"It's more fun being a piñata than commissioner."

Alan Shipnuck pens a brief look at the year and probably earned himself a case of PGA Tour wine for this incredibly kind nod to the Commissioner: 

It's more fun being a piñata than commissioner. Both Tim Finchem and Carolyn Bivens have had brutal years, taking flak from disgruntled players, mystified reporters and angry sponsors. On the bright side, you can chalk a lot of this up to growing pains that are the result of a former boutique sport straining to carve out a bigger place in the sports firmament. Both tours are positioned for big years in '07, though.

0.9...

Doug Ferguson in a column writing off the FedEx Cup before it even starts, slipped this in:

A year ago at the Tour Championship, the rating was 1.9, and that was with Woods in the field (albeit six shots behind Bart Bryant). The rating plunged to a paltry 0.9 this year when Woods skipped for the first time in his career.

"Pertaining to specificity"

I'm not clear where Bob Verdi was going with this Golf World column on the PGA Tour's potential drug testing policy. He seems to think this is mostly a a product of the European media.

So where's the beef? Primarily from the media, since it is our duty to make sure all is well in the world. For some reason, most of the pressure is being applied by the European press. At a gathering during the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August, one of my lodge brothers from across the pond asked Finchem how he could know no golfers are taking drugs if he didn't test them? A fair question. Finchem stressed that golf embraces an honorable culture in which players penalize themselves with no one else looking. That didn't fly with the interrogator. Understand, I have many respected peers in the international press, but I wonder about their drug fixation.

The column did yield this doublespeak dandy from the Commissioner:

So at next week's tour policy board meeting, he and his people will continue drafting a manifesto Finchem characterizes as "pertaining to specificity."

IM'ing With The Commissioners III

My NSA sources have been tied up with the elections and all, but they did forward this IM exchange between Commissioner Tim Finchem and Carolyn Bivens yesterday. Previous exchanges between these two can be read here and here.

twfPGATour©: Carolyn. Are you there?

DaBrandLady: sup twf?

twfPGATour©: Oh doing fine here, I suppose.

DaBrandLady: yeah I saw the brand resurgence took a hit last week.

twfPGATour©: Yes, lots of surprises last week at the TOUR Championship Presented by Coca Cola. First Pernice, then Azinger. I'm still shocked by their tone toward me.

DaBrandLady: oh I was thinking of tiger and phil not playing.

twfPGATour©: Right, well that too. Though we feel that their absence only reinforces the coalescence of the 2007 platform as both a coterminous and real brand force that alleviates certain scheduling permutations.

DaBrandLady: can i use that line?

twfPGATour©: I'll have to check with our legal people.

DaBrandLady:well i'd like to because i have to deal with press about annika and karrie skipping the tournament of champions.

twfPGATour©: Oh? When is that?

DaBrandLady: actually it's this week.

twfPGATour©: Right, of course. Is Wie playing?

DaBrandLady: it's the tournament of champions tim!

twfPGATour©: And she hasn't won yet, correct? 

DaBrandLady: uh no, tim

twfPGATour©: Sorry, I haven't been keeping up.  It's been hectic around here. I had to hire Ross Berlin back. Tough negotiation that was. But I kept him under $500,000 for the first year. The Viking people, our new sponsors in Mississippi, kicked in a new range for the house we're putting him up in.

DaBrandLady: wow, poor ross. even I make $500,000, which isn't much, but  enough to make the board think twice about buying out the last two years of my contract! lololololol :):):):)

twfPGATour©: Say Carolyn, I was actually Instant Messaging for a reason.

DaBrandLady: and that was?

twfPGATour©: Well I don't know if you heard Azinger's attack on my personal and business brands last Thursday during the ESPN on ABC telecast on ESPN? Or wait, that was just ESPN on ESPN. Anyhow, he suggested we needed to hire a personal branding coach for the players.

DaBrandLady: hey, i can finally help you!

twfPGATour©: My thought exactly. You signed someone earlier this year?

DaBrandLady: oh person-centered branding is great. best of all they're in beverly hills, so maybe you and susie can get a weekend trip to rodeo drive out of it.

twfPGATour©: Right. Well, I'm not sure Susie and I would use them for our own branding work. But for the players, perhaps. We've had great success with our recent branding campaign.

