John Huggan

Chatting it up about golf

October 30, 2006

John Huggan is the European correspondent for both Golf Digest and Golf World. He is also the golf columnist for Scotland on Sunday. He lives in Dunbar, Scotland, where he hits many very bad half-wedge shots from around 75-yards or so.
Today Huggan chats it up about what happened in Valderamma and the order of merit race, which was won by the player that didn't win the most money in 2006.

- GolfObserver editors

This year's European Tour season if finished, for 11 days at least

Truly, the European Tour's Order of Merit is a strange and wonderful thing. Lasting all of 50 weeks and starting in the year before each is named - 2006 began in 2005 for example - the race has turned into a veritable marathon, chock full of twists, turns and, it must be acknowledged, compromises.

One tournament, the HSBC World Match Play Championship, pays so much money to the winner that it is deemed unfair to those not good enough to qualify for the elite field. Thus, Paul Casey was credited with only just over 40 percent of the £1 million pounds he actually received for taking the title at Wentworth.

Then there is the 11- tournament minimum every player must achieve to be eligible for an official spot on the money list. Almost every year, this arbitrary figure precludes the real leading money winner - Tiger Woods - from claiming the crown that is rightfully his.

Photo: © Donald Miralle/Getty Images Even Tiger Woods would be shocked that he won more money than #1 Padraig Harrington and #2 Paul Casey won together.

In 2006, this particular oversight was particularly noticeable; in the ten events Woods played that were eligible for inclusion on the 'European' money list, the world number one accumulated €5,264,688 ($6,609,953). By way of comparison, the men who finished one and two in the Order of 'Merit' - Padraig Harrington and Casey - between them amassed €4,943,421 in a cumulative 45 appearances. Let's see: that's €321,267 ($411,221) more from 35 fewer tournaments, how many ways are there to say, 'total domination?'

Then there is the inclusion of the three American majors and the World Golf Championships on what is supposed to be a European ranking. With only a tiny number of European Tour cardholders eligible for the majority of those events, the winning of the Order of Merit is almost certainly confined to that same small minority. Witness the predicament of Johan Edfors in 2006. Starting the year outside the all-important top-50 on the world ranking, the Swede commendably won three times on the European Tour, yet could only finish tenth on the money list with (euros)1,505,583 ($1,927,146).

Photo: © Warren Little/Getty Images Johan Edfors won three events on the European Tour in 2006, the same as Paul Casey did.

Still, if one ignores all of the above - and, to be sure, broadcasters like Sky and the Golf Channel do their unseeing best to do just that, lest it ruin the obviously contrived tension the presenters strive so hard to produce - it must be acknowledged that the final day of the final event, the Volvo Masters at Valderrama, was more than mildly entertaining.

Quite apart from the winning and losing of the tournament itself, any number of sub-plots popped up down there in Andalucia. There was, for example, the battle for the top-15 Order of Merit spots that carry with them exemption into next year's major championships. As it turned out, the new Volvo Master, Jeev Milka Singh of India, was the unlucky man in 16th place. (Don't feel too bad for him though. Judging by the indecent haste with which Augusta National invited Zhang Lian-Wei of China to the Masters, the man from the sprawling sub-continent shouldn't have too much trouble attracting the attention of the greenback conscious green jackets. Big populations mean new markets and more money).

But the biggest deal, of course, was the chase for the hollow victory that comes with topping a list for which Woods is deemed ineligible. And, if one closes one's mind to that fact, the final round was full of excitement. Certainly, the eventual result was in the balance right to the end.

Photo: © Andrew Redington/Getty Images Sergio Garcia made a big impact in the order of merit race with his final hole bogey.

The last few holes produced much irony, too. Tied second in the tournament behind the unlikely champion - his 30th career runner-up finish - Harrington finished first on the Order of Merit only because Sergio Garcia couldn't make a par from the middle of the 18th fairway. Had the Spaniard made four instead of five - and so consigned the Irishman to third place rather than second - the ultimately unfortunate Casey would have topped the money list. It was that close.

Next season, of course, much will be different. As the PGA Tour's new-fangled Fed-Ex Cup thing gets up and running, the European Tour will, for long periods, be almost bereft of star names. Add in the fact that all of the WGCs will contradict their original purpose and be held within the land of the free and the insular, and it is clear that the leading European players will be spending more time across the pond than ever before.

All is not lost though. In fact, it can be argued that the PGA Tour has bigger problems than its European counterpart. Why else would Tim Finchem have undertaken such a radical overhaul of his schedule? The answer lies in the increasingly unwatchable nature of the game at the highest level. Propelled by modern technology, too many of today's tour players are little more than mindless bashers, a fact that has led to television viewers turning off in droves.

So all is not lost for the European Tour, especially when the very best players - okay, Tiger - figure out that the Fed-Ex Cup is nothing more than a mind-numbing pain in the backside that is more trouble than it is worth. Even if it is worth millions of dollars. Newsflash: Tiger doesn't need to worry about money any more. Woods plays for history and major championships.

Because of that overwhelmingly significant factor, your humble correspondent gives the Fed-Ex package no more than two years before it is returned unopened. Before that though, the time is right for the European Tour to make a pre-emptive strike on two fronts. First, they should get together with the Asian, Australasian, South African and Japanese tours and start a world circuit minus the United States. And second, an approach should be made to the presently disgruntled Canadian Open. Imagine, a European Tour event 'north of the border' in the week before, say, the Players Championship. Finchem's face would be a rare picture indeed.

Anyway, all of that is for the future. For the moment, we are stuck with a European Tour that is little more than a meandering mediocrity and a PGA Tour that is searching both for a clear identity and an even remotely effective way of combating the appeal of the historically and inherently more interesting major championships. Wake me up when we get there.

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