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It was a year ago today that Tiger Woods lost to Y.E. Yang at the PGA Championship, thus starting the opening volley of what has been a disastrous 365 days for Woods. But could he turned the pages of the story today with a great comeback and begin a new chapter in the Tiger Woods book? Also did Jim Gray kill his golfing career with his problem with Corey Pavin?
HAVEN, Wis. --As Tiger Woods goes out today to finish up his second round, he will be going out on a very unusual day. That is because today is the one year anniversary of the day that many feel was the prelude to his downfall, a day that many thought he was going to make his march on major victory number 15, a day that he was to put another notch towards Nicklaus record, another day that showed why he was unbeatable and the best golfer in the world.
Going into the final round at Hazeltine National he had a two shot lead over Padraig Harrington and Y.E. Yang but more than that he had the reputation of always coming through as his record was a perfect 14 for 14 of winning majors when leading going into the final round.
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That never happened as Harrington started out slowly making pars on his first 7 holes before imploding with a quadruplet bogey 8 on the par 3 8th hole. Despite what many would preside as Woods biggest challenge going away, Woods biggest problem was himself, he wasn't making the putts he usually does, shot 2 over on the front and teed off on 10 tied with Yang.
Over Woods career he has won with a better game than anyone else, but along the way he always seems to have that guardian angel on his shoulder that makes sure a wayward drive hits that tree or mound and bounces back into the fairway. That angel would always made sure that when Woods needed that crucial shot in the most crucial time, that shot, putt or chip would go in.
But on this faithful day at Hazeltine, that guardian angel wasn't on his shoulder, if anything it had changed allegiance and was on the shoulder of Yang, who administered the first killer blow with a chip in for eagle at 14 and then great clutch putting down the stretch followed by a miraculous 2nd shot over trees on the 18th hole to end anything that Woods could do and making Yang a three shot winner.
So just like that Woods became human again, shocking the world that for the first time he wasn't able to hold a lead going into the final round. If this defeat came at the hands of a Phil Mickelson or even Harrington, it wouldn't of been that bad for Woods. But it came from a man that was a 250 to 1 longshot at the beginning of the week and to a man that Tiger would of beaten 95 out of 100 times.
Little at the time did we know that it would be the start of his slide that we hope bottomed out last week at the Bridgestone. Yes he won the BMW Championship a few weeks later and then won in Australia two months later, but what we didn't know at the time was that Woods personal life was leading him to the point that when he hit that fire hydrant on that Thanksgiving evening his world would completely unravel.
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So just short of 14 years later, on a golf course 50 miles away and one that was on the drawing table of Pete Dye Woods at the time of Woods first start, Tiger is looking to start another chapter in his golfing life. Before that faithful day at Hazeltine a year ago, Woods was the best in the world, the richest athlete of all time, the most popular pitchman in sports and many thought one of the squeaky clean family man with an all-time beauty of a wife and the two cutest kids on the planet.
With the pending divorce of his wife, all of this seems to have been striped away. Even his game has left him and at Firestone last week he looked like a man that had aged about as fast as presidents of the United States tend to do being in office.
Many have differently opinions of the future of Woods, but one thing that is a known, he never gives up. He had a different look to him on Thursday when he teed off, he was clean shaven and had that look in his eye of success instead of that look of horror of what was about to happen to him. He started off with birdies at three of his first four holes and held on for a first round 71, but his game looked like it was embarking on a comeback. In his first six holes on Friday evening, he didn't hit the ball crispy but you have to remember that the first four holes played in a heavy wind, but Woods showed signs of his putter waking up as he one putted four of his first five holes with sizeable putts.
The odds on Woods becoming a factor in this event are very long, since he is 7 back. But the chances of him making the cut are pretty good which is very important if he wants to not only earn a Ryder Cup berth but a spot in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
As for the Ryder Cup, it has caused captain Corey Pavin a bit of problem as the debate continues on weather the captain gives Tiger a wildcard bye or not. The debate peaked on Wednesday, the day after Golf Channel came out with a John Hawkins piece on how Jim Gray was supposedly told by captain Pavin that Woods was going to get a wild card pick.
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Frankly I was always leery of the John Hawkins piece on Tuesday and never put it up on GolfNoteBook. Not of it's accuracy because if Jim Gray said that Corey Pavin told him that he was giving Tiger Woods a spot on the team, then it was spot on because of Gray's reputation. But at the same time I know that because of Gray's tactics of molding questions in a certain manner he could get that kind of answer from Pavin. Another thing that I found bothersome with the Gray piece was that it was written, why didn't Gray get Pavin to make this revelation on camera? And why did another writer, who is slick in style have to write this up instead of Gray? It should of been a warning sign for the editors or bosses at Golf Channel to check this out further before they printed it.
Frankly golf is a sport in which a lot of reporters are told things off the cuff shall we say. There is a lot of give and take respect among the top journalist in golf, do you think that a Doug Ferguson or a Tim Rosaforte or even a Dan Jenkins have been told things "off the record" or in casual conversation in which a player says something that isn't for print. This is part of the sport that has been a time honored process going back to the days of Herbert Warren Winds and the Grantland Rices of golf journalists.
This is a boundary that Gray may of slipped. There is no two ways about this story, the truth is someplace in the middle, I think that Pavin may of slipped something to Gray that he may not even of know that he slipped, but Gray and Golf Channel had the responsibility to keep this as background of what was going to happen or made sure that what Pavin said was OK for print.
Unfortunately for Gray his confrontation of Pavin in the press room in front of other members of the media the next day and calling Pavin a liar could be something that ends Gray's career in golf. What Gray did in public to Pavin was as bad as what Al Campanis uttered on Nightline 23 years ago, or as bad as what Ben Wright did 15 years ago. With his altercation with Pavin, he may have totally alienated all of the men of the PGA Tour that he has to interview in the future. You think that after what Gray did in getting in Pavin's face on Wednesday, it didn't hit the core of all the players? I can't picture any player telling Gray anything of substance in the future. Matter of fact I wouldn't be surprised if a player does talk with Gray that the player records the conversation kind of like what Pavin's wife did on Wednesday. Matter of fact I don't think that many of the players will even want to talk with Gray. His two acts, first the story on Pavin and second getting in the argument with Pavin in public have cooked Gray's golfing career. Hopefully time could heal the wounds of this because I have always liked Gray, he has worked hard to fit into golf, he is a nice person and does get stories but gosh Jim golf is a totally different sport to report than Basketball.
But getting back to Tiger Woods, what is really sad about all of this is frankly none of this has to be written. That is because Woods has built up the kind of reputation in which it's not going to be Pavin's choice of giveing Woods a pick or not. Corey isn't going to make the decision, Woods is. I can tell you something else. It could be five minutes before Pavin makes his final four wild card choices on September 7th and if Woods phones Pavin and says "Hey dude, I am stripping the ball and really think that I can help your team", Pavin would chose Woods in a heartbeat. So for all those writing about it's Pavin's choice, come on lets be real about this.
As for today, a year after the victory by Y.E. Yang, we could be starting a new chapter in the Tiger Woods saga. I can guarantee that it may not start today, or tomorrow or next month or even in the next year but this saga will have an ending of Woods as the champion that he always has been, it may be a bit of time before the next chapter is written but it will be written that Tiger will win again and win many more majors to come.
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So after we thought that Tiger Woods was back on track after his months of problems, the train came completely off the tracks at Quail Hollow as Tiger faces more problems with rumors on his marriage and now a game that is in a terrible state. What does all of this mean?
Does anyone other than myself feel that it's a bit "deja vu" that on the lowest day of Tiger Woods career, the leader of the Quail Hollow Championship would be Billy Mayfair, the only player that has gone mano-a-mano with Tiger Woods in a playoff and win. Unfortunately for Mayfair his rounds of 68-68, 17 shots better to Woods probably won't be remembered. It's also a bit of "deja vu" that Angel Cabrera, who is just one shot off the lead, played with Tiger and with his 70-67 round beat Woods by a crushing 16 shots, the highest beating that Woods has ever seen by a fellow competitor in his pairings on the PGA Tour.
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In his 5-minute interview with ESPN's Tom Rinaldi, Tiger Woods said that the previous months had lot's of days of lows, but you have to wonder if Friday's round of 79 will be put on the top of the list in his golfing career. The 79 ranks as the second-worst round in Woods' professional career (worst in a non-major as a pro) in which he has played 894 rounds. His only higher score, an 81, came during the 2002 British Open when Woods played in near hurricane conditions for most of his round and during the height of the storm Woods was 11 over in his first 14 holes.
Now if you count his 15 times that he played as an amateur, for a total of 255 events Woods 36 hole total of 153 was the second worst total surpassed by his 157 total at the 1994 Arnold Palmer Invitational when in only his fifth time he played on the PGA Tour as a 18 year old he shot rounds of 80-77.
As part of Woods round of 79 on Friday, he shot 43 on the back-nine matching his worst nine-hole score in his pro career history, joining the fourth round of the 2007 Arnold Palmer and the second round of the 1996 Tour Championship. In watching it, Woods seemed to have given up and not care any more, the low point had to be on the 15th green when he three putted from 5 feet in putts that he never seemed to try and hit his second and third putts right after the ball stopped. Now many say it's the first time he looked like he quit, but in missing the cut at the 2006 U.S. Open and the 2009 British Open he also looked like he had given up.