DaBrandLady: yes i've seen those ads where chad campbell takes pride in being totally uninteresting. very nice positioning with the red state 50-79 pickup truck driving demo.

twfPGATour©: Yes, we're very pleased with those spots, Chad comes off so non-threatening and pathetic, I mean, sympathetic. But I still think we can do more, as much as I hate to give Azinger any credit. Especially since he had trouble finding his shaver last week. I wonder what a brand coach would say about that?

DaBrandLady: well tim, i'm proud of you for reaching out like this. player branding is really the future of our world. tailoring a brand focused campaign will do wonders for your metrics.

twfPGATour©: Well thanks for emailing that information Carolyn. And give my best to, to, uh...

DaBrandLady: he says hi back!

twfPGATour©: Bye.

DaBrandLady: bye! :):):):)

 

"Tim works for us."

 Jerry Potter has the highlights from Tom Pernice's post 1st round rant which (I believe) first aired on The Golf Channel.

His anger was directed at PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, who on Wednesday said there would be no alterations in the format for the FedEx Cup, the season-long playoff system that begins next year.

"Tim has no right to say that," said Pernice, a former member of the Tour's Policy Board. "It's not Tim's decision to make. Tim works for us (the players)."

Right Tom, right.

"If you're going to make that an elite competition, you have to cut the field," said Pernice, who believes the no-cut fields just protect lower-ranked players, who should be eliminated to make it a true playoff.

That was the Tour's original idea, put [but] the plan presented in June was for 144-player fields.

Henry Hughes, chief operating officer of the Tour, said options were presented to the players and the Player Advisory Council last week, but there was no support among them for reducing the size of the fields.

Joe Durant, one of four player directors on the board, said he would vote for the current system when the board meets in two weeks. He said he's following the wishes of the 15-member Player Advisory Council.

"It's not going to be perfect in the first year," he said of the system. "We can change it if we need to."

Durant said players would be eliminated from the 30-man field in the three tournaments because poor performance would make it impossible for them to make the field.

What does that last sentence mean?

 
Anyway, on The Golf Channel interview (where I think Potter and others picked up these remarks), I also got this from Pernice, with an assist from TiVo:

Pernice: I don't think it's Tim Finchem's decision. There's a board meeting coming up in a week or two. I think it's up to the board of directors and our four player directors who I think are the ones that should be making the decisions and comments like that. I think Tim needs to realize he works for us the players, he doesn't work for himself. I think our board, as a former board member, I think our board needs to start dictating more and quit getting run over by our staff and Tim. I respect what Tim and these guys are trying to do, but none of them are golfers, and I think it's in our best interests to step up and do the right thing.

After his comments, TGC's Steve Sands asked Davis Love, "who has the final say, the players or the Tour?" Love's reply:

...the players always have the final say. we can, in anything that affects competition, any of the player directors can stop something from happening. If we decided as four player directors that we want Fed Ex Cup points to follow a certain way, that's the way they're going to fall. Then we have to go deal with the players after that.

Indisputably His Baby

Alan Shipnuck points out that the FedEx Cup is essentially Tim Finchem's first truly original idea, and he points out a few flaws:

Twelve years into his tenure, Finchem's major achievements have been the exponential growth of purses and the creation of the World Golf Championships, but he can claim neither for himself as an unqualified success. Certainly Finchem's hardball TV negotiations helped jack up the purses, but in the end Woods will get most of the credit for this new era of big money. Finchem did preside over the creation of the WGCs, but it wasn't exactly his idea -- just ask Greg Norman! The WGCs are nice little tournaments that have been good additions to the schedule, but if their reason-for-being is to export the Tour product around the world then they have to be judged as spectacular failures. The vast majority of WGCs have been played in the U.S., and the scheduling in the future is only going to get more insular, much to the mystification of the international golf community. (Ernie Els in particular has been a shrill critic.)

So the FedEx Cup becomes all the more important to Finchem, because it is indisputably his baby. He described the FC as "our version of the playoffs. Like most other sports, playoffs are the most dynamic portion of the season, and we want to take advantage of the opportunity to create some playoffs that we think will drive fan interest, television interest, and carry our audience somewhat further into the year."

The FedEx Cup Picture...

...is finally getting murkier by the day. Why finally? Because we've known since the announcement. But now that writers and players are facing its arrival, questions are being asked, scenarios contemplated and the word "playoffs" scrutinized.

Doug Ferguson reports that players are already talking about changing it because of the silly idea of 144 players qualifying for a playoff, especially when only 125 theoretically get to come back the next year.

