Safe To Say: "Value Proposition" A Must On Any MBA-Speak Bingo Board

Here I was just getting comfortable with value modulations when I come to learn it all comes down to value propositions.

Randell Mell reports that ADT actually might have liked to have stayed on as the sponsor of a year-end, must see, ultra cool event on the LPGA Tour. But the LPGA's increased asking price is the real culprit.

I think the countdown clock just started ticking for the Brand Lady.

Tour pros were informed by the LPGA one month ago that ADT chose not to renew because the company was pursuing different marketing objectives.

"The explanation ADT gave us for not renewing was that its marketing objectives and means of going about attracting customers was changing and the ADT Championship didn't fit into its future plans," said Mike Nichols, LPGA vice president of tournament business affairs.

ADT President John Koch said there was more to the decision.

"Basically, the change in the renewal pricing caused us to re-evaluate the value proposition of the overall program," Koch said. "You will hear various takes on that, but it is inaccurate for anyone to state that our decision was based on any form of cost cutting by our company. In fact, we have increased our marketing budget."

The LPGA made various proposals to ADT, including making ADT the umbrella sponsor of a series of LPGA events. The proposal the LPGA favored most was moving the event to the start of the 2010 season, where it would no longer compete against football and would be more appealing to TV as part of a potential package that the LPGA could sell to networks.

While ADT officials expressed concern about altering the nature of the event with a big payoff at season's start, Koch said it wasn't an overriding factor in his company's decision not to renew.

Koch would not reveal what ADT paid for its title sponsorship in the latest two-year contract extension that ends this year, but industry insiders estimate the company paid $3 million per year. While Koch also would not divulge the LPGA's asking prices, an industry expert said the tour was asking a substantial increase, prices beyond what adding weekend network TV coverage would require.

Koch said his company enjoyed a "great relationship" with the LPGA, a "good dialogue" and carefully considered all the LPGA's proposals, but ultimately decided not to accept.

"At the end of the day, there wasn't any reason other than value proposition," Koch said. "They have the right to think what the value of their tournament is. We respect them for that."

But just think, they won't have to compete with football now! Oh wait, there's no sponsor. Or course. Or date set.

Why take an established attention-getter--albeit one in November running up against the NFL--and exchange that with a year-starting $1 million event (?!?) that might happen?

And even the master negotiator himself isn't expressing much admiration for the Commissioner's work.

Donald Trump, who has been an unofficial host of the event for its entire eight-year run as owner of Trump International, was disappointed the LPGA didn't make ADT a better offer.

"Outside the U.S. Open, this has been the most important event on the ladies' tour," Trump said. "It is sad it has to end, and perhaps the tour should have made some concessions."

Perhaps? Who said The Donald isn't a kind soul?

And this from Juli Inkster:

"ADT and their people have been nothing but very supportive of the LPGA Tour and its players," said Hall of Famer Juli Inkster, a member of the LPGA's Board of Directors once sponsored by ADT. "They've done so much for us, and I was just very disappointed to hear we were losing them.

"But I don't want to point fingers. I don't know the ins and outs of what happened or what went wrong, but something went wrong. If it didn't, we would still have ADT as a sponsor. Hopefully the tour knows what it's doing and this will work out for the best."

And if they don't?

But back to value propositions. Larry Dorman takes a look at all sectors of the golf industry and frankly, I came away less bummed out than I thought I might based on his talks with various retailers. Of course, the PGA Tour's $5 million man stayed on message...nearly verbatim to previous statements. Though this value proposition business has thrown me for a loop.

Finchem runs the organization of players that many golfers aspire to become, or at least to emulate. As such, he knows the importance of sustaining what he calls the PGA Tour’s “value proposition.” That, he said, is the formula for success that includes “the demographic of decision makers that we reach, the quality of the branding we deliver, the quality of our TV platform, the business-to-business opportunities, and our long-term relationships with our customers.”

IM'ing With The Commissioners, Vol. X

Now that my friends at the NSA are downsizing in the wake of the election results, they found time to send along an instant message exchange between Commissioners Tim Finchem and Carolyn Bivens.

Click on the image to enlarge:

"Now, who knows?”

Katie Thomas lays out scenarios for the sports business world in a post-GM bailout era. Two things jumped out as it pertains to golf. The first item revolves around bankruptcy vs. a bailout.

On the surface, organizations with existing agreements with G.M. may consider a bailout a preferable outcome, because under a bankruptcy, the company could ask a court to void contracts. But because a federal bailout would also very likely lead to significant restructuring, some said G.M. could be compelled to try to renegotiate active contracts anyway.