Some other low lights of his week at Quail Hollow, it's only his sixth missed cuts in 241 starts as a professional. Woods last missed a cut was at the 2009 British Open in July. Before that it was the 2006 U.S. Open. Woods' last missed cut in a non-major was the 2005 Children's Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney World. Between the 1997 Canadian Open and the 2005 EDS Byron Nelson, Woods went a record 142 PGA Tour events without missing a cut.
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For the week in Charlotte, Woods hit 20 of 36 greens, 9 on Thursday and 11 on Friday. He didn't beat his worst which was at the 2006 U.S. Open when he hit only 18 of 36 greens, hitting only 8 on that Friday at Winged Foot. Now Woods has had bad rounds before, but putting always seemed to help him out, at Charlotte Woods took 62 putts. So overall it's a toss-up on which event was worst, this week's Quail Hollow Championship or his 2006 U.S. Open performance. One thing that we all know was that Tiger's father Earl had died two months before and that made a difference on his game, lack of preparation and total lack of caring. Woods acknowledged his poor play at Winged Foot and said that he didn't properly prepare and vowed that it would never happen again. He went home from Winged Foot and appeared three weeks later in Chicago and finished T2nd in the Western Open and then two weeks later started one of the greatest streaks in golf in which he won the British Open followed by wins in the Buick Open, PGA Championship WGC-Bridgestone, Deutsche Bank Championship, WGC American Express and then started the year with a win at the Buick Invitational. That was seven straight victories.
Could this happen again? On Thursday Woods is playing at the Players Championship, could he all of a sudden be a different player and come out guns blazing to win? Very doubtful. There is a lot things that we don't know behind the scenes that are probably causing all of this. Of course we have to speculate because Woods will not tell us but just look at some of the facts.
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Even his missed cuts of late have had some reasons. We talked about the death of his father in 2006 having a major role in missing the 2006 U.S. Open. His other missed cut since then in last year's British Open has a lot of mystery to it. He shot 71-74 and after he missed the cut on Friday, talked briefly with the media and then blew out of sight. The next day rumors started circulating that there was some problems between Elin and Woods as Elin showed up unexpectedly to Scotland and the two had some sort of argument. Of course most of us dismissed this as being a terrible rumor and when Woods showed up three weeks later and won the Buick Open and the WGC Bridgestone the next week, problems between Woods and Elin were dismissed.
It's funny how you remember things and since the U.S. Open at Bethpage I started noticing a change. At press conferences Woods seemed impatient and arrogant. When Woods lost to Y.E. Yang at the PGA Championship, Woods didn't seem to pay Yang the respect for the accomplishment that he achieved. Of course I thought that Woods was so shell shocked over what happened but I have seen Woods lose before and he has always been very respectful to the winner. Woods impatience carried over to the golf course in his cursing rages and club throwing. At the Deutsche Bank Championship and the Australian Masters, some of the clubs were thrown so far that they went over those in the gallery. In some of my recaps I noted this and the fact that Woods just didn't seem to be having fun anymore, as he admitted to us over the last month.
Of course we want to follow through with Woods pleas for privacy and not cite any of those gossip and tabloid reports, but frankly about 75% of them have been spot on. So since Woods will not say anything on the state of his marriage we have to wonder if that is the reason for some of his problems of late. Again I don't mean to speculate but you have to look at some of these facts.
First how can Tiger on February 19th tell us in a very poignant speech that he has no idea on when he is returning to golf, hoping it would be sometime in 2010 and then less than a month later say he is playing in the Masters? At the same time of the announcement, tabloid and gossip sites were for a week reporting that Elin had made up her mind of divorcing Woods. We have to also wonder why Elin wasn't at that announcement on February 19th or any other time? Again very weird.
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We also have to wonder what effect and truth are in the reports of Woods revealing to Elin affairs with 120 different women during his five year marriage and that the one affair that he didn't admit to Elin was of a neighbor girl, which has upset Elin. Also I have to think that the Sports Illustrated report in which they say that a quarter of the pros in there survey think Woods has used steroids was very hurtful for Woods who has been adamant in not taking steroids. Again, after these reports surfaced Woods played his worst tournament ever, maybe he is human after all?
Woods has said that he lived a life of a lie, frankly if Woods marriage is over and he is not saying anything could this be the continuation of the lie? Many including Tiger would say it's none of our business but for a person that makes over a billion dollars in playing a sport he has to be a bit upfront, especially when he plays terrible. To give Woods the benefit of the doubt who knows if the marriage is just staying together on a trend and Woods is trying to quietly out of the spotlight repair things. Still I shake my head when I see what has gone down in the last six months, how the mainstream golf press have been very good with Tiger and reported things very fairly. If Woods would of been as upfront with the media back in December, things wouldn't of been so screwed up. The same with this, if Woods would just tell the media that his marriage has problems that may not be survivable I would say that the main stream golf press would be very respective and most of this talk about rumors would cease. But of course Woods has to control this and he is doing his best to put his finger in a dam that frankly has major cracks around and will burst.
One thing that Tiger has achieved is his temper and attitude with fans and media. Despite the terrible golf, Woods not once showed any fit of anger, he was also gracious with the gallery and fans, despite the terrible round Woods was respectful and talked with Golf Channel and the media and was as pleasant as possible.
All of this is sad but is all part of human nature. You look at the career of Jack Nicklaus, he had a slow point between his 1967 U.S. Open and 1970 British Open wins. In that period of time he had a complete change over, in his attitude toward his family and made that a priority, he changed his look my losing weight and becoming more stylish. After that between 1970 and 1980 was the most productive period that any golfer ever had, he won 40 times and ten of them were majors.
Before Woods got married, Nicklaus said tough and cheek, "Marriage is the hardest part of playing good golf" But at the same time he told writer Joe Logan when Woods got married, "He will have somebody to share it with, to do it for and when he has kids, his kids will keep him playing," Nicklaus said. "Tiger may say in three or four years that he's had enough, or he may refocus and win 30 majors. Who knows?"
But at the same time have to wonder what Tiger's father Earl had in mind with this statement in the June 9th, 2001 issue of TV Guide: "And let's face it, a wife can sometimes be a deterrent to a good game of golf," he adds. "The level he's at, the finite little problems like that would destroy him." Boy scary looking at that statement now nine years later.
Frankly I feel that these are just small steps in the life of Tiger Woods that will get worked out, weather it's with Elin or not. Tiger is too good to let all of this bring him down. I just wonder if Woods would of been better off just not playing right now, working things out privately and once it did get worked out with or without Elin come out and play. Because what happened during the weekend of the Masters and the first two rounds at Quail Hollow is not helping anyone and has to be pure torture for him. But again, it was Woods problems and transgressions that have caused all of this and these are all the things that have to be worked out.
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Sal Johnson
Tiger gave both ESPN and Golf Channel five minute interviews that aired on Sunday night. The question is did they really tell us anything new and was this just another way that Tiger is manipulating the media and getting us away from what really happened? On top of that, Tiger's news will get front page news instead of Jim Furyk's Transitions win, it this right?
Sorry Tiger but why are you wasting all of this time and effort playing these kind of games? Sure you've admitted guilt in this sex scandal but again your just giving us bit's and pieces on this subject and there is so much more that we need to know.
In the surprised interviews that Kelly Tilghman of Golf Channel and Tom Rinaldi of ESPN did, they both did a great job with very little to work with, five minutes is a complete joke. Tilghman seemed to get the best questions and answers out of Woods but frankly I came away from both interviews not learning anything new. In a way it's what Woods has done his whole career, being a sound bite for the local 11 pm news but really not telling us anything that we already knew.
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In the total of ten minutes or so of Q&A, you seemed sincere and humbled but frankly Tiger we aren't buying this crap any more. Your being as sneaky in this form of telling us of about you're scandal as you were in the numerous affairs that you had with over a dozen woman. I can understand your concern with some of the questions and honestly can understand your answer of this being you're business but this manner of just five minutes was not even close enough. I can only hope that the rumors are true that in two weeks on Easter Sunday your going to be on 60 minutes, in a form and with people that will ask the kind of questions that your fans really want to know.
Tiger we aren't looking to find out any of the details of your affairs or why you did it, we aren't looking for any more "sincere revelations" on how wrong these affairs were. We are looking for more answers on things like why you decided to get treated by Dr. Anthony Galea, the physician that is under scrutiny for allegedly providing drugs to athletes. Enquiring minds want to know first of all why you had to endure blood spinning treatments, was something wrong with you're knee that was surgically repaired? We also want to know if the FBI has questioned you like they did of New York Mets Jose Reyes and if so what was the line of questioning? But we really want to know why Dr. Galea, a doctor who wasn't licensed in Florida, treated you in the months after your comeback on the knee that you told us wasn't a problem anymore.