Meanwhile in the USA Today, Jerry Potter analyzes how the point system will work and includes this quote from the PGA Tour's Ric Clarson:

"We've run hundreds of computer models," Clarson says, "and no player came from lower than 13th seed to win the Cup. If you're not in the top 15 going into the playoff, your chances of winning aren't great."

But Commissioner Tim Finchem has contradicted with his Yankees analogy several times, including Wednesday's press conference at East Lake:

But the only question I've gotten is the seeding. If a player plays at an exceedingly high level and he basically has to start over again, is that fair? Actually they're not starting over again. They have a bit of an edge because the seeding -- it's kind of like home field advantage maybe in team sports.

But my reaction to that, in every conversation and my reaction back has been the same. If the New York Yankees win 315 games and they win 20 more games than everybody else, they still start over. That's what the playoffs are all about. And in every single conversation the reaction back is, Yeah, I get that. That makes sense to me.

What the players have asked for, Let's make it as much as possible like a real playoff. That's what we've tried to do, and I think there's real enthusiasm. We're just going to have to see how it plays out in '07. I, for one, am pretty confident it's going to be spectacular.

So we've got one guy saying only 15 have a chance to win, the other saying that the elite merely have a slight edge going in, but by and large, it's a virtual free market setting once the four weeks of playoff golf commence.  

Okay, so here's the problem. The system that rewards the top point-getters going into the playoffs also emphasizes playing more often. Great.  Except, come playoff time, it locks in top players to positions that will make it hard for anyone outside of a small group to win, making the playoffs less likely to produce wild point swings or Cinderella stories.

An alternative system would not emphasize "seeding" and therefore create no extra incentive to play more often during the season. But that system would leave things wide open going into the "playoffs." Great for an exciting finish, but bad for making stars play more often during the course of the year.

Ultimately, they are going to have to decide what is more important. A system that rewards those who play more often and play well, or a system that sets things up for an exciting finish. I'd go with the latter of the two, since the stars have proven that they will only play where they want to play.

"I mean, I think that if -- if the reaction were flat, it's not a negative. I mean, I don't think there's a hurtful thing."

...That's the Commissioner talking about the FedEx Cup, which was the focus of his "State of the PGA Tour" gathering with the media.

Commissioner, take it away...

First of all, we had a great season during the course of the year. This concludes the official money portion of the season. Certainly Tiger had another great individual performance and has a string going.

Has a string going? Yeah, and this week he looks to, oh wait...well, the string gets going in January at the Mercedes...maybe.

After reviewing the PGA and Nationwide Tours, he had this to say about the Valiant Competitor's Tour:

The Champions Tour also had a good year. We had a great finish between Jay Haas and Loren Roberts for the Schwab Cup. Charity dollars will exceed $10 million for the third straight year, and we had new winners and veteran members performing well.

I think the important thing about the Champions Tour is that the transition that began in 2000 when Watson, Wadkins, and Kite came over is now almost complete.

Yes from popular tour to moribund.

We said, I think in '01 or '02, that by 2007 you would see just a fundamental redo of the leaderboards on the Champions Tour, and that's certainly come to pass when you consider Jay Haas and Curtis Strange and Larry Nelson, Chip Beck, the players that have come out in the last five or years six.

Curtis Strange? He's been on leaderboard?

Talking television...

We now are at over 200 countries. Our television passes 450 million homes outside of the United States. The focus of interest in Asia and South America to go along with the historical focus in Australia, South Africa, Japan. And Europe is astounding, really, in terms of the interest level in PGA TOUR golf.

Astounding? Uh, European correspondents, could you please track down some numbers so that we can understand what constitutes astounding interest level?

Okay here goes with the FedEx Cup stuff...you've been warned.

Let me start first with the season-long competition, the FedEx Cup. This is a major shift for the PGA TOUR. It is designed to really do three things: One, increase the importance of every week on the PGA TOUR, and as a consequence we think improve the quality of fields on average as we go through the season;

Now, if 144 guys make it, why will guys play more during the year?

secondly, create our version of the playoffs. Like most other sports, playoffs are the most dynamic portion of the season, and we want to take advantage of the opportunity to create some playoffs that we think will drive fan interest, television interest, and carry our audience somewhat further into the year.