“With the bailout probably comes strings attached, and what those strings are, who knows?” said Greg Brown, the president of Learfield Sports, which handles marketing for 50 university athletic programs. Rather than seek to cancel existing contracts, several sports executives said G.M. and other companies were more likely to scale back promotions and focus on initiatives that led directly to a sale.

“If you’re on the verge of bankruptcy, then you want to find out how to get the money now, rather than how do I get the 15-year-old to start thinking about the car they want to buy in the future?” Shropshire said.

As for pro golf...

But for now, marketers at a variety of sports organizations say they are in for some tough times.

“In this environment, autos are going to be off across the board,” said Tim Finchem, the commissioner of the PGA Tour. Two of its tournaments are sponsored by Buick through 2010, and others are sponsored by Chrysler, BMW, Honda and Mercedes. “They’re doing, in varying degrees, terrible,” he said. “The U.S. automakers are really struggling. Now, who knows?”

Finchem, however, said he was confident the companies would remain in business, which meant “they’re still going to be selling cars and, again, we have a good platform from which they can promote.”

Wow. "Terrible." "Now who knows?" "Good platform." Is this the new, more humble Commissioner? Certainly an improvement over earlier last week.

"Bankruptcy is another matter, however."

Steve Elling makes a case for why it'll be hard for companies to justify spending government bailout money on PGA Tour sponsorships.

But even more interesting was this item, which may punch a hole in the PGA Tour's "ironclad" contract status and gloating.

Six automakers sponsor events on the PGA Tour, including two by Buick, which is hemorrhaging money so quickly, it might not make it to the end of the year. Bankruptcy is an increasingly likely scenario, according to the automaker, which could and should jeopardize the two Buick stops on the '09 tour calendar.

Understand that when the tour signs a deal with a title sponsor, it is written in blood. Just because Wachovia and Buick are in hot water doesn't mean the tour contracts are void or that financial details will be changed. The suits at tour headquarters play hardball. Tournaments must buy their way out of deals if they wish to escape before the contract term runs its course.

Bankruptcy is another matter, however.

"That would really be the one scenario where we would consider (voiding a contract)," tour communications chief Ty Votaw said two weeks ago at the Ginn sur Mer Classic, an event that is on life support because of the swan-diving real-estate market. "And if that was to transpire, we'd be standing there in line along with all the other creditors." 

"I'm delighted to say that the demise of the PGA Tour has been overstated considerably"

In noting the slight total purse increase for the 2009 PGA Tour schedule, an unbylined ESPN.com story includes this:

"I'm delighted to say that the demise of the PGA Tour has been overstated considerably," commissioner Tim Finchem said Monday night at the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Getting cocky are we? 

Bob Harig breaks down the schedule changes here.

FedEx Fix Tabled For "Further Review and Discussion"

Steve Elling blogs that the disastrous FedEx Cup fix expected to be green-lit this week by the PGA Tour Policy Board hit a snag: the PGA Tour Policy Board. 

All along, some tour officials and players expressed doubts that the complete framework could be hammered out by Monday, but the tour needs to implement the plan before the start of the 2009 season since the regular-season points awarded for individual tournaments stand to be affected. 

“While the proposed framework was favorably received by the Policy Board, no action was taken pending further review and discussion with sponsors, network media partners and players,” tour communications chief Ty Votaw said in a statement Monday night. “The Policy Board will reconvene via teleconference, at which time final approval will be sought. Final action is expected prior to Thanksgiving.”

The board received the idea of reduced fields and a system rigged to protect those big free-market loving stars so favorably, they tabled it for more discussion.  

Commissioner Pelosi, errrr...Finchem, makes $5 million a year to not bring these things to the table without the necessary votes. Of course the mavericks who stepped up here are not exactly going out on a limb. Reduced fields upset the rank-and-file and make for lousy television since they produce an unusually high number of runaway winners (tune into a WGC for evidence of that). You'd just like to think the Commissioner would realize that before presenting a plan.

But worse than that blind spot is the decision to ignore momentum building for a bold Tour Championship conclusion. If ever there was a time to take a chance--dismal ratings, nervous sponsors, two straight FedEx flops--isn't this it? 

Just Wondering...

A few of you complained that I didn't focus on the substance in Tim Finchem's spellbinding SF Chronicle interview. Which of course, is a victory for the Commish. After all, doublespeak is a distraction tool and I fell for it!