Tiger you also refused to answer why on Thanksgiving night you were in your car at 2:30 in the morning leaving your house. Your answer is that it's all in the police report and part of the public record. Tiger the police report doesn't give a reason for you leaving your house so what was up? Also why did you refuse questions from the police in the days after the accident? It doesn't make sense.
Tiger you told Kelly Tilghman that nobody in your inner circle knew of your affairs and misdoings. But who was the one that cut the deal with National Enquirer in 2007 to cover up the photos they had of you with the pancake house woman in your car having sex? You appeared in a men's fitness magazine in return for the photos not being published did you do that deal yourself? Also been reported that Bryon Bell, your boyhood friend and president of Tiger Woods design, bought Rachel Uchitel's plane ticket to Australia in October. Another mistress Jamie Jungers, has said that Bell would coordinate flights for her according to a report in News of the World? Also did Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley have anything to do in any of this? Rumors has Jordan introducing you to Uchitel. While were on the subject of Uchitel, did she get paid off for her silence?
Tiger you have now admitted being in a Mississippi clinic for treatments but what are the treatments, you refuse to tell Rinaldi what it was? You have told the media that you took Vicoden to help control the pain before your knee was treated, did you acquire an addiction to Vicoden, Ambien or any other prescription drug? Where you in the clinic to help with this?
Tiger I also am wondering on your timing for your announcement on February 19th. If you were coming back at the Masters and only going away for a short period of time to Arizona, why couldn't the announcement wait a week or two? Did it have to come during the Accenture Match Play championship, whose sponsor drop you? Why the rush and why give the indication that you were going to be away from the game for possibly the whole year and then three weeks later announce a return at the Masters? Very strange on the timing.
Tiger I am also happy about your return to Buddhism and the bracelet your wearing for strength and protection. It's funny how many people in trouble find religion again and I hope it helps you the same with Ellin, she has to be a saint to even be talking with you. Tiger it's nice to see you pointing in the right direction but people aren't buying these announcements, five minute sound bites and your controlling attitude over this. Frankly if I was running ESPN or Golf Channel I wouldn't of been a part of this five minute interview because it doesn't answer the questions that many would like answered. I hear that CBS passed on the interview opportunity, I really think that it's time to answer the questions that your fans really want answered. We welcome your return but until your more forthright on things, your creating a tougher time because even more enquiring minds want to know what happened and until you answer most of these questions your creating the biggest circus of all time. We welcome you back but frankly it's not helping the game and the PGA Tour to have you back for the Masters, yes lots will be following it but that Championship may have to be renamed "Tiger's return to Augusta".
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Sal Johnson
Today Tiger Woods got more attention than a president or head of state, the big question that is being ask is if it was a total stage sham to regain sponsors and fans or a true apology in which Woods plans to change his life.
So Tiger Woods finally did what he needed to do back in December and frankly I was impressed with his candor and straight forward account of all this. Many are saying that it was a great acting job, that Woods paid hundred of thousands for speech writers to pen today's words and that it was a total sham as it wasn't from the heart and just a read speech. I have been told from insiders from the Tiger camp that this was totally written by Woods, with some small edits from some of his PR staff and that this was his thoughts, not some speech ghost writer.
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What is amazing about this whole process, every network in America broke into normal programming to show the announcement, all of the major golf websites ran the speech. What is really scary over all of this, Woods commanded more time than the President of the United States. There was no way that Obama could of made any live comments at the 11 o'clock hour because Woods was in just about every home, office and venue. I can bet you for a two hour stretch between 11 and 1, productivity around the world dropped as a good many folks, weather you were a golfer or not watched.
If I am a Brian Roberts, the CEO of Comcast who owns Golf Channel, I would see the tremendous future of the internet on a world wide basis and how you are able to distribute a product like Golf Central around the world via the internet. In talking with John Huggan who lives in Scotland, he was watching the whole hour and a half Golf Channel stream and told me he wished that he was able to get Golf Channel over there, even on the internet. But we are straying in a different direction.
First of all this was a staged event that Woods had 100% power over. As one person told me "Tiger is a bit insecure at times and he wanted to be in a atmosphere that he felt comfortable about, family, friends and people that worked for him." Some have called it a bit "uncomfortable" with the blue drapes in the background, still this was all put on to make Woods as comfortable as possible.
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Here are a couple of items that Woods talked about. One glaring absentee from the announcement was Tiger's wife Elin, it shows that she isn't 100% behind him at this moment and despite Woods comments of trying to work it out, until she publicly shows support there will always be rumors. Now I fully agree in what Woods said about keeping his marriage and family life private, we shouldn't be prying into this but the human factor has to be addressed and that is if Elin will stick around or leave him, we will just have to wait to find that out.
Woods addressed how he has let everyone down including his family, friends, business associates and fans. This along with him talking about his foundation is important because he has been a role model for so many folks and that is now shattered. His foundation, which does require charitable acts of others is not receiving the same funding and this has to be a concern. In all of these apologies Woods had a very somber and sad look. Of course he could of been acting during the whole speech but he looked very serious, disappointed and like a deer caught in headlights. In looking at the 14 minutes speech again, there was no smile or any look on his face other than dismay and sadness.
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Tiger also talked about being in rehab for 45 days, never mention which one but more importantly addressed the rumor mill about him and Elin, that Elin never hit him, use of performance enhancing drugs and the tabloid reports on his family. He was firm on the fact that there has never been any domestic violence in their marriage and that Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal. He also said that he never has used performance enhancing drugs, which honestly most golf writers believe to be true. But the one thing that he seemed angry about was the false news story on him and his family. Sorry Tiger nobody buys what you said because frankly you or your people never responded when these stories came out. The whole problem of today's admission is that if he would of done this the first of December, all of these reports and lies wouldn't of gotten out of hand. Now it's easy for me to make the statement, in talking with some folks the picture painted back in the first part of December was a very defiant Woods and one who was very lost. Nobody knows what broke Tiger of all this to finally seek help, but it seems that the rehab has been able to let Tiger focus more on what happened and why it happened. Who knows, maybe Elin leaving and taking the children away in December helped Tiger realize that he needed help, but it seems in talking with some that by going through the rehab it refocused his life.
Woods also talked about Buddhism and how he had drifted away from it over the last couple of years. He talked about the importance that he had gotten in therapy on his spiritual life and keeping it all balanced in his professional life. More importantly despite not saying when he will return to golf, he said how much he needed to make his behavior more respectful of the game. Hopefully that means that all of the cursing, spiting and club throwing will cease. It's really important because between the British Open and his win in Australia it had gotten out of hand.
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Sorry to also drag Tim Finchem into this, but I feel that the commissioner didn't do his job in agreeing with this. If Finchem would of put his foot down and demand a Monday conference things would of been different. Not to bring up this ugly fact, but we are in the seventh week of the 2010 season and every week but the AT&T has had conflict and problems. This isn't very good for sponsors, fans and those from television that pay the big bucks.
Tiger now needs to face the music and meet the press. I am not talking about the TMZ's, the National Enquirer or the News of the World but the golfing media that have followed him for all of these years. It's not going to be pretty for him, a lot of media folks are not happy with him and we have always gotten a half ass Tiger that seems to just want to give us a piece or two of his life and feelings. The same with his fans, Tiger needs to spend more time with the kids, not those kids that are used as props for his newest sponsors that pay him millions. Woods can spend 15 to 20 minutes a day to sign autographs, it's a part of being a pro. I have seen Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els spend 40 minutes to an hour signing for the kids.
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We don't know when Woods will be back, he left it opened ended and in a weird way. This is the way he put it
"I do plan to return to golf one day. I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out that it will be this year."
Would of loved to see Tim Finchem's face when Tiger said that but the fact is that golf doesn't seem that important for Tiger right now. As others have said I think that he is trying to work out his marriage and after that comes to some conclusion he will be back. Since the first part of December, when the reality of all this was knowledge, I have had this feeling that Woods wouldn't return to the game for a year. Of course he is in a quest for Jack's record and this year's venue's is perfect for him. Frankly, Augusta will always be there so if he misses the Masters is no big deal. But Pebble and St. Andrews are shoe-ins for him and have to be at the top of his mind. I see him coming back in May at possibly the Wachovia, Players and Memorial before tackling the three majors.
We will always speculate, if we didn't, we wouldn't be human. I want to give Tiger the benefit of the doubt on today's speech and say this, if he doesn't change and if we find out, which we will, that Woods was blowing smoke up our rear ends he will be discredited by not only members of the press but golf fans. There is going to be zero toleration of anything Woods does in the future, he is going to have every paparazzi following him around, there will be even more woman that will love to see if they could break him of his vows. Many think of today's actions as the biggest sham in golf, that Woods was play acting and not sincere. No too ways about it, this time next year we will know what the truth is and I just hope for golf and for Woods and his family that things will be different in the future.
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Many are wondering when Tiger Woods will come back, could it be at the WGC-Ca, or the Travistock, Masters or the U.S. Open? Could Tiger sit out the year, nobody knows and it's all pure speculation.
Talking about speculation, over the Christmas holiday I viewed for the 50th time the great Jimmy Stewart movie "It's a Wonderful Life" and it gave me a thought, what would the PGA Tour and golf be without Tiger Woods? What would be the framework of the PGA Tour, who would be it's stars, how much money would they be playing for and would golf be better if Woods was never born?