Yes, great, but in those other playoffs, they play, and people who lose, go off the eligible list. As far as I can tell, no one is eliminated in the PGA Tour playoffs until the Tour Championship field is set. I'm quibbling again, I know, I know.

Now get the ma$$age oil out...

We want to thank FedEx. I think it was a year ago today that we announced our partnership with FedEx. We said at that time that not only are they a global brand, but they are incredibly skilled marketers. All the work that's gone on since that announcement confirms, certainly in my mind, that we picked the right partner. We have some people who are dedicated to making this a very special thing in golf as we enter what we now call the New Era.

Who's we? Why isn't that NEW ERA?

Now, about the clubhouse at the, gulp, "Players Stadium" course of Ponte Vedra...

We tore down the old clubhouse and rebuilt a new clubhouse. It's on kind of a different schedule. It's on schedule, that's the good news. The bad news is, as I've said over and over, that the schedule has an opening about two hours before the first tee time of The PLAYERS. It's a little tight to the tournament, but we think we'll get it done. It's just spectacular, and it's going to be a great addition to the quality and texture of The PLAYERS.

There's that texture stuff again. Notice THE PLAYERS is now The PLAYERS. Subtle branding touch.

Oh and on the subject of spectacular, wait until you see the locker room where the commissioner has his own shower protected by eye recognition security so only he can use it. Just kidding.

The third thing I'll mention is television. We had NBC officials here today, and we're going into a new environment. Again, another change for us with a two-network partnership as opposed to three, and a single-platform carrier for all of our early rounds with the Golf Channel. CBS and NBC, we think, are ideal partners for this arrangement.

There were 5 platform mentions in all, a new record I believe.

It's a very different direction for us. I might just pause here.

Oh, time for ten seconds of silence on behalf of our lost platform partners at ABC who we liked even though they introduced humor to their telecasts over the last couple of years...

This is the last official money event that we're doing with ABC, ESPN, and comment that they've been a great partner for us for a good number of years. We are indebted to them for the energy they put into this partnership.

And for all of the millions they lost too, thanks.

I would also point out, however, that they're still our partner. We have an ongoing relationship with ESPN. The world has changed.

When did ESPN buy the world? 

There are a lot of different distribution vehicles for media and telecasting messages, and we are partnering with ESPN and utilizing some of those avenues, but our tournament coverage will be with CBS and NBC, and totally from a cable standpoint on The Golf Channel. While we thank ABC and ESPN, we look forward to this new environment.

Partnering with ESPN? Anyone know what he's talking about?

I'm sure the scribblers will ask...eh no, they asked about the FedEx Cup and little else...

Q. Is it fair to say this is the biggest change in Tour history? Maybe, I guess, the all-exempt Tour, but I don't know that most people knew what that meant. Is there an element of risk with this at all? Do you think that you will be judged by how this thing comes off? I guess that's three questions.

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: I don't think it's unfair to suggest that it's the biggest change certainly in the modern era from a competitive structure standpoint. If it doesn't come off -- we've talked about that. I don't see any downside. I mean, I think that if -- if the reaction were flat, it's not a negative. I mean, I don't think there's a hurtful thing. But as I say, we feel very strongly that there are going to be a lot of positives.

If the reaction were flat, it's not a negative. Well, unless you are FedEx and your brand is tied to something perceived as flat, confusing and a get-rich scheme for a few already rich players.

Q. You said just in the first question that it would create more of a connection with fans and it would add more value to the sponsors. Do you see that the connection with fans of the PGA TOUR is waning? And do you also see that the value for the sponsors is waning if this is why you created that?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: I don't see it waning. Three years ago at our 20/20 conference we had a company called DYG come in, and actually they came in again this week to make a presentation. But they did a presentation on society today and time constraints.

Without boring you with all the details,

You could never bore us...

the sad fundamental bottom line is that getting people in today's world to do anything, watch something on television, certainly get up, get in a car, go to a tournament, is more challenging than it was 30 or 40 years ago just because there are so many options.

They even pointed out that in today's world, psychiatrists -- you used to go and spend an hour on the couch. Now you do it for 15 minutes and pay for 15 minutes.

Of course, the Commissioner knows nothing about that psychiatrist stuff. It's just what the DYG people tell him about shrinks. 

That's just the way the world is. When USA Today came along, it was all about snippets of news 25 years ago, and that's the recognition.

Oh okay.