Alright, here goes:

Q: The PGA Tour has a reserve of money it can call on in tough times. Would you tap that if you did have a decrease in sponsorships?

A: It's pretty simple. Through team sports and alliances, a big percentage of our revenue is derived from the communications side - broadcasts, etc. When we do our longer-term arrangements with television, and to some extent new media, we project out of that period so that right now we are in a six-year term with our network partners.

Our strategy is to grow our operating reserve during those years so we can withstand some negativity in the next cycle. We've done that for 20 years and it's worked well. We've grown in all those years. The question now is can we grow that reserve a little bit more aggressively to protect against what we were just talking about, namely retrenchment.

Anyone care to guess just how much is in the PGA Tour's rainy-day retrenchment fund?

"Some of the industry sectors that gravitate to our platform have imploded, some of them are struggling and some are actually doing OK."

I've always thought it would be fun to see what happens when Tim Finchem goes into doublespeak mode in front of non-golf folks. Well, courtesy of reader Kevin, my dream came true last week when it seems the Commish sat down with some editorial types at the San Francisco Chronicle. The poor bastards In attendance were Chronicle Editor Ward Bushee, Deputy Managing Editor Stephen Proctor, Business Editor Al Saracevic, Sports Editor Glenn Schwarz, reporter Ron Kroichick and editorial assistant Steve Corder.

Brace yourselves...we're going to get some oldies-but-goodies and a couple of new, convoluted thoughts.

Q: The economic downturn definitely poses some issues for the PGA Tour and the golf industry. Recently, you discussed sponsorships with companies like Wachovia and Morgan Stanley, which find themselves in the middle of the mess on Wall Street. How is that impacting the PGA and is that a serious concern for you?

A: It's certainly a concern. It's too early to tell about the impact, though. Some of the industry sectors that gravitate to our platform have imploded, some of them are struggling and some are actually doing OK.

I just feel privileged to be watching a master at work. Some of the industry sectors that gravitate to our platform have imploded. Poetry I tell you.

Thus far, the ones that are doing OK and the ones that are reorganizing and merging tend to be on our list (of partners). The ones that have imploded are not on our list. We sort of dodged the bullet thus far.

 That said, there is an awful lot of stress on some of our key industry sectors - financial services and autos, etc. We'll see how that plays out over the next couple of years.

It's not like GM will go belly...oh wait, I better not write that.

A lot of these companies are enlightened sponsors.

Translation: big suckers!

By that, I mean they take advantage of what we tend to refer to as the three major value streams, one of which is branding. Barclays and Deutsche Bank get a lot of mileage out of our demographic.

Secondly, they can take advantage of business-to-business activity on-site during tournaments. Third, and increasingly, companies are taking advantage of the relationship between our charitable focus and its impacts. That's what we call our qualitative branding.

Please Tim, we all know about qualitative branding! Why do you insist on talking down to us? Everyone knows about qualitative branding.

From a broader perspective, if you look back over the last 20 years at other downturns, companies challenge their cost structure much more aggressively than they do when times are good. That impacts the way they evaluate sports marketing sponsorships.

We've typically come out of these things better off than we were going in. Now that remains to be seen this time around.

If this thing doesn't last too much longer, I think we can weather the storm without any retrenchment of our overall delivery to players and fans.

Whoa Nellie! Say what? I think that may be the all-time classic. I think this is a man who has sat in on one too many FedEx meetings.

Q: You've used that word - "retrenchment" - in a few recent interviews. What do you mean by retrenchment?

A: Whether it's good news or bad news, at a moment like this, we've grown in output in major areas of our business, which is generating financial benefits to players, raising money for charity and helping to grow the game. The first two are the major focus of the PGA Tour. We've grown every year for years. When I say retrenchment, a dead flat-line (in growth) would not be something we are used to. If we go down, that would be unique.

Got that?

Q: The PGA Tour has a reserve of money it can call on in tough times. Would you tap that if you did have a decrease in sponsorships?

A: It's pretty simple. Through team sports and alliances, a big percentage of our revenue is derived from the communications side - broadcasts, etc. When we do our longer-term arrangements with television, and to some extent new media, we project out of that period so that right now we are in a six-year term with our network partners.

Our strategy is to grow our operating reserve during those years so we can withstand some negativity in the next cycle. We've done that for 20 years and it's worked well. We've grown in all those years. The question now is can we grow that reserve a little bit more aggressively to protect against what we were just talking about, namely retrenchment.

This really a painfully longwinded way of saying, we have a nest egg.

Q: Would you grow that through investment vehicles?