Think about this question, here is my take along with Robinson Holloway on how we feel the PGA Tour would be like if Tiger Woods was never born. Then give us your thoughts in our comment board on the bottom of the page.
Sal Johnson
Publisher - GolfObserver
--------------------------------A man stands thoughtfully on the Mississippi 42 Bridge, near where the Bouie River meets the Leaf in Hattiesburg. Earlier that evening he had sent his Stanford-cap wearing decoy out into another part of the city with the paparazzi in tow.
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“The world would be a better place if I had never lived,” he sobs, rocking back and forth on the edge of the bridge. A split second after Eldrick finishes his self-pitying sentence, guardian angel Bob Rosburg appears at his side and says, “Jury’s still out on that one, Tiger.”
“And damned if I am going to do the Clarence the angel/Jimmy Stewart crap and jump into the river to have you save me -- we’re going to go straight to the part where I show you what the world would be like without you.”
“Rossi!? But you’re dead. Am I dead?”
“Don’t be stupid, Tiger, of course you are alive – but the world I am about to show you is the one that would have been if you had never been born. Wipe your face -- you’re a mess. Let’s go.”
The first stop the two men make is Augusta National, where the annual gathering of past Masters winners, the Champions Dinner, is just beginning. Eldrick looks around, surprised to see several unexpected people wearing green jackets.
“Monty won the Masters? How did that happen?”
“Monty won it back in ’97,” Rosburg explains. “You weren’t there to intimidate and demoralize him in his third round pairing, so instead of shooting 74-81 on the weekend, he shot 70-71 and won by 2 over Tom Kite. It wasn’t a particularly exciting tournament, and CBS wasn’t even nominated for an Emmy.”
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“He’s on a fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico. Did you really think that Mark O’Meara would have started winning majors at age 41 if you hadn’t been around to push and inspire him? David Duval won the ‘98 Masters in a playoff over Fred Couples.”
“Where’s David, Rossi? Oh, I see him. Man, he’s gotten fat. Not as fat as Monty, of course. In fact, almost everyone here looks a little soft and chubby.”
“That’s because you weren’t around, Tiger, to show people that strength training wouldn’t inhibit golf performance. Players still fear that getting muscular will produce the Keith Clearwater effect and ruin their careers.”
Eldrick notices that most of the attention in the room is on Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els, who seem to be having a falsely convivial conversation. “What’s up with Phil and Ernie, Rossi?”
“Ah. Those two are the great rivals of the last decade or so. It’s been truly thrilling as each has battled the other at multiple majors, and both are tied with six apiece. They hate each other, of course, and are both desperate to win a seventh major this week and pass Nick Faldo as the greatest golfer since the Nicklaus and Watson era ended.”
“Can we hang out here a while? I’d like to listen to the stories. Never mind, I just saw [expletive] Sergio in a green jacket -- can we go, please?”
“Sure, we’ve still got lots to see. Though I can’t promise we won’t run into Sergio again -- in fact, I promise we will.
Hmm,” says Rossi, considering. “I wonder if should I take you to see the empty lots where Nike doesn’t manufacture golf equipment, or the fields and parks where golf courses haven’t been built because there was no eagerness to exploit the Tiger boom in the game. Nah, you know what, let’s just walk over to the Masters Media Center.”
“Not my favorite place on these grounds,” grumbles Eldrick.
“Hey! The 1st tee is way up where it used to be!”
“Mm hmm. No Tiger-proofing needed. Keep walking.”
The two men enter the large, light-filled building just off the first fairway and walk unseen past the Pinkerton guards. Eldrick picks up a copy of Golf World magazine and glances at the cover: Rickie Fowler: the Next Nicklaus at last?
Rosburg looks over Eldrick’s shoulder and chuckles. “When you were around, Tiger, we finally got a break from that ‘next Nicklaus’ crap. Without you, it pops up almost every time a kid shoots a 64.”
Flipping through the magazine, Eldrick comes across this headline: Commissioner Norton Has A Plan.
“Hughes [expletive] Norton is the PGA Tour commissioner? [Expletives].”
“Yep. Golf wasn’t growing fast enough to satisfy the players, and after Finchem couldn’t negotiate revenue increases in the TV contracts, Norton came over from IMG to try to save the day. Purses have gone up a bit -- last year’s was a record with two players crossing the $4 million mark. There may not be the hundreds of millions that you brought to the game, but these sons of bitches are still playing golf for a lot more money than Dow Finsterwald and I ever saw. Even the TV networks are making money with golf, and because of that ABC and ESPN are still televising the Tour.
“The PGA Tour is a quieter place without you, but individual tournaments are stronger, because there is no FedExCup and no WGCs to weaken their fields. And there are still Buick courtesy cars at every event -- by not changing their advertising and sticking to their niche in the older demographic, Buick has been keeping GM afloat these days. ”
Eldick shakes his head as he follows Rossi into the huge amphitheatre where the world’s media gather to cover the Masters, and sees that it is largely empty. “Where are all of the golf writers? Never thought I’d ever ask that question.”
“First of all, it’s dinner and cocktail time, so many of the writers that are here in Augusta have already left the building. But even if we had gotten here earlier you would have seen a lot of empty spaces in the rows of desks. Print media is dying, and that has nothing to do with whether or not you are alive or dead, but as far as golf goes, few sports departments want to spend the money to cover a minor sport that is seen as boring and full of fat white men.
“I think we’ve spent enough time here,” says Rosburg with snap of his fingers. “Let’s go to St Andrews.”
Eldrick’s ears are assaulted by the riotous cheering and applause from the grandstands that line the 18th green of the Old Course, and he blinks rapidly as his eyes adjust to the blinding sunlight. “Who is that coming up, Rossi? I can’t tell.”
“It’s Sergio. You are about to witness a great moment in golf history. Sergio Garcia is about to become the fifth man to win the career grand slam, the first since Nicklaus did it in ‘66. After he won the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah at age 19, everyone thought that he would be the next Nicklaus, or at least the next Seve, but it wasn’t until he got married and settled down a few years ago that he has started playing to his potential.”
Eldrick grimaces as he watches Garcia putt out for the historic win and bow to the rapturous gallery. “Wow, the crowds here really love the little punk, don’t they? Look at his smug little grin. Wait, who’s that? ELIN??!!? He’s married to Elin? Noooooooooooo!”
“Yep. She’s been the making of him. Lovely girl. They seem very happy. Cute kids, too.”
“Send me back, Rossi, send me back,” wails the anguished Eldrick. “Don’t let Sergio have my wife and kids! Let me try to make things better. I’ll be faithful, I won’t curse and throw clubs, I’ll sign more autographs than [expletive] Mickelson and Palmer put together. I promise I’ll put as much effort into regaining everyone’s trust as I did in perfecting my stinger shot. Please, please Rossi!”
“Well, I do have better things to do with my time than to wander through alternate universes with you. You were a jerk in your last life, and a bit of a whiner in this one. But I’ll be watching you -- don’t make me come back down again!”
Rosburg snaps his fingers and once again Eldrick Tiger Woods is a solitary figure on that bridge in Mississippi.
As he reclaims his place in heaven, Rosburg is stopped by Clarence the winged angel, who asks him if he thinks Tiger Woods will return to golf a changed man.
“He’s got no shot.”
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OK, there is our take on what we feel golf would be like if Tiger Woods wasn't born, the big question, what would you think. Below in our comment form we give you a spot to give us your thoughts, be as creative as you can and let's see who has the best take on this guestion.
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George White
George has been a journalist for over 40 years. He wrote sports for the Houston Chronicle for 19 years and the Orlando Sentinel for 7 years. In 1994 he was one of the first people hired at the Golf Channel, were he started a career as an on-air talent, then moved over as one of the first writers of Golf Central and then their website. White retired from the Golf Channel after 12 years at the end of 2006. He writes an occasion column for GolfObserver.
When Paul Azinger was 16, he was just another tall kid fueling boats and peddling fishing supplies at his dad’s boat marina in Bradenton, Fla.
When he was 33, he had advanced all the way to the pinnacle of golf, defeating Greg Norman in a playoff for the PGA Championship.
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Last year at age 49, he was again the toast of the golf world, having yanked America’s Ryder Cup program out of an eight-year quagmire, dating from 1999 to 2008, with a monstrous victory over the plucky Europeans.
And now, at age 50, he’s about to enter yet another dramatic life juncture. This week he’s starting his Champion’s Tour career, making his debut at the ACE Classic in Naples, Fla. Is it really possible? He knows that it certainly is, but he also admits that the 33-rear-old Zinger would never have foreseen it.
“I played the (regular) tour for 28 years,” he said. “When I first started, that (playing the Champions Tour) would have been something I would have never considered.
“There was no such thing as a Champions Tour or Senior Tour. There were no cell phones, no cable TV, you know, so it's a different world. I'm glad that I've made it, I'm looking forward to playing. It's a different mindset, though, I have to say.”
