Updated Oct. 3
In the event that you have been declared all but clinically dead -- sort of like the latest FedEx Cup points system -– the possibility exists that you missed the news that the Ryder Cup is back in the hands of the Americans
Evidently, based on the snarky e-mails we receive from readers here at Public Links, the Writer Cup was never in danger of being wrested from the hands of the keyboard-pounding, fervent Yanks.
Some of you people really are accomplished at the modern-day Three Rs of Internet sports journalism -- reading, 'riting and ranting. The levels of complaining, cajoling and congratulating are first rate. To think that for all these years, people assumed that golf fans were mostly passive folks who didn't rile easily.
Make that passive-aggressive, at minimum.
One reader writer went so far as to forward his painstakingly detailed plan for remaking the FraudEx playoff system into a watchable, compelling entity with a meaningful ending, then shredded me because I didn't offer an immediate and pithy reply. Sorry, brother, but if nobody understands the current PGA Tour plan, how are we supposed to compare and contrast it with yours?
As ever, some of the e-mail messages were so blunt and terse, I thought I had changed my name to Nick Faldo or Gregg Doyel, two guys get some serious hate mail. Can't imagine why.
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From: Brian M.
Regarding Davis Love's potential Ryder captaincy: I've felt that for the past 10 or so years, this guy was the most gutless player on America's Ryder Cup teams. Maybe 12-15 years ago, he and Fred Couples were a nice combo, but what's Love's record in the R.C.? Plus he never has any emotion, isn't a fun guy. In other words: Totally different from the fun and emotion of this year's team. This team is better off without guys like him, and yes, Tiger Woods. It was no fluke that they played better without him. My large wager with Bodog was a testament to that theory.
I used to think the same thing about Love, until I'd interviewed him a few times. Sure, on the golf course, Love looks he has a 1-iron stuck in an anatomically uncomfortable location, but he is well-liked among his peers and would make a solid captain. Not so sure about Corey Pavin, another guy whose name is being bandied about. Based on feedback from players, I'm not sure he'd be as well-received if he was offered the helm in 2010.
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From: Gene M.
You posted in your article on the Tour Championship that players like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson frequently didn't bother to attend. Only part of that statement is true. Prior to this year, Phoney Phil has blown off the Tour Championship four times, while Tiger missed only in 2006. And after what he went through in 2006 who could blame him (his father died)? Phil also missed once for his wife's health issues. Missing one time in 12 seasons is hardly frequently. You write some of the better columns on golf that I read. Seems like your fact checker dropped the ball on verifying this one.
Uh, I am the fact checker. Between the two of them, Woods and Mickelson have skipped the Tour Championship six times this decade, if you include Woods sitting out last week's event with a knee injury. By any yardstick, that's not only "frequent," but "often."
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From: Alan S.
As a longtime golf fan and a sometime golfer, a few of the FedEx fixes are obvious. Let's start by giving a bye to the final tournament to the prior year's winner and all of the current major champions provided that they each play in at least two of the preliminary tournaments. Another possibility is to make the final tournament worth more in the points system for the Cup. Perhaps 50, but I haven't thought that out yet. I don't know why it should take the PGA so long to figure out a solution. They only need a math consultant who can explain all of the probabilities easily.
Can it be? The words "FedEx points" and "obvious" have been used in the same sentence? Bless him, Alan is an optimist, to be sure. Title sponsors will never agree to a plan that would allow defending FraudEx champs Tiger Woods or Vijay Singh to skip any events the following season. The TV ratings are low enough already.
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From: Wayne R.
Steve, I agree with you (on the FedEx flaws). However, I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed, because a couple of weeks ago, I contacted you in regards to an improvement in the FedEx Cup points system that I've formulated, and wanted your opinion on, but did not receive the courtesy of a reply. I firmly believe that your recent column here would not have been written as such if a version of my points system had been used. And, furthermore, on the other hand, I believe that a lot of fans and players just couldn't wait until the Ryder Cup was over, so that they could see the FedEx Cup final. Actually, I'm kind of excited myself to see who the winner will actually be under my points system.
Wayne, you should be forwarding this well-intended stuff to the folks at tour headquarters. They make policy. I make fun of policy. Besides, the word count on your e-mail message was so high, my computer crashed like Sergio Garcia in a sudden-death playoff.
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From: Rudolf
The real loser in this year's Ryder Cup event seems to be the British press; perhaps the European press as well. Anybody who has put his teeth into this cruel game of golf would know how darned finicky this game is, especially at the level at which those high-octane players play the game. Poor Nick Faldo. He should be the last one to be criticized. Has the press in the U.K. lost all its dignity and sense of fairness?
Heh heh heh. That last part, heh heh heh, that's the funniest rhetorical question I've ever read.
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From: Tubbs O'Quinn
Oh, he got an ow-eee. Get a spine Elling! Those that can't do ...write.
Not really sure which story we're talking about here. Perhaps the one where Anthony Kim accidentally split open a fan's head with a wild drive, requiring between six to eight stitches and some surefire cosmetic surgery in the future. Then, given that your name appears to be Tubbs, a permanent skidmark on your forehead might be considered an improvement.
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From: Jay P.
Great piece on Jay Williamson, a guy that I have been following closely his entire career, but have never met. I followed him at TPC Boston. Jay is good friends with my brother-in-law who also played hockey at Trinity College. He is truly an amazing story, considering that he never played golf in college.