A: We need to try to find more revenue with a reduced cost structure. We don't have a lot of flexibility on the cost-structure side because we like to think we're pretty efficient.

That's right, just this year all of the VP's are only leasing 5 series' instead of 7 series'.

Q: In this country, is the demographic getting younger or older in terms of golf play?

A: I think it's flat. I think it's going to be another 10 years before we'll start to see movement. When we talk about overall golf play, you have Baby Boomers coming into the population in post-retirement numbers in the tens of millions. That fuels a lot of growth at that end of the age spectrum. It's good news in the sense that those are people that will have more time to spend and that will help fuel growth in rounds.

Didn't know a demo could be flat?

Q: Sounds like the time commitment has really held back participation. I've read some stories where writers talk about dividing a course into three six-hole segments. Someone could then play in 1 1/2 hours if so inclined. Is that a viable option?

A: I don't know how viable that is. There are a number of factors, one of which is the golf course itself. Is it a golf course that the average player can get around and play? Harding Park is a golf course that you can go out here and you're not going to lose a golf ball. There are golf courses that don't fit that model. They take longer to play.

In Europe, if you go to Scotland and Ireland in the summertime, people go out after dinner and they play alternate shot, they play in two hours, they play nine holes in an hour and 20 minutes. I think the mind-set needs to be changed a little bit in the U.S. so that people understand why you can enjoy the game without the need to post this 18-hole score and compare it to the other 20 times you played last year.

Maybe if the lugs on the PGA Tour could play in under 5 hours on Thursday and Friday, it would set a nice example? Sorry...

Q: How much did it cost to have Tiger Woods out of action this year with his leg injuries?

A: A day or two after the announcement, I stated that we were going to lose television ratings in the weeks that he played last year versus not playing this year, and we did. He brings a lot of soft viewers - people that don't watch our product all the time, but they do watch him.

The good news is it created this window for everybody to see our other players. Today, Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas are very different in the psyche of our fans than they were when Tiger stepped out, and I guarantee you they could have played exactly the same, but if Tiger was out there, they would have had significantly reduced exposure.

Going forward, we know there's going to be this speculation. Can he play? Is the leg going to hold up? Can he turn on it? Can he win?

You also have a whole different story: How is Tiger going to fare against these guys? They are really good. It's a short-term negative and a long-term positive. I would not have wished this to happen, by any means. Tiger is phenomenally impactful. Given the situation, we were hoping we would get something out of it, and I think we have.

He's phenomenally impactful, that's for sure.

Tiger Tops Sports Most Powerful List; Finchem Climbs Seven Spots On Strength of Fed Ex Cup

Obviously, the list was compiled before the playoffs began.

In other news, no ESPN janitors were able to crack the list, but a new group of ESPN EVP's made the list again. Spread that wealth!

"To outsiders this might seem like an esoteric point"

Lawrence Donegan follows up on a story quietly emerging as a major headache for the PGA Tour, which already has enough problems to worry about. Regarding Phil Mickelson (oh and Vijay too...not that anyone cares) considering playing more in Europe, Donegan explains how this could play out after talking to Dubai Director of Golf Tourism and European Tour head George O'Grady:

In this instance O'Grady's reticence is understandable because there is one more hurdle to be negotiated before any American superstar will commit to playing more events under the European Tour banner. Mickelson aside, there are believed to be other members of US Ryder Cup team contemplating such a move, as well as the likes of Australians Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 US Open champion, and Robert Allenby. But all are waiting for the outcome of next week's meeting in St Andrews of the European Tour's players committee, headed by Thomas Bjorn, in which a decision will be reached over the minimum number of tournaments required to gain Tour membership.

To outsiders this might seem like an esoteric point, but within the European Tour it is of historic significance. Currently, a player must compete in 11 events to qualify for membership but there is a strong push from the committee's members to have the minimum number of events increased to 13 in order to protect the interests of the rank and file, who play all of their golf under the banner of the European Tour.

Such self-interest is understandable but it threatens the Tour's prospects of attracting the likes of Mickelson and Vijay Singh, another who has expressed an interested in adding European Tour membership to his membership of the PGA Tour in the States.

Something to ponder here: the FedEx Cup has been a mess as a playoff but with the right adjustments could still work.  However, beyond points permutation debates, we're going to see more stories about its timing and the shortened season. No one seems to see an improvement in ending the PGA Tour season when the NFL and college football are just starting out. But more than that, the well-intentioned big fall opening to get golf off the radar screen seems to have strengthened the European Tour's prospects of drawing some of the marquee players listed above.