It’s happened to so many golfers, the ones who say they won’t be playing when they turn 50 – and then they can’t bear to stash the clubs in the closet just because they reach that magic age. It happened to Jack Nicklaus. It happened to Curtis Strange. It happened to Lee Trevino. And now, Azinger can finally see what all the fuss is about.
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What if he isn’t really competitive? What if he isn’t really a threat to win? What if the others have passed him up, guys who are in their 50s and who are successful once again? It may happen – or not. But this time around, he says he’s going to approach the game of golf a little differently.
“I'm not going to stress about it,” said Zinger. “I'm just going to play the first shot and enjoy the round. I think if you put expectations, it's like (putting) the cart ahead of the horse. I’m just going to try to embrace this whole idea that I can be competitive, compete.”
He doesn’t know what to expect out here, what with everything that’s going on – and has gone on – in his life. He still hasn’t truly come down from the high of being the winning Ryder Cup captain. He’s about to come out with a book that details that fantastic year of 2008, and he will be doing a book tour in May. He’s doing an iPhone app – of the 140,000 apps on iPhone, it’s already ranked 15th, he says. “It's a golf app, it's a golfing GPS, 30,000 courses on it,” he says proudly.
But when you’ve been a world-class athlete, you really want to compete. You want to test yourself against other athletes, especially when they are your age. For Paul Azinger, an athlete he has always admired is Fred Couples. Couples is also a rookie on the Champions Tour and playing in Naples this week.
“Fred is one of the biggest draws in the game, and has been for 25 or more years, since '81, since he won his first-ever tournament at Congressional. Everybody loves him,” said Azinger.
“I think he's great. I would turn on the TV to watch him play golf. I would look for that. If I saw in the paper where he was playing well, I would look for Fred Couples to watch him on TV. There's not a lot of players you can say that about, but he's one of them.”
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“It's probably about just their desire to stay competitive, and I think I still have that desire,” said Zinger. “I want to be competitive, I want to be able to compete, but I want to embrace it and enjoy it for what it is. It's like your reward for being able to hang in there as long as I did on Tour, and that's an honest assessment of the way I feel. I look forward to playing it.”
The first time Azinger walked into the locker room at Naples, he got excited again. There was a legend at every turn, a superstar every five feet.
“The first person I saw was Curtis, and he’s great,” said Azinger. “It’s just been great to see everybody. Everybody’s kind of waving and saying, ‘Hey, we know can beat you, you’re not a threat.’
“When I look at the names on that list, it’s like a Who’s Who in the game of golf. I know every single person on that list. I can’t say that about the regular tour, you know? These are stars, every one of them are stars, and it’s a shame they don’t get more recognition. They can play.”
Azinger can play, has played, and has winner’s trophies from a lot of big tournaments. He’s coached the winning Ryder Cuppers. He’s broadcast the game, now he’s written about the game.
But this week is a unique experience, indeed. This is golf from the lap of the legends, and Zinger is just thrilled to be here.
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The problems of golf are reaching ridiculous levels as the PGA Show is a bust, tournaments are complaining on were players play, one player accuses Phil Mickelson of cheating over playing a legal club, CBS did not rehire Peter Oosterhuis for 2010 and yes there was golf as D.A. Points and Ryuji Imada are your leaders
Just to remind you that at Torrey Pines, after the second round D.A. Points is tied with Ryuji Imada at 11 under par. Just thought that I would bring that up because you may find it hard to find as the storylines in golf are more on the little children of golf pissing and moaning away over really stupid things. Honestly I think that most of golf needs a reality check and spend a couple of days in Haiti were a couple of thousand people a day are dying from lack of food, dysentery, and every wrath of God brought on by the Earthquake a couple of weeks ago.
Were do I begin? Should start from were I am at, the 57th PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida. Have to admit, after being in Washington D.C. for the last six weeks in freezing conditions, it was nice to eat dinner outside under clear skies and in a T-shirt. It was the highlight of a day which pointed to the reality of the times, the golf business is in the dumper right now. Yes in some circles you will read that 1,000 companies are showing off their wares with 40,000 golf buyers waiting to spend and stock the world with the newest equipment, clothes, gadgets and every thing that a golf would love.
Only problem, if there were 40,000 people at the show, I must of been in the wrong place, there couldn't of been more than 10,000 and that is being generous on my part. I have been a regular attendee of this show for the last 15 years and for the first time they no longer scan your badge to get in, guess it's easier just to guess the attendance instead of having hard core numbers.
The excitement of the day was when I went through the hall for about the 5th time at 4pm and the folks that were in a booth disappeared, yes they were there earlier showing off there golf stuff of tees, towels, divot fixtures and the first tee gift stuff that you get free of charge for in tournaments. But hours later they were gone, the booth was empty with no sign of them, I just hope it wasn't a family emergency or anything serious.
The word for this year's show is resiliency because it's hard to find anything new and fresh to write about. In talking with one rep from Callaway he told me, "The days of people plucking down $500 for a golf club is just about over, our site with used clubs outsells the purchase of new clubs."
In eating dinner my thoughts were on the possible implosion of this show, it's not the fault of the people that run it because its the sign of the times. I saw it last month in attending the Auto Show in Los Angeles, instead of close to 25,000 people looking at new cars they had more like 2,500 in attendance. In two weeks I am suppose to fly to San Francisco for a show called MacWorld, which use to be the biggest exhibit of Macintosh equipment and third party hardware and software. But with Apple deciding not to come this year, I wonder if it's worth the course country trip as many are saying that big conventions just don't work in the internet world.
If it's not bad enough here in Orlando, around the professional tournaments there is nothing but conflicts, bitching, acusations of cheating even though it's legal and more embarrassment for the players that people love to watch the most. The first was Lee Westwood, who last week missed the cut with clubs that to him felt like fishing rods. Of course his company Ping, who over the years have paid him millions of dollars to say good things about the clubs, flew into Qatar a rep that got him all set up with a new set of clubs. Guess the clubs don't feel like fishing rods anymore.
The line up of PGA Tour regulars that have been in the desert of the United Emirates the last two weeks could of easily made the Hope or San Diego very happy. Players like Geoff Ogilvy, Anthony Kim, Paul Casey, Kenny Perry, Camilo Villegas, Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen and Todd Hamilton to name of few have been paid generous appearance fees to go halfway around the world to play, yes we can't blame them. But over in the United States, the folks that run the Hope event and Scott McCarron have been creating a bit of a stink saying that they should be playing at home. Frankly I agree a bit but I disagree for two reasons. If you get a first class ticket to fly around the world and a quarter of a million dollars to show up, then have a chance of winning three hundred thousand dollars, it would make the decision a bit easier. Second, professionals have so many opportunities and a tournament has to be more savvy in getting them to come. Look at what Jerry West is doing for the Northern Trust, or what Justin Timberlake is doing for his event in Las Vegas. On top of that, players have lost there patience in playing 90 holes in the desert on four different courses. It's like television ratings, if a show is good people will watch, if people don't watch they will get a bad time slot or be replaced. To complain about something like players going elsewhere is not the fault of the PGA Tour or the players, just make your event more attractive and they will come.
Now of course we have to figure out a way of getting Tiger Woods in this piece and for the folks that attended the Farmers Insurance Open the last two days, they have been amused by a airplane flying around with a sign behind it saying, "We miss you Tiger" along with the name of a strip club in San Diego. Oh, I called up the strip club just to hear there welcome, "Tiger, we miss you." Not the kind of things that the PGA Tour wants to be associated with but since Tiger Woods has allowed his story to get completely unchecked things like this are happening.
Guess that in the near future there will be signs at tournaments that say "We miss you John" with the announcement from Daly that he was leaving competitive golf. Of course this is part of a piece on a John Daly reality show that will be on Golf Channel next month. Who knows if this is just a ploy to get more folks to watch shows or if he will change his mind and be at the AT&T in two weeks, since he does have a sponsor invite. Daly has not had a good start to his year, missing the cut at the Sony and San Diego, but he is ready to chuck it in after only two events, wow.
Honestly this isn't a new thing for Daly, he hasn't played well since he missed a two footer to lose a playoff against Tiger Woods at the 2005 WGC-American Express. He got into a car, drove from San Francisco to Las Vegas and dropped a million and a half dollars playing the slots. Again we feel sorry for Daly, he could be one of the games great attractions and help the PGA Tour but he is nothing more than a quitter, guess we have to watch Golf Channel for the John Daly show to see how bad he is.
This week was the grand entrance of Phil Mickelson who is suppose to be the great hope of the PGA Tour with Tiger on leave. Unfortunely he dropped a bit of a bomb by saying he won't play in the Match Play Championship, putting another damper on a event that prides itself with having the best players participate. Still we can't judge Mickelson for this, since he has to go off on a family vacation that week. Many will wonder why Phil picked that week, in the last five months he has only played two weeks so he couldn't take that family vacation then?
Talking about Phil, he is getting a bad rap from many including Scott McCarron, over his choice of playing a Ping Eye 2 lob wedge. Yes the grooves are illegal, but an 18 year old agreement between the USGA and Ping makes it legal. So what does McCarron, who has been busy bitching about things these day, do? Tells a media guy that Phil is "cheating" by playing the wedge, Scott sorry but your a bit over the top on this.
