In Commissioner Tim’s FedEx Cup dream the media world is sitting at his feet listening carefully as he describes how golf’s version of the “Final Four” exploded on to a hundred million TV screens, and how each successive week’s tournament was bigger than the week before. Then, with the fate of all mankind at stake, and a TV audience bigger than the Super Bowl, Tiger came from behind to win the $10,000,000 by one FedEx point with a double-eagle on the final hole.
Now, cut to a beautiful sunset with Tiger and Phil, tears of joy running down their faces, carrying Commissioner Tim on their shoulders and whispering in his ear, “Commissioner Tim thank you for saving golf and America.”
Lastly, with his blackberry filled with offers by the networks to drop the Super Bowl just so they would have the opportunity to air next year’s FedEx Cup, the Commissioner pulls a FedEx Championship tee-shirt over his head that reads “I told You So.”
It could happen, or then again Tiger could skip the first FedEx Cup Tournament.
I’m sure that the golf chairman of some of the regular season tournaments that Tiger skipped in 2007 are tempted to send Commissioner Tim an email saying, “How does it feel?” And, who could blame them?
Like it or not, Commissioner Tim, Tiger is in charge and you’re not. He, and he alone will decide when and where he will play, FedEx Cup or not. He decides which tournament will have TV ratings and which ones will not. He decides who will make their title sponsor happy and who will not. It’s Tiger’s Tour, so get used to it.
Unlike Commissioner Tim, Tiger didn’t ask for the power he has amassed; he won it fair and square, and now that he has it, perhaps only father time will ever take it away. For the most part, Tiger understands his power and has done a reasonable good job in being as fair as possible. However, he can’t play in every tournament even though we wanted him to.
In the reality show called “Tiger’s World” I suspect there is strange karma between Commissioner Tim and Tiger as they gaze at each other across the room. He knows that Tiger owns him and Tiger knows that he knows. In his mind, he doesn’t have to wash Tiger’s car, but he wants to keep his options open. Could Tiger take Commissioner Tim’s job? Probably not, but he could most likely get him fired if he was so inclined. But, Commissioner Tim shouldn’t worry about Tiger taking his job, what he should worry about is Tiger starting his own Tour. Greg Norman tried it a few years back, and gave birth to the World Championship Tournament idea, and Tiger’s drawing power is ten times Norman’s. But then again, Tiger already owns the PGA, so Commissioner Tim listens to what the boss is saying.
For example, for years Tiger, Phil and some of the other big guns have been complaining that the season is too long. However, what Commissioner Tim heard was that the end of the season didn’t have big enough purses. Not exactly the same thing is it?
Now, I don’t think that Tiger was trying to make a point by skipping the first FedEx Cup Tournament, but he did send a message, didn’t he?
Listen to what Kenny Perry had to say about his friend Tiger Woods. "It's pretty cool when a guy thinks he can spot us a week and still win the deal. I think he's great for the game. He could probably skip the first two tournaments and he'll win the last two. You never put anything past him."
Then Perry said what Commissioner Tim really fears. "As goal-oriented as that guy is, I know he wants (to win) that first one. Then, after that, we probably won't see him playing in any more of them."
For Commissioner Tim’s sake, I hope Kenny Perry is wrong, but just in case I’d at least think about washing Tiger’s car and consider making FedEx pay in advance next year.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Golf Is Truly An International Game
Americans are famous for their lack of knowledge about the rest of the world. It’s one of many reasons the people from across both ponds think less of us than we think they should. However, golf may be somewhat of an exception. What golfer hasn’t heard of Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia or any one of a dozen other international players… and there is a good reason for that phenomenon. This week’s ranking of the top fifty golfers in the world places only sixteen Americans in that group. Of course, three of those sixteen are the first three, Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson, and five of those sixteen are in the top twenties.
According to the rankings the number two power in the world is Australia with a total of nine players, two of which are in the top ten and three in the top twenty. Third is South Africa with six players, one top ten and four top twenties. The inventors of the great game, the Scots/ English, rank fourth with five players (one Scotsman and four English), no top tens and only two top twenties, followed by the Swedes with four players with one in the top ten.
If you’ve been watching the majors you know that both Argentina and Spain have two players each. Likewise, our Canadian friends up north have two players, and unlike the ladies’ Tour, which is dominated by Koreans, the men’s Tour only has one.
It’s a bit of a surprise, because they are such rabid golfers, but the Irish have only one player in the top fifty; Padraig Harrington is the number six ranked player in the world, which is exactly the same number for the country that claims the number seven player in the world, Vijay Singh from Fiji.
Certainly golf doesn’t come close to soccer in the number of players participating around the world, and I guess it really doesn’t challenge soccer in the number of countries participating either, but it makes you proud to know that the top ten players in golf represent seven different countries and that they have 850,000,000 frequent flyer miles collectively.
