The Best In Golf

Entries categorized as ‘PGA Tour’

The Tour is Shouting…

August 27, 2007 · 1 Comment

…when golf is about whispering.

Tiger didn’t play this week because of one very simple reason. The 2007 professional golf season ended last week at Southern Hills. It starts in the “thank God spring, baseball, and The Masters is here ” in early April and thankfully ends in the swelter of mid-August…it’s enough.

The Cups, Presidents and Ryder, are a bonus to the fans…or would be if Old Glory didn’t get stomped most of the time.

It’ about growth and change at the Tour…problem is they don’t need it…His Tigerness has made almost everyone playing a millionaire, or at least living like one which is just as good.

Why the lack of interest in The FedEx Cup? Simple. It’s not football, although that’s part of it.

It’s lack of tradition in a tradition-based sport. You can’t create Independence Hall, The New York Yacht Club, or Pinehurst #2 in a year…no matter how much money you have…just ask Donald Trump…it just can’t be done.

You’ll never convince the best players in the world to do it for the money…they simply have too much of it…here’s what I mean.

If you make a good living, and I mean a comfortable wage, you make roughly .5% of Tiger’s yearly haul…about 1% of Phil’s W-2, and maybe 5% max of the #25 player on the money list.

So, relatively speaking, the $10 million prize somewhat up for grabs this month would be akin to you making a bonus of $1,000 if you’re Tiger, $2,000 if you’re making Phil’s scratch, and $10,000 if you’re #25. Take out roughly 50% for taxes and expenses and it comes quickly into focus.
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So you see the Tour is simply too successful for this thing to matter. They should be happy with it and leave it alone. It would save face and credibility to fans who think a bunch of millionaires playing for more millions not only lacks excitement…it’s downright unseemly.

It’s OK, you’ve got The Player’s Championship which is a great tournament but will never be a Major.
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Shouting doesn’t work in golf…and the Tour is hoarse.

Categories: PGA Tour

What Are We Doing?

May 10, 2007 · Leave a Comment

Buckingham Palace? No, too gaudy.

The Palace of Constantine The Great? No, too big.

Behold the new home of the PGA Tour and The Players Championship, all 77,000 square feet of it.

I read the press release on this cozy little spot today and it has some very interesting features.
Walking in the front door you are greeted by stunning 90-foot high waterfall…
…very handy for the tour player needing to wash his hands after accidentally grazing an autograph seeking fan, usually a 12-year old.
Off to the left are a series of lovely rooms perfectly suited for whipping one’s caddie after the series of par putts he missed again today.
Directly opposite the whipping station is The Office of Complaints. This is the largest room on the first floor.
Here representatives from the free car, free watch, free sunglasses and free jewelry for the Mrs. company can handle the dissatisfaction with the low quality products they have so rudely thrust at the golfer.
Frequently heard from this room are comments such as “How did Sergio get that Cadillac? What the f— has he won lately?” to “My kid’s Rolex runs two minutes slow, now fix it or you’re through!”
What must they think of the place we’ve brought the game in this country. What do they think in Scotland and Ireland?
Golf is supposed to be kids on the range, 9-hole leauges after work, and draft beer.
Golf is caddies, or carrying your bag, crappy little clubhouses with great bars, screen doors on the Pro Shop, the hole in it is preferred and earns bonus points.
We are trying to grow the game and make it less elitist?
Right

Categories: PGA Tour

A Slightly Different Take On The Western Open

July 19, 2006 · 2 Comments

Some good friends, and passionate lovers of golf, have e-mailed recently to talk about the demise of The Western Open. First, it won’t say Western anymore…unthinkable? It won’t be in Chicago every year…even worse!

For the record here’s a partial list of Western champions and competitors since 1899:

Western Open (since 1899)
Chick Evans (pictured), Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Nick Price,Tiger Woods.

Western Amateur (since 1899)
Chick Evans, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Crenshaw, Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson, Curtis Strange, Hal Sutton, Lanny Wadkins, Tom Weiskopf, Scott Verplank.

Western Junior (since 1914)
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Fred Couples, Scott Hoch, Tom Lehman, Craig Stadler, Corey Pavin, Bobby Clampett

But of course the reason for being at The Western Golf Association is not the above…it is the 8,000 alumni who have attended one of 14 colleges on an Evans Scholarship. These folks, young, old, and dead are referred to simply as Evans Scholars. I personally have contributed to the Evans for many years…can’t really remember how many. It comes every winter and Audrey (wife and payer of all bills) cuts the check as if it were the gas bill…no need to ask

My Evans bagtag has my name and my club…their bagtag says Evans Scholar Alumni…can’t buy that…or can you?

You can’t buy an alumni bagtag for yourself but you can for a kid that at 8 years old shows up at a club (usually in Chicago, but not always) and goes to his first caddy training day. He steps in lines, hasn’t a clue when the flag should be in or out, and generally wanders around like exactly what he is…a rookie of the first degree.

Fast forward 8 or 9 years and what you’ll find is a polished, well-trained, and polite (at least while they are working) young person who is headed for great things as an Evan’s Scholar. At Knollwood Club in Lake Forest, the leafiest suburb of them all, where I hung out about 18 hours a day from 1983 to 1986, I got to know and see these great kids of all ages.

There was one who was 9…can’t remember his name…Two shots a hole was his official pre-GHIN handicap and we’d play 3 hole matches for hot dogs (once we were out of sight of caddiemaster, Harry Shank, of course)…good thing they were cheap too, as I remember my record was 1-10-2 that summer.

Another was 17…he was headed to college on the Evans, Northwestern I think. He used to sit in the caddy yard in between loops and read Tolstoy (who was a 5.8 at the Moscow muni I hear).

“OK, that’s somewhat impressive for a member of the acne set” you say…but he was reading it in Russian. That knocks my freakin’ socks off, I’ll tell you that!

So The Western Open is history…and what history it has…the very fact it’s called “Western” is tribute enough…believe it or not in 1899 Chicago was the Northwest…seems almost cute now, but it really was.

So the deal with Beamer is a Bummer. The LA and Phoenix Opens, among others, have suffered a similar indignity.

But if more kids can go to college on an Evan’s Scholarship because they park a few X5s out front, then I’m all for it…

Want to do something great for golf?

Donate to the Evan’s Scholarship Foundation at www.evansscholarsfoundation.com/

There’s a kid at Beverly, Butler National, or Knollwood who will go to college because of it…and you’ll get a swell umbrella!

By the way, one of the coolest (touching) things you’ll ever see in golf, across any club in Chicago, is the golfer carrying the bag for his brand new looper the last few holes. There the caddy will be, walking along sunburned and exhausted…no worries, everyone knows he’ll make the full round soon enough.

Oh and just FYI, you can’t take the Northwestern (train) to Northwestern (University) , you’ll have to take the EL…take my advice, get off and have an I-Beef with both, m’friend…it’s the Best In Golf.

Categories: Caddies · PGA Tour