But while we are talking about Phil, we should take a deep examination into some of Mickelson's reasons for doing things. On the wedge, I think it's a ploy on Phil's part to give the USGA and the PGA Tour the blame for allowing this to happen. Back at the Barclays, Phil had a rather heated discussion on this topic with the man in charge of making equipment rules, Dick Rugge. In the last couple of months Mickelson along with his sponsor Callaway have made up several wedges for Phil that they say are within the guidelines of the rules and have not gotten USGA approval for these clubs. Phil is also not happy that the PGA Tour went along with the rule change so what better way of protesting something as finding a loophole in the rule and let everyone fight this out in the media. The PGA Tour and the USGA both know that you can never win a fight if you have the combatants fighting it out in the media and that is what is happening making them look terrible for causing this mess in the first place. I can bet you that in private Phil is having a laugh or two over all of this controversy because he has made his point, how can you have a rule that has loopholes in it? The point in all of this, don't mess around with Phil because he will make you pay for something that he doesn't agree with.
This week is the first week of network television as CBS is on the case. But what the golf fan doesn't know yet is that one of there stars, Peter Oosterhuis won't be a part of most of the CBS telecasts this year. His contract ran out last month and CBS who is looking to save a million dollars this year decided not to renew it. So it means that Oosty, who has manned the tower at 17 for close to 20 years won't be a part of CBS telecasts. Now the news isn't completely bad, CBS did sign him up for the Masters and the PGA Championship so he will be a part of those telecasts. While CBS was discarding one of the most popular announcers of all time, Golf Channel saw a golden opportunity and they hired him to do all of the Thursday and Friday telecasts that they do with CBS. So we won't totally lose Oosterhuis. Sky Sports in England also jumped into action, Oosterhuis has done Sky for years and now he will now be a part of seven of their live PGA Tour coverage, giving folks in England a better understanding of the game. So I guess the good news is that Oosterhuis won't fall off the face of the golfing world like Steve Melnyk did when ABC showed him the door several years ago.
All of this is unfortunate and it's not helping golf one bit. Guess we will see in the next couple of weeks and months the real worth of Tim Finchem as he has nothing but a sea of problems on his hands.
Sorry to bring this up instead of a recap but frankly that is becoming the problem. Writing about D.A. Points and Ryuji Imada sharing the 36 hole lead of a tournament that in a year has gone from the Buick Invitational to the Century Club of San Diego Invitational to the San Diego Open to the Farmers Insurance Open is not as exciting as all of the other problems.
Oh for those that haven't found much on the tournament itself, Points and Imada lead by two over Matt Every and Michael Sim. Three shots back is Robert Allenby, George McNeill, Chris Tidland, John Rollins and Ben Crane while four back is Charlie WI, Rickie Fowler, Marc Leishman, Tom Pernice Jr. and what everybody wants to hear, Phil Mickelson.
Now on Monday at the Hope we had a terrific final nine battle, even though half of the players I had to lookup in a players guide to see who they were. But the point is Sunday will again bring on hopefully another great battle and we will have another champion.
But while we celebrate all of this, we still should realize with all of the problems golf has right now it's a thousand percent better than what is happening in Haiti.
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Sal Johnson
After yesterdays testy press conference in Maui could it be time for PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem to start thinking of some measures to make the tour cheaper for sponsors and TV plus while Tiger is on leave to try and cure golf of it's addiction of Tiger Woods and bringing attention to the other players on tour.
For years now I have always admired PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem. Of course he was in the right place at the right time but his magical ways has propelled the PGA Tour to dazzling heights. Finchem has to be close to the top of the list of all-time great sports commissioner's, some could argue and say that he just rode the Tiger Woods coat-tails, but I tend to disagree because so much has gotten accomplished since he took over in June of 1994.
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In a way Finchem reminds me of baseball great Sandy Koufax, in his prime Koufax never seemed to make a mistake as in the last five years of his career he won 111 games compared to just 34 loses for a 76.5% winning percent. No matter what the challenge was for Finchem, he would be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat just like Koufax pulled out so many victories.
Tim has been the magician of the business of golf but you have to wonder after hearing the Tuesday press conference in Maui, if he has any rabbits left to pull out of his bag. On the surface, the PGA Tour is firing on all cylinders. It's slate is full of events with only three of them sponsorless. In 2010 they will be playing for slightly more than the $272 million that was given out last year. Charity will get $118 million and Finchem paints the picture that everything is great and the future couldn't be better. For members of the media, we have always taken what he says with a grain of salt but we bought into it with very little arguments because Tim always had the answers to make the PGA Tour bigger and better. Still we never asked Tim the magical question on each of his great conquests, was this driving the costs and expectations too high, thus making it impossible to keep topping. We always wondered if someplace down the road if we all would be quiet lossers in this growth process but as some would say about eating steak, everyone enjoys eating it but nobody wants to hear how the cow got slaughtered.
Finchem has been great in pulling rabbits out of a hat. He has been a part of three television contracts that have helped grow the tour and has been able to bring a lot of business opportunities for the players. For years now he always had some company that has been knocking on the door wanting to do business with the tour and Finchem has always been accommodating. In 2005, I and many others thought that Finchem would struggle with television negotiations because golf and the Woods era seem to be wilting for the whole tour in general. Yes television got great ratings for Tiger Woods events, but frankly for the other 30 events that Woods didn't play in many wondered what networks were doing. So up against the ropes what did Finchem do, out of his magic bag he pulled out the FedEx Cup and was able to again sell CBS, NBC and Golf Channel the TV contract, another great coup . We have seen a lot of that in his dealings with television contracts. In my tenure at ABC Sports between 1999 and 2002, many question why ABC Sports was doing the fall series events that were opposite the NFL. Despite the loss in those years, Finchem was able to talk ABC into resigning again and continued to do fall golf between 2003 and 2006, again at big loses for the network before they jettison the whole golf package. Again, Finchem was great in negotiations and got ABC management to agree to something for eight years that cost them a small fortune.
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I can remember in 2007 when Finchem seemed in trouble. At the end of the previous year the Booz Allen event in Washington was discontinued and when the highly popular International event surprisingly shut down, many of us were wondering how much trouble Finchem was in. But a couple of weeks later, when most of the media were in attendance at the WGC-Accenture, Finchem announced a new event in Washington D.C., the AT&T National and everything was great. I can remember sitting at a table with a bunch of other writers as we were shocked at the great timing for Finchem. The point is, you can't ever discount Tim.
That is until now I think. A couple of weeks ago Tim Finchem had a telephone news conference for most of the media, to give a preview of the year coming up. Again in about 300 platitudes, Finchem told everyone how great things are and how the future looks great. Of course Finchem probably never't realized that he was only talking to about a quarter of the media that would of been a part of this conference three years ago. The other 75% have lost there jobs in those years.
See that is the problem right now, as the PGA Tour plays for purses worth millions of dollars, the whole golf industry is in terrible decline. Sales for golf equipment are at a 20 year low, golf courses around the country are not only closing but being plowed under. The average person who use to play golf can't afford the game and the time it takes so the industry is having serious problems. So while Tim Finchem is rolling in the dough right now, everyone is suffering. Even the folks associated with the tour from sponsors to television networks to even charities are strapped right now.
So in his Tuesday press conference the media for the first time ever I think pushed him hard for questions. Things like if he had talked with Tiger Woods, things like if he was concerned about the weak field at Kapalua, how the future of the PGA Tour is, especially with Tiger Woods on indefinite leave. Some pressed him on drug testing and if the tour is really doing a good job and why Tiger Woods hasn't had any real scrutiny over his association with a doctor that is being investigated for giving athletes human growth treatments. It's fine and dandy that Finchem is honoring Tiger Woods request for privacy but frankly for what Woods has done, he has caused harm on the future of the Tour. So frankly many are wondering if Finchem is doing his job to give Woods his privacy when many questions need to be answered.
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I have to think that Finchem could of been shocked by the aggressive manner of the media, in the past he really hasn't had this. With so many jobs on the line in the media, you can bet that every aspect of what the PGA Tour does will be scrutinized. That's because the PGA Tour really hasn't had to be fortright, they can just say that it's a private matter. The press hates that we can't find out the truth on a lot of things about the PGA Tour, from fines, to suspensions like the one John Daly endured last year to the real reasons that Doug Barron has become the poster boy for his alleged taking of illegal drugs. There is so much about the tour's business that is a closed book that many are wondering how much Finchem, who in some ways is a dictator should be trusted for face value any more. Some think of the PGA Tour as being this big castle in the middle of a country that is suffering, with folks not allowed inside the gates of the castle. It's not only the PGA Tour, it's every team and sports in which a lot of money is being earned by athletes. Here in Washington and across the country people are ashamed at what Gilbert Arenas did by bringing weapons to the workplace. He makes about $18.5 million a year but still thought that he would store his unloaded guns in his locker at Verizon Center which just happens to be in the District of Columbia which disallows owning firearms.