So you're fighting for fans' time, interest, and attention. All the sports are doing that and all entertainment vehicles are doing that, and we have to -- if we're going to stay even, we have to work harder, and hopefully this initiative is going to help us move up. That's what we're hoping to do.

Tiger, close your eyes, this is where you get criticized lightly scolded.

Q. You've mentioned players like to go head to head against the best players -- and talked about a lot of other things -- but this week the big story so far is that neither Tiger nor Phil chose to play here for various reasons. We wonder what you think of that? Can your new system keep that from happening again?

COMMISSIONER TIM FINCHEM: Well, I'm against it (laughter). I'm disappointed, candidly. There's no other way to characterize it. I'm disappointed.

Phil was not a surprise to me.

He's a shlub and I've accepted him as nothing less.

Now that I know the details of Tiger's thing from last week,

...whoa, what? His thing last week? What's this in reference to? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

I understand how he came to his conclusion. It doesn't make me less disappointed, but I understand how he got there. And I recognize that there were -- I recognize, A, there were some unique circumstances this year that changed his schedule dramatically, and I recognize that he's had a good, solid run of commitment to this tournament.

Back to the TV platforms...we finally get an answer why they are on The Golf Channel for 15 years!

The other piece is getting the attention of the viewers. Now, the magic there we think is the consistency of the platform on Thursday and Friday all year long, and the fan base -- right now over the years you had to look for us -- where are you on Thursday? Where are you on Friday?

My father watches The Golf Channel about 60 hours a week. He's 87.

So that's who is watching the Big Break! 

When he can't find something on The Golf Channel, he needs help. We're on The Golf Channel every Thursday and Friday, every Thursday and Friday night replay. That's a great platform. Once that kicks in with our fan base, it's a marvelously strong lead-in to our weekend program.

We will see how marvelously soon, won't we? 

Live at 3 EST...

Is there any other time zone? Of course not. Anyhow, Commissioner Tim Finchem's "state of the PGA Tour" news conference will be webcast live at 3 today.

I, unfortunately fell asleep just thinking about it, so I'll be reading the transcript later.

Early prediction on big, fancy, law/MBA degree words used by the Commish: 3 platforms, 1 contextualize, 2 brands and what the hell, I'm going with 1 coterminous. 

Oh and scribblers lucky enough to attend in person, don't forget to consider asking these questions. 

Questions For The Commissioner

Wednesday of Tour Championship week means it's time for Tim Finchem's annual "state of the PGA Tour" press conference. This is where he says how wonderful things are, even when the two stars that he looked to for FedEx Cup have passed on four rounds at boring East Lake and the Coca-Cola people are really, really grouchy.

As usual, I'd like to offer a few questions for the lucky scribblers working this week. And naturally, your questions posted in the comments section are welcome too. I suspect they'll be better than mine. Anyhow, here goes:

• Commissioner, do you consider PGA Tour players to be role models even though it now regularly takes them 5 hours to finish a weekday round? (I like to warm him up with something benign.)
  

• As a follow up, do you foresee any initiatives that would improve pace of play, which is undermining fan enjoyment of the sport (and scaring off the 18-34 y.o.'s!).
  

• Was your recent $28 million contract extension endorsed and voted on by the player portion of the PGA Tour policy board?
  

• What was it about Tiger Woods's call for PGA Tour drug testing that had you calling for time to "sort out" a drug testing policy?

• At the 2003 Tour Championship you talked about the ShotLink initiative and its usefulness for USGA distance analysis. The USGA has issued an initial report to manufacturers suggesting that U-grooves are de-skilling the game at the highest level. Does the Tour share a concern that U-grooves are dramatically changing the game?
  

• In 2003 you told the Palm Beach Post that "there is some point -- nobody knows where it is -- when the amateur player feels divorced and really doesn't appreciate the game at this level, just because it's so different that it doesn't become particularly relevan. The second thing is, if everybody is driving every par 4, it's not particularly interesting to watch."  
  
  Does the PGA Tour do market research that asks fans if they feel divorced from the professional game? And if so, what kind of feedback have you gotten?
  

• There were reports last week that the PAC boards were presented with the concept of an elimination process in the FedEx Cup "playoffs" so that they are like, you know, like real playoffs.  Is this in reaction to the lukewarm reception that the FedEx Cup has received?
  