World Rankings
1 Tiger Woods
2 Jim Furyk
3 Phil Mickelson
4 Ernie Els
5 Adam Scott
6 Padraig Harrington
7 Vijay Singh
8 Sergio Garcia
9 Geoff Ogilvy
11 Luke Donald
12 Choi Kyung-Ju
13 Rory Sabbatini
14 Steve Stricker
15 Justin Rose
16 Zach Johnson
17 Retief Goosen
18 Trevor Immelman
19 Angel Cabrera
20 Paul Casey
21 Niclas Fasth
22 Stewart Cink
23 Scott Verplank
24 David Toms
25 Stuart Appleby
26 Nick O'Hern
27 Andres Romero
28 Charles Howell-III
29 Arron Oberholser
30 Richard Green
31 Aaron Baddeley Aus
32 Ian Poulter
33 Brett Wetterich
34 Woody Austin
35 Robert Allenby
36 Stephen Ames
37 Richard Sterne
38 Rod Pampling
39 Tim Clark
40 Anders Hansen
41 Boo Weekley
42 Colin Montgomerie
43 Davis Love-III
44 Jose M Olazabal
45 Robert Karlsson
46 Mike Weir
47 John Senden
48 Carl Pettersson
49 Hunter Mahan
50 Chris DiMarco
According to the rankings the number two power in the world is Australia with a total of nine players, two of which are in the top ten and three in the top twenty. Third is South Africa with six players, one top ten and four top twenties. The inventors of the great game, the Scots/ English, rank fourth with five players (one Scotsman and four English), no top tens and only two top twenties, followed by the Swedes with four players with one in the top ten.
If you’ve been watching the majors you know that both Argentina and Spain have two players each. Likewise, our Canadian friends up north have two players, and unlike the ladies’ Tour, which is dominated by Koreans, the men’s Tour only has one.
It’s a bit of a surprise, because they are such rabid golfers, but the Irish have only one player in the top fifty; Padraig Harrington is the number six ranked player in the world, which is exactly the same number for the country that claims the number seven player in the world, Vijay Singh from Fiji.
Certainly golf doesn’t come close to soccer in the number of players participating around the world, and I guess it really doesn’t challenge soccer in the number of countries participating either, but it makes you proud to know that the top ten players in golf represent seven different countries and that they have 850,000,000 frequent flyer miles collectively.
World Rankings
1 Tiger Woods
2 Jim Furyk
3 Phil Mickelson
4 Ernie Els
5 Adam Scott
6 Padraig Harrington
7 Vijay Singh
8 Sergio Garcia
9 Geoff Ogilvy
11 Luke Donald
12 Choi Kyung-Ju
13 Rory Sabbatini
14 Steve Stricker
15 Justin Rose
16 Zach Johnson
17 Retief Goosen
18 Trevor Immelman
19 Angel Cabrera
20 Paul Casey
21 Niclas Fasth
22 Stewart Cink
23 Scott Verplank
24 David Toms
25 Stuart Appleby
26 Nick O'Hern
27 Andres Romero
28 Charles Howell-III
29 Arron Oberholser
30 Richard Green
31 Aaron Baddeley Aus
32 Ian Poulter
33 Brett Wetterich
34 Woody Austin
35 Robert Allenby
36 Stephen Ames
37 Richard Sterne
38 Rod Pampling
39 Tim Clark
40 Anders Hansen
41 Boo Weekley
42 Colin Montgomerie
43 Davis Love-III
44 Jose M Olazabal
45 Robert Karlsson
46 Mike Weir
47 John Senden
48 Carl Pettersson
49 Hunter Mahan
50 Chris DiMarco
Monday, August 13, 2007
Tee It Up With Barry
Like it or not Barry Bond is now baseball’s all-time leading homerun champion with 756 dingers. With a hat size akin to a basketball, and late career numbers that read like they were written on a prescription pad, baseball will not plant an asterisk beside his name even though he maybe be indicted later this year for the BS he told the grand jury.
Sorry Hank.
For an athlete, probably any athlete, the temptation to use steroids or some other kind of performance enhancing drug is obvious and perhaps even rational. In baseball it may only take one great year to get that big contract and the same goes for football. Now you’re set for life, even if that life turns out to be a shorter than expected. But according to Robert Earl Keen, when you’re 30 years old, “The road goes on forever and the party never ends,” or at least that’s the way it feels.
If you’re keeping score, track and field, baseball, football, cycling, gymnastics, swimming, even snowboarding (although those drugs may just be for fun) have all been touched by drug problems… the exception is golf. Is that logical?