So in other words, the FedEx Cup concept may be viewed in upcoming media coverage as a failure all around, and a colossal one if it leads to even fewer PGA Tour appearances by name players. Of course, this is what the big names wanted and the Commissioner gave it to them. But at the expense of the PGA Tour's standing as the premier tour in the world?

"I always like, when we talk about changing things, drawing an analogy to Donald Ross and building Pinehurst No. 2."

You know I always sensed Tim Finchem didn't have much of a feel for golf architecture, but when I finally got through his rambling press session from earlier this week, I have a new appreciation for his bizarre take on things.

On the state of the FedEx Cup:

I think it's important to recognize that we view the FedExCup competition as a big part of our future. We are committed to it; it's a long-term proposition. We're not going to get hung up at the start if we have to make a few changes the first few years. Who knows how many years we'll have to make changes until we're at a point where we're very, very comfortable.

I always like, when we talk about changing things, drawing an analogy to Donald Ross and building Pinehurst No. 2. He moved there, and I think he made 213 or 220 changes in the first 12 years of its existence. Sometimes to get perfection you have to keep working at it, and we intend to do that.

I've never known that someone was keeping track of Ross's changes! Maybe the contractor tracking change orders? Or perhaps someone knew it'd make for a killer FedEx Cup metaphor some day?

Before I throw it open to questions, let me briefly comment on five other items.

Okay...

First of all, I've been getting a lot of questions over the past months, and certainly in the last few weeks, on the economy. We are impacted by the economy and the economic challenges like everybody else. We have a lot of customers and sponsors in economic sectors that are impacted negatively by the volatility in the economy.

Thus far, we have not suffered any major damage. But clearly, if the instability were to continue for a sustained period of time, we will have real challenges. We are encouraged by the steps that are being taken, and we'll do everything we can to continue to drive value and communicate that invest in our sport with the hopes that we can get through this with very little damage.

The PGA Tour supports the bailout! If Congress only knew...

After a bunch of stuff on drug testing, this made no sense and I presume it's a transcription error.

Television ratings are awfully good this year.

Awfully, yes.

We attribute that largely to two things: missing our No. 1 player for two big chunks of the season, number one problem; number two problem, the Olympics during three weeks got higher ratings than normal. Tough competition and took away from our ratings a little bit.

Darn Olympics...yet another reason that...oh wait...

Next year our assumptions are based on, A, all of our players are going to be back, including our No. 1 player; and number two, we get to wait three more years for the Olympics.

You're getting your number one player for 15 events, maybe.

The other long-term issue on the Olympics is that of course if we are successful in having golf added as an Olympic sport or schedule tournaments around the Olympics, including some golf competition in the Olympics, which will change that dynamic somewhat.

See, if you add golf to the Olympics it can't hurt the ratings starting in 2016.

Seems the questioners are playing to the cameras. Or the transcripts?

Q. I don't know about everybody else, but I followed this as closely as anybody, and I couldn't follow the points system this year. I'm not sure Henry Paulson could have. I'm just curious if that's something that has been up for discussion, and is it going to be simpler or are we still going to be looking at Camilo Villegas trying to make a six-footer to try to get somebody else in the field?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, I have a great answer for you. We have a book coming out, and it's called, FedExCup Points For Dummies (laughter).

Banging fist on desk here.

But the reality is the model we looked at -- seriously, the model we looked at was NASCAR. You know, some people say, You know, you can make it simpler by going back to the Money List.

Well, the Money List isn't any more simple than points, because you still have to analyze why one tournament generates this many points versus another tournament. The difference between money is you have a lot more fluctuation in dollars than you had points, so points we can control and focus on the Cup.

We like the points system. We're not sure many fans really care how many points a guy has. They want to see what relationship -- our research tells us in focus groups and polls is that fans want to see how -- you, know, what kind of lead Vijay has on Phil Mickelson. What's the spread? How can he win it back? What's at stake this week? That's most of it.

The PGA Tour ran the FedEx Cup by focus groups and this is what they came up with? Shocking.

Q. Two questions, please: One player just told me that this tournament has the wrong name. It's not the TOUR Championship, it's the FedEx Final, and that its name should be changed. Is that something you might consider?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Yeah, I've heard that from a couple people over the last few months. We're going to -- we'll consider everything. I mean, to this gentleman's question, tying the branding and the nomenclature of what's happening in the playoffs to what the competition really is important. So we'll be looking at all avenues to get to a desired goal.