• And with apologies to Colbert...Mark Foley. Great Congressman from Florida who you are glad you never gave money to like Greg Norman did, or, the greatest Congressman from Florida who you are glad you never gave money to like Greg Norman did?
  

Okay, that's enough. 

Building An Impressive Team...But At What Cost?

And who are they trying to impress?

Well, for starters, Golf World's Ron Sirak who lauds Tim Finchem's hiring of Wie agent Ross Berlin for an unspecified job at an unspecified (and surely bloated) salary:

Tim Finchem must be a fan of the National Football League. The PGA Tour commissioner seems to have a personnel strategy favored by many NFL general managers going into the college draft: accumulate the best available athletes. That's the context within which to view the return of Ross Berlin to the tour after a year chaperoning Michelle Wie for the William Morris Agency. This was not an isolated move but rather part of a grand plan.

And...

To prepare for the future, Finchem is staffing his ship with an impressive array of talent. In less than four years, he has hired Rick George from the Fore!Kids Foundation, Dave Pillsbury from Nike and Ty Votaw from the LPGA, as well as rehiring Berlin. Expect an announcement in the near future that several of these executives will take on expanded responsibilities.

In Berlin's case, we'll just take an announcement on duties before we make him the next commissioner.

Also in Finchem's burgeoning talent pool are Joe Barrow, who runs The First Tee, and co-Chief Operating Officers Charlie Zink and Ed Moorhouse, who have been long-time tour employees.

Of course, Finchem -- and the board, which will make the final decision --

Uh, the non-player portion...

can always take the route followed by any good NFL general manager not happy with his team. He can go outside the company for a high-priced free agent. But this much is obvious: Finchem is building an impressive team, for now and the future.

Look at how much this line of succession nonsense is costing (according to the October Golf Digest, but not posted online). All are 2004 salaries:

Tim Finchem $4,067,318
Charlie Zink $1,227,634 (co-COO)
Ed Moorhouse $1,227,634 (co-COO)
Ron Price CFO $742,049
Henry Hughes (Chief of Operations) $572,773
Bill Calfee (Nationwide Tour chief of operations) $513,518
Jeff Monday (tournament development) $486,409
Bob Combs, (VP Communications) $458,737
Rick Anderson (General Counsel) $345,648
Rick George (Valiant Competitors Tour) $322,269
Ruffin Beckwith (World Golf Foundation) $284,037
Sid Wilson (VP player relations) $256,112

And that doesn't include Votaw or Berlin's salaries. 

"Stay tuned - this thing is a long way from over."

John Huggan is in fine curmudgeonly form while looking at the havoc the FedEx Cup schedule is creating on the European Tour.

As America's PGA Tour embarks on a lucratively-reshaped season that will "climax" with something called the Fed-Ex Cup - oh, the history, the mystique - and very likely pull many of Europe's leading players across the Atlantic even more than has already been the case, the European Tour's money-list is destined to be won by someone who picks up the vast majority of his cash in so-called co-sanctioned events - where prize- money is eligible on more than one circuit - rather than by a man ranked outside the world's top-50, and thus "relegated" to playing most of his golf outside of the United States.

So it is that the just-released European Tour International Schedule is all about filling dates. Next season, as the blaring press release was quick to trumpet, the European Tour will consist of at least 50 events - a "momentous milestone" - as it winds its often mediocre way across the globe.

Also, Golfweek's Rex Hoggard fires a few shots at the FedEx Cup as he looks at issues with the Champions Tour schedule. And he notes this about another major change in the Valiant Competitors Tour:

Starting with next month's Q-School, players will no longer play for a Champions Tour card. Instead, the hopeful will vie for a chance to qualify for events. The top-30 finishers from Q-School will earn a seat at the Monday qualifying table each week and play for nine spots in that week's tournament.

With the move, golf's most closed club just went private.

"There are some positives and some negatives," George said of the new qualifying system. "How will it impact the international players on the tour? I want to make sure the tournaments aren't impacted by the qualifying. We're going into it very cautiously."

But back to Huggan and Hoggard's pithy FedEx Cup remarks.

Isn't it interesting that time has not helped the Tour's concept age like fine wine, but instead has some of golf's finest inkslingers realizing just how flawed the schedule and points concepts are?

"We've had a coalescence of three different things come together"

In another of golf's worst kept secrets, the tours are taking the WGC World Cup to China. Announcing the move were George O'Grady, Jon Linen, Tim Finchem and various dignitaries from new host site Mission Hills.