So now we have the star of the tour Tiger Woods, who will make more money in seclusion while you read this piece, than you and I make in a year bring a terrible scandal upon the Tour. On top of all this, Woods was associated with a doctor that has a shady past. Is this right that nobody has called for some answers from Woods or maybe behind closed doors Finchem and the Tour feel this is no problem. Of course it's just one player but in looking around the tour we see again a lot of athletes playing for a lot of money at a time in which everyone is struggling. That is the whole point, Joe fan is getting tired of seeing someone making a million bucks for playing a stupid game for four days when the average salary in the United States is about $45,000 a year and we have 10% unemployment. Mr. Finchem has a couple of really tough choices to make. As I said, the PGA Tour is a castle in the middle of a country that is having a lot of problems. He may want to think about opening up those walls to allow the rest of us to feel that the PGA Tour is on the band wagon of what is happening to others. The first step as people like Greg Norman and CBS announcer Peter Kostis have suggestion is for Finchem to devalue purses for 2010. Reduce them between 105 to 25% and give the money to the sponsors, TV and charities and those folks on the outside would take more kindly to the PGA Tour. Yes the Rory Sabbatini's of the world wouldn't be very happy at Finchem, who knows personally Tim may make less in his yearly bonus for letting this happen but I would say that a lot of folks on the outside of the PGA Tour would be very grateful.
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I would also think that it's time to forget about the future of the PGA Tour with Tiger Woods. Who knows when Woods will return but he has become a terrible addiction for not only the Tour but fans. We have to find other stars that make the game as exciting and we have to promote the other 200 plus players on the PGA Tour. We have to find a way to make a Steve Stricker or a Retief Goosen as exciting as Tiger (maybe a bit of a stretch but it sounds very good until you realize that nobody is as exciting as Tiger). We did it before Tiger came on Tour in 1996 and we can do it again. The PGA Tour and golf has to live within it's means and that is without Tiger Woods. If the way the tour does business is by selling Tiger Woods they have to change that. Frankly by giving back somewhere between 10% and 25% of the purse it's a good start and one that will get the tour more rave reviews. Of course some could say that it's bad going backwards and would make the tour look weak but I just don't buy that. Trust me the pockets of most of those on tour may be a bit lighter but they will feel better for all of that and honestly playing for $750,000 instead of a million isn't that bad.
As for events, the SBS Championship has degraded in the last couple of years. It use to be exciting because in the past every great player was in the field. But in 2010, players like Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, David Toms, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington didn't win an event so they won't be at Kapalua. It's a bit embarrassing for a tournament in which the only past champion in the field is the defender and that's how bad the field is for this week's SBS Championship. So what's the answer you say? In two weeks time the Mitsubishi Electric Championship will be played. It's the Champions Tour sister to the SBS Championship allowing the previous years winners into the field but the difference is that winners of major championships for the last five years and those that won Champions Tour events the last two years get invites. For the SBS Championship why doesn't the PGA Tour do the same or better yet invite all the winners of the last three years? Then all of those great players that we talked about in the beginning of this paragraph would be in the field, making the event what it should be great and having one of the better fields of the year. If that would of been the case I bet you that Woods and Phil Mickelson wouldn't be missed this week.
The point to all of this, Finchem can't just tell all of us how rosy things are, if anything we should of learned a lesson from Carolyn Bivens and the LPGA, you wait too long and who knows what the Tour will be like. Frankly the PGA Tour and Tim Finchem need to step into reality and join some of us outside the castle and see that we have to work together to make things work. I have loved the PGA Tour for 35 years now and I have seen a lot of changes. But the one thing that the Arnold Palmer's and the Jack Nicklaus' taught us was that they were not the main show, yes they were an important element but the show is the wonderment of guys that play the best golf for that certain week. That has been lost the last 13 years or so as too many are putting Woods on this pedestal and making him the whole show. Now with so many people stuck on thinking Woods is the show, in a week that he isn't around nobody seems to care. In this bad time with a poor economy which isn't really getting any better it's only a matter of time that some sponsor will think and say, "what the hell am I paying nine million bucks for a non-Tiger tournament that nobody cares about". Hopefully in the next couple of months we can see a different side of the tour and at the same time make sure that we can make an event just as important without Tiger as with him in the field. But the only way for that to happen is to make sure that Tim Finchem finds a way to lower the costs of the tour so that he will get a better effort from everyone. Tim, you listening?
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Sal Johnson
Despite the weird way that the Florida Highway Patrol reported that Tiger didn't receive any facial wounds, will the saga die down as the new year knocks on our door?
After 30 plus years of reporting news, either on television or magazine or the internet, I am completely mystified at the way this Tiger Woods story has gone down. The last week has seen a lot of drama, from the screwup by Furman Bisher to the puzzling release of information on a secret meeting by a member of the Florida Highway Patrol. What a way to end 2009 - hopefully this saga will finally die down in the New Year.
Last night a very credible news organization, WESH Channel Two in Orlando, came out with an exclusive report from Bob Kealing, that the Florida Highway Patrol met secretly with Tiger Woods and his attorney Mark NeJame to give Woods his traffic ticket for careless driving. According to a story on WESH's website, FHP spokesperson Kim Montes gave the station an "exclusive" story on the December 1st meeting, and Montes reported that the two officers that met with Woods noted that he only had "a fat lip" and, more importantly, no other facial injuries.
WESH not only did a internet report, but also posted a video on their website had in which reporter Kealing , tells us what Montes says. Of course everything was great for WESH, as it has now been verified that they had a great scoop. An hour after they put the story on their website, the story was in hundreds of publications, all of them just taking the news as being a hundred percent accurate and running it.
Now in this case, it was 100% accurate. But as we all know, news organizations in their haste have been "duped" by not checking things out because of deadlines, trust in sources and plain laziness. I spent hours on Wednesday and most of my morning on Thursday trying to verify it. Finally, at 1pm on Thursday, I got the FHP chief public affairs officer, Mark Welch, to verify the December 1st meeting in this statement:
FHP statement:
We can confirm that, as previously reported, officers from the Florida Highway Patrol met with Mr. Woods on Dec. 1, 2009, to issue a citation for careless driving. Woods was polite and only said, “Yes Sir.” He made no other statements. The only injury that troopers observed was a bump and cut on his lip, which was consistent with the crash investigation. The Florida Highway Patrol will not comment further on this matter.
Still this brings up some very interesting questions, ones that I asked Welch to answer, but he has not gotten back to me (it IS New Years eve), and I feel that based on the statement above he isn't commenting on this matter any more.
First, why did the FHP say in a December 1st press conference that the case was closed and not report the secert meeting with Woods?
Second, why now, a month later, did the FHP reveal the story? Why did it take a month to tell the world? It would have eliminated much speculation on this subject. Isn't this supposed to be "public knowledge", or was this kept quiet to protect Woods and family? Or could a deal have been made with Woods to protect his privacy?
Third, with all of the rumors flying around in this case, why did Ms. Montes tell just one organzation, plus do it during her leave from office so that other organizations could not verify the report? In a way, by Montes telling just one organization and not everyone else it was like if President Obama told Katie Couric from CBS that he bombed Iraq without informing NBC, ABC, Fox or CNN. (Maybe that senerio is way too farfetched, but you get my point).
This highlights the problem with the whole Tiger Woods saga. In trying to protect Woods privacy, errors are being made by everyone, fanning the flames and making things worse. Just think how much easier this story would have been if the FHP had just released a statement about the December 1st meeting. There would have been zero gossip on injuries to Woods' face. Frankly, Mr. Welch of the FHP should use this opportunity to devise a better course of action for future celebrity problems.
But the big thing that I can never understand is why can't people and organizations just come out and tell the truth on this? Why can't Tiger Woods just come out and tell us the truth instead of well phrased web pages? Why can't Mark Stenberg just come out and tell us the truth instead of ignoring emails? In a way truthful, forthright answers would be better served than hiding behind a big scam. I care very much for Tiger Woods' privacy, but I also care about doing the right thing. Woods has let not only his family down but also the sponsors that gave him millions of dollars and could lose millions of dollars over this. Haven't people learned the lesson to not try to cover up such things after Watergate or Bill Clinton's sexcapade? I guess that when you see how little folks like Clinton have suffered for his faults, it's easy to see why this Tiger Woods saga has been handled this way. Frankly the power of sleazy organizations like National Enquirer, TMZ, RadarOnline and such flourish over people that try cover up "transgressions" and I can only see them growing bigger and bigger because of things like the Tiger Woods scandal.
In sum, there are two ways we can look at this. Basically this police report eliminates the reason that Woods has been undercover the last month, possible injury. It also brings up the question again why Woods has not told us publicly all of his "transgressions" So will the public and his sponsors look at Woods as being totally callous or cowardly over this affair? Or does Tiger even owe the public and his sponsors reason for his actions? Tiger never broke any laws, he never did anything wrong on a golf course which is his place of business, he never did broke any rules and regulations of the PGA Tour. This can be debated for years to come.