Imagine you’re the 125th player on the PGA Tour. You’ve bounced back and forth between the PGA and the Nationwide Tours. You’ve made a few bucks but never enough to make life secure. Rightly or wrongly, you believe that the only thing holding you back is that your average driving distance is 265 instead of 295. Are you tempted?
What would you do for fame and fortune?
Has your doctor ever prescribed steroids? Mine has. There are no needles; in many cases it’s a clear gel that rubs on like suntan lotion. It’s not scary, nor does it feel dangerous, and it definitely doesn’t feel wrong. In my case, the steroid was to build bone density, however I did notice a bit more zip in my step, and over time (six months) I became more aggressive to the point I stopped using the drug on my own.
Perhaps golfers are immune to the temptations, or perhaps the Commissioner is. I suspect that like baseball, golf has figured out that the fans come to see the long-ball, and as good as some of the Punch and Judy players are, what we really want to see is someone hit the ball ten miles. And, just like baseball, as long as you will pay for it (no matter what “it” turns out to be) the sport will do everything in its power to serve it up. You want full contact golf? Well, if you’ll pay to see it, the WWA and PGA will start merger talks tomorrow.
We like to think that we have changed over the past 30,000 years; we’ve become more civilized, after all we now have doctors at ringside, but that doesn’t change the fact that men still hit each other in the head for our pleasure. I say this while fully admitting that I like a good a boxing match as much as the next guy. I don’t know, perhaps it is Neanderthal, brain-stem stuff that draws us to the car-wreck and the long-ball, and maybe it will take another 30,000 years for us to appreciate the finer things that life has to offer. Until then we’ll tee it high and watch it fly.
Are professional golfers using steroids? More than likely. Do I want to see Tiger and the boys peeing in a cup before each round, frankly no. However, I do hope that those players that are tempted will get some good advice from their doctors and others who know the real dangers of steroids.
Sorry Hank.
For an athlete, probably any athlete, the temptation to use steroids or some other kind of performance enhancing drug is obvious and perhaps even rational. In baseball it may only take one great year to get that big contract and the same goes for football. Now you’re set for life, even if that life turns out to be a shorter than expected. But according to Robert Earl Keen, when you’re 30 years old, “The road goes on forever and the party never ends,” or at least that’s the way it feels.
If you’re keeping score, track and field, baseball, football, cycling, gymnastics, swimming, even snowboarding (although those drugs may just be for fun) have all been touched by drug problems… the exception is golf. Is that logical?
Imagine you’re the 125th player on the PGA Tour. You’ve bounced back and forth between the PGA and the Nationwide Tours. You’ve made a few bucks but never enough to make life secure. Rightly or wrongly, you believe that the only thing holding you back is that your average driving distance is 265 instead of 295. Are you tempted?
What would you do for fame and fortune?
Has your doctor ever prescribed steroids? Mine has. There are no needles; in many cases it’s a clear gel that rubs on like suntan lotion. It’s not scary, nor does it feel dangerous, and it definitely doesn’t feel wrong. In my case, the steroid was to build bone density, however I did notice a bit more zip in my step, and over time (six months) I became more aggressive to the point I stopped using the drug on my own.
Perhaps golfers are immune to the temptations, or perhaps the Commissioner is. I suspect that like baseball, golf has figured out that the fans come to see the long-ball, and as good as some of the Punch and Judy players are, what we really want to see is someone hit the ball ten miles. And, just like baseball, as long as you will pay for it (no matter what “it” turns out to be) the sport will do everything in its power to serve it up. You want full contact golf? Well, if you’ll pay to see it, the WWA and PGA will start merger talks tomorrow.
We like to think that we have changed over the past 30,000 years; we’ve become more civilized, after all we now have doctors at ringside, but that doesn’t change the fact that men still hit each other in the head for our pleasure. I say this while fully admitting that I like a good a boxing match as much as the next guy. I don’t know, perhaps it is Neanderthal, brain-stem stuff that draws us to the car-wreck and the long-ball, and maybe it will take another 30,000 years for us to appreciate the finer things that life has to offer. Until then we’ll tee it high and watch it fly.
Are professional golfers using steroids? More than likely. Do I want to see Tiger and the boys peeing in a cup before each round, frankly no. However, I do hope that those players that are tempted will get some good advice from their doctors and others who know the real dangers of steroids.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Gentlemen Start Your Engines
I am not a NASCAR guy and frankly I wouldn’t know the NEXTEL Cup from any other athletic cup, and as of this moment, I feel exactly the same way about the FedEx Cup. Perhaps it is because I have never experienced the excitement of a FedEx Cup fight to the finish, and once I do, I will buy the tee shirt. But for now, I’m still skeptical.