Wow, it looks like the World Cup has been sav...eh, maybe not...

Q. So it will not be the World Cup after two years, or it could be?

GEORGE O'GRADY: It could be; it's unlikely.

Q. So Jon, your reaction to that, are you already investigating other possibilities beyond the two year period?

JON LINEN: We would work with the Federation and cross that bridge when we get there. Right now we know we're going to be where we're going to be for the next two years.

We know we're going to be where we're going to be for the next two years. Whoa, I think that calls for a little mop-up from the $7 million man.

TIM FINCHEM: If I could just comment on this, I think what's happened is we've had a coalescence of three different things come together. One is the opportunity to have a World Golf Championship event supported in China for more than a decade; the second is that we feel strongly that at this particular point in time the priority is to bring top flight PGA TOUR level golf to China and to Asia; the third thing is we want to perpetuate the World Cup.

So we've addressed all of these things in a way that we've unfolded here today, which is we're going to take advantage of the commitment that China and Mission Hills has provided, we're going to perpetuate the World Cup for the next two years at Mission Hills. We intend to have World Championship golf for the ten years beyond that, but how that unfolds after the next two years is yet to be determined for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is as George mentioned, the world calendar is reasonably set through 2008. There are issues with the tournament structures and dates after that, in addition to these format issues.

So we will address those as we get to them over the next year, year and a half, but in the meantime we're going to focus our energies on making the World Cup as good as we can make it at Mission Hills for the next two years.

Ah, much better. Those multiple "perpetuate" references are so much tighter than "We know we're going to be where we're going to be for the next two years." That's why he gets the big bucks!

Q. Is there a fear that the World Golf Championship events will be devalued by the fact that most or all will be in America for the next ten years, foreseeable future, and then the next one will be in China for 12 years; will it become stale after so many years?

GEORGE O'GRADY: From a European Tour point of view? I think everybody can have a view on it. I think it's been well chronicled that when all the World Golf Championships or the stroke play events, the Accenture, have been played in America. Not all of us were totally best pleased. But if we have to look at the force of the world economy where it goes, I mean, if we are sitting here, if I'm allowed to say so, a tremendous European victory in the Ryder Cup Matches just finished, and various people have said, why. Now, reading the papers for the last two days, better people than myself can work that out in a playing sense.

Say what?

Q. With that said, George, when is the next window of opportunity for one of these things to be in Europe?

TIM FINCHEM: After 2010 probably.

Nice rescue by the Commissioner. 

MNF at Sawgrass Follow Up

Check out the video of Finchem-Tirico-Theismann-Kornheiser inaugurating the 17th at TPC Sawgrass. (If the link doesn't work, go to the Tour's video page and scroll down a bit). This Monday Night Football synergy plug fest debuted, well, a 3 inch rough tee and dirt stadium mounding. It also revealed that one of the participants had a nice big Titleist tour bag. Commissioner? 

"I'd love to know what all went on, to tell you the truth"

Mike Dudurich sheds a little light on why the PGA Tour is taking some of the blame for the 84 Lumber Classic's demise.

A convergence of circumstances caused Maggie Hardy Magerko, president and owner of 84 Lumber Company, to cancel the tournament less than a month after the PGA Tour announced that the event had been moved to June in 2007, the week after the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.

Hardy Magerko's announcement came soon after she instituted a three-year business plan to make the lumber company more profitable. A $100 million investment over six years -- with an option for a seventh year at the PGA Tour's discretion -- didn't jive with that plan. And when tournament organizers approached the PGA Tour with its concerns, they received no response.

In fact, the PGA Tour didn't sign a letter of intent or a new contract that was submitted. A few days after Hardy Magerko informed Tour officials in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., of her concerns, the PGA announced that the St. Paul Travelers Championship in Hartford, Conn., would take the 84 Lumber Classic's spot the third week in June.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and Tour senior vice president and chief of operations Henry Hughes chose not to be interviewed for this story.

It's unknown why the PGA Tour decided to give St. Paul Travelers a fourth-year deal and turn down 84 Lumber's request.

And how's this...

"I'd love to know what all went on, to tell you the truth," said Joe Durant, a member of the PGA Tour's policy board. "We all have to say thanks to the Hardys for treating us like kings and putting on such great events. We don't get treated like that normally."

A member of the PGA Tour policy board doesn't know what transpired?