By contemporary standards, compared to the kids today who are practically bio-engineered in the womb to play the game, Williamson took up golf in earnest after he was positively ancient -- after graduating college. He's a true wonder in an era of growing sports specialization.
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From: Craig L.
The PGA Tour is living in denial – No one cares about the FedEx Cup. No one can easily calculate the points and no one tries or cares. I'm sure they're getting big bucks from FedEx and FedEx is getting their name tossed around -- maybe enough to justify whatever they are paying. However, they have totally failed to generate any interest. Quite simply, no one cares!
Tossed around? More like kicked around. I can assure you that when FedEx reads letters such as this, they care. In fact, after two years of having their corporate name savaged because of its association with a flawed product, I wonder if the guy who signed off on the $35 million annual boondoggle is feeling any in-house corporate heat. If not, he should be.
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From: Gary V.
The Golf Channel has so little information that I'm inclined to fill in the obvious blanks on the Internet. I have no idea what the FedEx Cup is and while your article is the best I've found, it is sadly lacking in basic background information.
Ah, a kindred spirit! You can't make sense of the Golf Channel or the FedEx Cup playoff structure? Welcome to my world.
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From: Lewie
Last time I checked, the Masters invites about 100 players. So, being No. 58 in the world probably ain't that bad. You might want to pick someone besides Kevin Sutherland to be your poster boy for a playoff system you obviously disdain.
I'd rather have let another poster boy, Bubba Watson, explain his views on the fact that the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup now automatically qualify for the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open. Watson, like Sutherland, made the FedEx finale based on decent play in the playoff series, vs. sustained excellence over the entire year. "I've never won a tournament in my life, and I'm 97th in the world," Watson said last week. "I'm not downing myself. I'm going to accept everything. I'm going to take the check they give us here, do everything. I'm going to go to the Masters just like they say I can. But I haven't proven myself. I haven't done anything. It's kind of unfair to see Padraig Harrington has won two majors and he's not here. The fans want to see that instead of me. They don't want to see me slashing it around." Just the guys we want to see playing at Augusta in April, right?
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From: Joel C.
Totally agree with you. I'll go even further. Get rid of the FedEx Cup, period. Golf doesn't need it and it diminishes the majors and the Tour Championship.
You're half right. Nothing can further diminish the Tour Championship, perhaps the most overrated event in golf.
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From: Moweejim
Your recent story on Michelle Wie going to LPGA Qualifying School brought out the usual uninformed bloggers who know little or nothing about professional golf. The point is, the criticism is based upon her poor play while injured and if people haven't noticed, there been a great deal of improvement in her play, closer to her potential, since time has healed her injuries. Despite not playing up to her potential, which she will begin to do in the future, the bloggers and some sportswriters are ignoring that fans pay attention to her play. Did they cheer Jay Williamson, the PGA Tour player who said she was a "joke," yet didn't make the cut, either? We have a lot of envious LPGA and PGA competitors who are quick to criticize but who very few people care what they do on the course.
Wow, two Jay Williamson mentions in the same batch of letters. That's a record. While I had to edit Maui Jim's letter down to about 20 percent of its original size to keep it on point, he's right on several fronts -- more people would rather watch Michelle Wie fail than watch Williamson succeed. Sociology professors, I await your explanation.
From: Wayne R.
I've always been annoyed at the FedEx Cup points system -- so annoyed that I took the time to develop one myself. I believe it has merit on very many grounds, and solves most of the current points problems, as well as helping the tour to enhance its income in several ways. The purpose of this correspondence is to find out who and/or where I can submit this system for consideration by the proper persons. I would value your own opinion, too, if you would be so kind.
This is the aforementioned first message from Richards. You know, the one I completely ... at least initially ... ignored. All would-be FedEx points revisionists can send their suggestions to Steve Dennis, PGA Tour Headquarters, 112 PGA Tour Blvd., Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., 32082.
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From: Kevin T.
Steve, I've only read your articles on golf in the past. Your recent essay on Steve Garvey is as good as it gets in sports journalism and ranks up there with Rice, Lardner, Runyon or Murray. Thanks for a great start to the day.
Mom, is that you, writing under a pseudonym? You can stop kissing up. You're not getting back that money I borrowed in college. Spent it all on slow cars, slow-witted women and sloe gin fizzes. The rest of it, as the saying goes, I completely wasted.
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From: Lyle M.
I read with interest your column on rookie Kevin Streelman's family. I know that you cannot talk to Kevin before he plays tomorrow but if you would, two of his former teachers at Warrenville South High School in Wheaton, Ill., want to say hello to Kevin and wish him well. Joe Gerace is the other teacher. I had Kevin in one of my math classes and Joe had him in one of his speech classes. Kevin is a classy kid and we couldn't be prouder.
I passed along your sentiments recently and can report that Streelman recalls both of you fondly. Which is a lot more than I can say for most of my high school teachers. But if you guys liked him so much, how could you let him enroll at Duke?
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From: Rich J.
I've been following Michelle Wie's career for over four years now. I saw her play four times this year. Many don't realize how close she was to winning at the State Farm Classic. I watched her third round. The DQ hid the fact that she was dominating the course. She had seven birdies that day and two bogeys. She was 17 under par at that point. Michelle seemed poised to go low on Sunday, which would have easily made her a winner.
Then I don't need to explain why her swing coach, David Leadbetter, still calls Wie the best teen prospect he has ever seen, male or female. By the way, if you watched her play at four events this year, that's three more times than I've seen her. Which probably makes me borderline lazy and you a borderline stalker. Kidding. Mostly.
