fact is, there is really no way to come up with the perfect formula for a golf playoff season. No matter how much a proposal is fine-tuned, there will always be buffoons like me playing Monday morning quarterback.
The system is not perfect and we know, eventually, the PGA Tour will get it right. We think. Given the pace at which they operate, we’re guessing somewhere around 2025.
But this is an improvement and should do the trick.
Well, until this time next year.
Fairways Web Editor Marty Henwood spent more than six years as the Media Relations Director with the Canadian Tour and has been involved in sports journalism for more than a decade, including stints in newspaper, radio, new media and media relations. He will offer his unique take on the world of golf, with nothing and no one off limits.