I’m not sure why I feel this way, maybe it’s because it feels contrived, like a made for TV stunt that serves no real purpose. A playoff system makes sense for football and other team sports, but isn’t every golf tournament a playoff, and doesn’t the money list tell us who the best golfer was in any given year? Which number is most important: Tiger’s $5,214,385 in winnings, or his 20,899 FedEx points?
Another thing that bugs me is that this exclusive playoff system is limited to the best 144 players, or in other words, just about everyone. The first cut is to 120 players, which means only 24 players are eliminated. Which begs the question: did those 24 ever have a chance in the first place?
A week later, the field is cut to 70 players, or about the same number of players that normally make a Friday cut each week. The following week 70 becomes 30 and we’re ready for the Tour Championship, which if I recall, used to be the top 30 money winners. It will be interesting to see how many of the top 30 money winners and the 30 players making the cut are the same. Sure, there will be a few blind hogs finding an acorn, but I’ll be surprised if the top 30 money winners are not well represented.
Perhaps my skepticism is because I have never believed that this tournament is about trying to identify the best player; it about money, for both the player and the PGA. And the money is big, really big. Each of the four tournaments has a purse of $7,000,000, plus, when all is said and done, the overall points leader picks up a cool $10,000,000. Then there is TV money, sponsor money, ticket sales, concessions, and of course tee shirt sales.
An oddity of the tournament (and NASCAR) is that the winner of the playoffs and the winner of the $10,000,000 points leader bonus may not be the same person, which creates all kinds of interesting scenarios.
Imagine some kid from out of nowhere is leading the Tournament, but the guys in second and third place are dueling for the points lead and the $10,000,000. Now, the kid from out of nowhere can’t possibly catch the points leader, but the points leader could catch the kid from out of nowhere. A birdie ties the kid, but it’s a dangerous shot and brings 6 into the equation. A par retains the points lead and the $10,000,000 prize.
Can you say lay up?
Frankly, I could never imagine a situation where a golfer might get booed, but this could be the case. I don’t like the idea of golfers playing for second place, or trying to stay in the top ten so they could be the overall points winner. I understand that golf is how these guys make a living, but I hate the thought of a business decision deciding a tournament. It’s enough to make Dale Earnhardt turn over in his grave.
On the other hand, if Tiger kicks everybody’s butt, wins the tournament and the $10,000,000 points bonus and all is right in the universe, who cares? Which brings me back to where I started; what’s the point?
But I’m trying to keep an open mind.
I’m not sure why I feel this way, maybe it’s because it feels contrived, like a made for TV stunt that serves no real purpose. A playoff system makes sense for football and other team sports, but isn’t every golf tournament a playoff, and doesn’t the money list tell us who the best golfer was in any given year? Which number is most important: Tiger’s $5,214,385 in winnings, or his 20,899 FedEx points?
Another thing that bugs me is that this exclusive playoff system is limited to the best 144 players, or in other words, just about everyone. The first cut is to 120 players, which means only 24 players are eliminated. Which begs the question: did those 24 ever have a chance in the first place?
A week later, the field is cut to 70 players, or about the same number of players that normally make a Friday cut each week. The following week 70 becomes 30 and we’re ready for the Tour Championship, which if I recall, used to be the top 30 money winners. It will be interesting to see how many of the top 30 money winners and the 30 players making the cut are the same. Sure, there will be a few blind hogs finding an acorn, but I’ll be surprised if the top 30 money winners are not well represented.
Perhaps my skepticism is because I have never believed that this tournament is about trying to identify the best player; it about money, for both the player and the PGA. And the money is big, really big. Each of the four tournaments has a purse of $7,000,000, plus, when all is said and done, the overall points leader picks up a cool $10,000,000. Then there is TV money, sponsor money, ticket sales, concessions, and of course tee shirt sales.
An oddity of the tournament (and NASCAR) is that the winner of the playoffs and the winner of the $10,000,000 points leader bonus may not be the same person, which creates all kinds of interesting scenarios.
Imagine some kid from out of nowhere is leading the Tournament, but the guys in second and third place are dueling for the points lead and the $10,000,000. Now, the kid from out of nowhere can’t possibly catch the points leader, but the points leader could catch the kid from out of nowhere. A birdie ties the kid, but it’s a dangerous shot and brings 6 into the equation. A par retains the points lead and the $10,000,000 prize.
Can you say lay up?
Frankly, I could never imagine a situation where a golfer might get booed, but this could be the case. I don’t like the idea of golfers playing for second place, or trying to stay in the top ten so they could be the overall points winner. I understand that golf is how these guys make a living, but I hate the thought of a business decision deciding a tournament. It’s enough to make Dale Earnhardt turn over in his grave.
On the other hand, if Tiger kicks everybody’s butt, wins the tournament and the $10,000,000 points bonus and all is right in the universe, who cares? Which brings me back to where I started; what’s the point?
But I’m trying to keep an open mind.
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