I guess that we still have to give Tiger the benefit of doubt. that he could be so distraught over what has happened that he can't even function. We all have experienced bad things in our life in which things race a zillion miles a minute sometimes making decisions impossible. I have to think that for Woods this could be the case right now and only time can make him function normally again. But as we end 2009 with this story and try to look forward to 2010, we wonder if the story will get any worse. Just as with Watergate in the summer of 1974, this story gets more complex by the hour. Hard core fans are now feeling deceived by Woods and are giving up, even to the point that if he wins a dozen more majors his fan base will be so ticked over this affair that they won't care anymore.
Today AT&T dropped their involvement with Woods joining a list of other companies that for the moment don't want to be associated with Woods. Making it even more uglier, Woods won't even be the host of his own AT&T event in 2010 as PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said to Associated Press, since Woods is on indefinite leave from professional golf, he will not serve as host for the 2010 event. That's PGA Tour code to Woods that he has been dumped.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in Phil Knight's office in Nike headquarters as he ponders this. Just have to wonder if he has second thoughts on sticking by Woods, because in the long run business is business, and the thought of Woods being your spokesperson today is a lot like imagining John Edwards today running for president in 2012. I was in a local golf store in Northern Virginia and all Tiger Woods apparel was 30% off and the quote from the salesperson on how it was selling was "Nobody is buying the cheaters crap".
Who knows what the future will be; could Woods be the next Greta Garbo, who was left with nothing but memories as she became a prisoner in a New York apartment for over 30 years because of her many fears and phobias over fans and media? I hope not, but Woods still has to face the music of this scandal in the court of public opinion. On the day that he makes his first start, what will the reaction be? I first thought that Woods would be back in March or at the Masters. I have to think it's going to be a lot longer and it wouldn't be surprising to me if he didn't play at all in 2010. But just like with death and taxes this story will die and go away. But the biggest question will be, will time heal all of the wounds not only for Woods fans but for Woods himself?
I like many others look forward to 2010 and hope that we will be reporting more on what is happening at tour stops during the year than the newest Tiger Woods rumor. As for all of you happy New Year and hopefully we can all put the ending of 2009 in our rear view mirrors and look forward to some great golf in the coming new decade.
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Many are saying how bad the 2010 schedule is but if you look at what is happening to the LPGA the future is bright and things are looking it up, it could of been even uglier if the LPGA didn't get rid of Carolyn Bivens and got a stellar performance out of Marty Evans and Zayra Calderon
So the shoe has fallen on the LPGA Tour. On Wednesday they announced a schedule for next year, the cumulation of the Carolyn Bivens era in which only 23 events were announced for 2010. Making it even harder to shallow is the fact that only 13 tournaments will be played in the United States.
The LPGA is an example of what has gone wrong in America these days, instead of thriving it's gone backwards in opportunities for it's members who will now have to work twice as hard to keep pace with past years. Instead of trying to create opportunities in the good old USofA it's outsourcing half of it's product to foreign lands. Hard to believe that Mexico will have as many events (3) as California, Arizona, Texas, Florida and North Carolina. Just have to wonder what the players between say 60 and 130 on the money list feel about having to pay a fortune to fly off to some foreign land for the opportunity to win a few thousand dollars in prize money. In 2010, LPGA pros will play for $40 million, 62% of the $64 million they played for just last year. To show how much the LPGA has lost, it's the lowest amount of events since 1971, when the tour had just 21 events. In looking at the schedule the only top-ten city that is on the schedule is San Diego, cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C. and even Phoenix are left off. While there will be three events in places like Mexico and two in Alabama, hot bed golf destinations like Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina have zilch.
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Still the Carolyn Bivens era gets a lot of blame, along with the LPGA board for stupidly giving her a three year extension of her contract in June of 2008. Bivens track record then wasn't very good so this act of confidence by Rae Evans, who was the chairwoman of the LPGA Board of Directors at the time, was probably one of the worst decisions in the 59 year history of the LPGA Tour, one that set up the LPGA for failure and if it wasn't for a player revolt in June that ousted Bivens things could of been even worst. Just think of what the 2010 schedule would of looked like if Bivens was still involved, it wouldn't of been as good as the one announced. Even with the ouster of Bivens, it cost the tour between a million and a million and a half dollars to get rid of her, depending on who you talk with because of the two years left on her contract. Financially the LPGA isn't rich so it will have to recover from this big monetary lost.
But guys and gals enough of this depressing news. I bring this up because we can only learn from our failures, history will deem Bivens as one of the worst leaders of any sports league, the LPGA and all of golf has to learn from this dire mistake and hopefully make sure that it doesn't happen again.
It's time to look at the positives of all of this. In my estimation the LPGA hit rock bottom on October 4th, the day it was announced that Samsung was going to end it's sponsorship of the Samsung Championship. Along with that was rumors of how the future of the LPGA wasn't very rosy and that the tour in 2010 could have as few as 12 events. But with the hard work of interim commissioner Marty Evans and Zayra Calderon, that never happened.
Little is know of Calderon, she was the person responsible for making the Duramed Futures Tour a big success. If we can find anything in the rumble of the Bivens era that was good, one of them is the purchase by Bivens of the Duramed Tour and retaining Calderon as a member of the LPGA senior management team. When Bivens was fired, Calderon took the reins along with Evans to make the peace with sponsors and find a way to add more events that was either on the bubble of coming back or had completely left the LPGA like the ShopRite event in New Jersey. In the last four months they have been tirelessly working to make the best of a bad situation.
The LPGA has made a very savvy choice in hiring Michael Whan. I have not met Whan, but I have a good feeling on him as many high level folks in golf have had a good experience with him and the fact that Whan is a listener before he acts is helpful. My first experience (frankly my only personal one) with Carolyn Bivens was at the 2005 Solheim Cup. I was in a small group of reporters that had a sitdown chat with her and while listening to her talk about what she wanted to do in the future. It was a weird talk, it was obvious that Bivens wasn't very golf-savvy. I was sitting with a Washington D.C. scribe and in the middle of her talk glanced over and whispered to him, "This woman is crazy, this s**t isn't going to fly." A couple of weeks later I played golf with this same scribe, who also had his doubts on her but said, "We can't pass judgement on her now, have to give her a year or so." By the Masters six months later, that scribe and the rest of the media had made there decision on Bivens and it turned out very poorly for her.
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He has to figure out a way to gain more events and in places like Arizona, Florida and Hawaii. These are places that need to showcase courses and help spur travel to there destination and what better way to showcase it by having the best woman of golf play the course and show it on TV.
At the same time Whan has to make his players become house-hold names. He got a great start with Michelle Wie winning, the LPGA needs more heros to replace the Nancy Lopez and the Annika Sorenstam's that have left. Talking about Sorenstam, maybe he can talk her into coming back and playing again on tour, that would bring excitement. Another problem is the lack of American's winning and the fact that too many Koreans are winning, honestly this is a very touchy subject. We know what happened when Bivens took a stab at the Korean problem and that wasn't the answer. Whan has to find a way to market them better, honestly a Jiyai Shin can be marketed as one of the best female players in the world and a wonder to watch.
Television has to also help and Whan is again at the right place at the right time on this. That is because Golf Channel is finishing up it's first year with Jack Graham running it's live operation and Graham has already made a lot of key changes to help production values improve, for proof of that just look at how received the Solheim Cup shows were. They were as good as Golf Channel has ever been and as good as any network. Graham is also keen in knowing the importance of letting viewers understand who the players are and you can bet that in 2010 you will see the Golf Channel introducing more players and getting to know them instead of just showing shot after shot after shot.
Another problem the LPGA/Golf Channel is going to have is making sure that there are slots to put it's events on live. Right now the Golf Channel's airtime is very crowded between covering the European Tour, PGA Tour, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour. So look for some LPGA events to be tape delayed at night. This won't help either the Golf Channel or the LPGA. An example of that was the disappointment for a lot of folks that found out the results of Mexico before it ended because that show was an hour behind on tape delayed. Yes the rating were very high for Wie's victory but still folks don't like taped shows.
One suggestion, a combination of a tape show being streamed live on Golf Channel.Com and LPGATour.Com before it's shown hours later. The way the Golf Channel creates their taped delayed shows is to record them in real time, with commercial slugs and all. So why can't the Golf Channel, while recording the golf also stream it live over the internet? It's the best of both worlds, for those that want it live they can see it on the internet and for others they can watch it at night. In a email to Graham he thought the idea had some merit, would look at the legal ramifications and get a consensus if others think it's a good idea.
Lastly I really hope that Whan can figure out how to get more events in the good old UsofA. It's a shame to see events like Phoenix disappear, hell last year over 100,000 people gathered for the week to watch the best ladies in the world play golf. Talking about great community support how about the loss of Kingsmill and Corning, these places were institutes on the LPGA Tour for years. How can the LPGA Tour bypass great cities like New York, Washington D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles for places in Thailand, Singpapore and Mexico. It's not very American, is it? Yes the LPGA has a lot of problems for the coming year, but in looking at the water glass it's a lot fuller than empty. The important element is that leadership is strong again, it's players have always been hard workers in bringing the tour in the limelight and will work very hard to give a good show. The economy will get better, along with that more opportunities will happen. 2010 will be very important if bringing the LPGA back. At least Michael Whan has the foundation to rebuild the LPGA to what it was like just a short time ago and possibly take it to new horizons in future years.
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