Isn't there a VP of Brand and Nomenclature Suturing to figure this out? The FedEx Cup Final Brought To You By Coca-Cola. Works for me. I'll just call it The Crosby anyway.

Q. Just one short follow-up. In the short-term what you're seeing cropping up in various places such as Atlanta, some problems with gas availability, I imagine that hurts on-site attendance and other ancillary services that you have going on.

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Yeah, we've noticed some softness in attendance.

Well that's why Cial...sorry, I promised no more erectile dysfunction jokes. Continue...

Even in markets where ticket sales are up, a little softness in the people that are coming out.

That's rude!

There's no science to this.

That's why they created Cial...

We don't have a lot of metrics. Anecdotally our tournaments are telling us that some people are buying a week pass, they usually come out three days and they're coming out one or two days and it's because of gas. People are just driving less.

It hasn't really been that noticeable. And like I said, it's not huge on admissions at this point. But we have noticed that in some markets. It's an interesting phenomenon. I don't know where that goes in the long-term, but it's not a good thing, gas prices.

You know, I think that's the least of the PGA Tour's concerns.

"We've got to have a climactic finish"

I've been a little busy and the Ryder Cup was just too good to let go of, so I haven't read Tim Finchem's press conference very closely but it looks like he was in one of his more long-winded modes, and we know how well that usually turns out.

I did see this from Doug Ferguson regarding the FedEx Cup.

Finchem said he expects a good week and big crowd, and it helps that Saturday's round will be played early, so as not to conflict with the NBC broadcast of Notre Dame football. Thankfully, Georgia plays Alabama on Saturday night.

In the meantime, he said changes to the FedEx Cup appear imminent.

``We've got to have a climactic finish,'' Finchem said. ``It's going to build to a finish.''

That's why he makes $5 million a year. It only took two years for him to figure that out.

"We have been in constant touch with WADA since the beginning of our effort and WADA has been very supportive of the construct of our programme."

Still waiting on Peter Dawson's transcript to appear to determine what kind of softballs were lobbed by the wannabe and current R&A members in attendance,  but in the meantime we learned that Ty Votaw has the unenviable task of trying to package and sell the IOC on what golf does not need: another 72-hole stroke play event once every four years.

In the first wire story that went out on this with Olympics-related comments from Peter Dawson, I couldn't help but notice this little nugget:

Potential stumbling blocks include the need to move the date of the USPGA Championship to avoid a clash in dates, and the difference between golf's newly-introduced drug-testing programme and the requirements of the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

"The distinctions between our policies and full WADA compliance are not significant," added PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.

"We have been in constant touch with WADA since the beginning of our effort and WADA has been very supportive of the construct of our programme.

"There will probably be some issues, but we don't see any major hurdles in terms of reaching an understanding about what changes need to be made to bring us into total compliance."

Now, as you may recall it was pointed out here that Dr. Gary Wadler of the WADA was quite blunt in a recent New York Daily News story by Andy Martino that analyzed deficiencies in the PGA Tour's testing program.

For example, the drug salbutamol, found in asthma inhalers, is anabolic and can build muscle. Salbutamol is banned in the Olympics, but allowed in golf. Also, though human growth hormone is prohibited, neither tour administers the blood tests that would possibly detect it. All 33 WADA labs worldwide test for HGH, although the efficacy of the tests are in question.

Wadler also takes issue with the language used to describe the testing process. The PGA Tour manual says: "Once notified, you should report to the designated testing area as soon as possible. The collector may allow you to delay reporting ... however, you may be monitored."

"What do you mean, 'should' and 'may?'" asks Wadler. "These things have to be required. What if the player goes to the bathroom after being told to report? That's no good."

And here's where one can see this getting ugly...

In terms of public disclosure, the policy states that "the PGA Tour will, at a minimum, publish the name of the player, the anti-doping rule violation, and the sanction imposed" - a statement that is contingent on Finchem having sanctioned a player in the first place. Clearly, if a star player were to test positive for steroids, that player "may" face a punishment and public embarrassment - or he may not. Wadler also points out that amphetamines, commonly used as performance enhancers, are classified under the tour's policy as drugs of abuse, meaning that players, if caught using these PEDs, could be quietly sent to rehab. All of these shortcomings, Wadler says, could be cleared up if both professional golf tours would cede control of their programs to WADA.

I wonder how many PGA Tour players will be willing to see the drug testing program turned over to the much tougher WADA so that three Americans can play 72 holes of stroke play every four years? I'm guessing not many.