Follow the Money

In a murder mystery, following the money seems to always lead sleuths to the culprit. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem may want to keep that in mind when he looks back a year or two from now and finds he isn’t the most important guy around (even in his own mind). The era of the real international tour is about to start and it doesn’t look likely that Finchem will be able to do anything about it.

For a number of years the PGA Tour has been evolving into a two-tier structure – the A list – highlighted by the four Majors and the Players, plus three World Championship tournaments and a handful of limited field events; and the B list – all of the leftovers characterized by weak fields and bad schedules. As independent contractors, the players get to pick and choose where they play on a weekly basis and the top players typically go to the biggest money events found on the A list.

The European Tour has now made it both palatable and possible for many of the North American players to have membership on two Tours since the four majors and 3 World Championship events count towards each Tour’s minimum requirements. Let’s look at the case of American hot shot Anthony Kim who has indicated he will give the European Tour a try in 2009. For those who haven’t been listening or watching, the European Tour has a huge year end incentive as part of its “Race to Dubai” that Kim and many of his fellow PGA Tour players would love to grab a piece of.

The PGA Tour requires its members to play 15 events to maintain full membership while the European Tour requires 12. Since the 7 events mentioned above count on both Tours, Kim could play just 8 other PGA Tour stops from January through September. If you assume he’ll play the 4 FedEx Cup playoff dates, The Players and likely Jack and Arnie’s invitationals, that leaves just one discetionary tournament. There’ll be a lot of tournament directors chasing after Kim and the rest of his fellow A list players.

Why would he do this you ask? Money, of course. While it’s forbidden for PGA Tour events to pay appearance fees to players, the same isn’t true in Europe. By working a relatively light North American schedule, Kim has something left in the tank to make a few trans-Atlantic trips each year to pick up a fat cheque for showing up and likely another one for beating up on the weaker European fields. The prize money on the European Tour isn’t on par with the North American events yet but they are gaining ground. A few, including the Tour final are up there with the best.

Is this scenario likely to attract a lot of players? So far Kim, Camilo Villegas, Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Robert Allenby and Phil Mickelson have all expressed an interest and both Garcia and Mickelson have been overseas already picking up big cheques in the Asian segment of the European Tour. Even Mike Weir has dipped a toe in the water but not made any commitments yet about being a two-Tour player.

Is Tim Finchem worried? He should be. If a planeload of his top stars limit their North American play to the minimum number of events, Finchem will be scrambling to explain to sponsors why they should shell out the big bucks for a field full of Mark Wilsons and Scott Verplanks when Tiger, Phil and Sergio are living large in Dubai.

Stay tuned. The PGA Tour just released its 2009 schedule and any travel planner worth his air miles can see some pretty big gaps between majors. Lots of time for a young guy with a private jet to scoot off to Europe for a sizeable payday.