PGA Tour season preview Part III: The Cases
By Steve Elling | CBSSports.com Senior Writer Follow Steve
The era was marked by unrest in the Middle East, an ugly oil crisis and huge issues spawned by the prevailing banking mortgage rates. The economy was in a shambles.
It was yesteryear, not yesterday.
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| With an early victory or two, Sergio Garcia could take a bite out of Tiger Woods' No. 1 ranking. (Getty Images) |
Indeed, Tim Finchem served as economic counsel to Jimmy Carter, a slightly surprising factoid for those of us who recall those bleak times. As in: The Georgia peanut farmer had an economic policy? Who knew?
Perhaps, as a result, Finchem remains a purveyor of positivity who, with a smile, could sell anything from sand in the Sahara to barrels of red ink in Washington, D.C. Faced with the most daunting set of economic conditions in decades, Finchem is dogpaddling as fast as he can to keep purses stable, tournament sponsors settled and financial bleeding to a minimum as the tour careens into 2009.
"I'm always an optimist," Finchem said Tuesday. "I think we will [persevere], but we won't know until we're done doing it."
Forget graphite. Money represents the true timbre of the times on tour, and just like with the rest of us, there are grave concerns as tournaments report drops in the sale of tickets, corporate boxes and pro-am slots. Equipment companies have slashed personnel because of declining sales. Golf courses nationally are ailing, and though that seemingly has little direct effect on the tour, a drop in rounds played likely won't build interest in the big-league product.
As we attempt the final installment of our 2009 golf fore-cast, so to speak, into what seems destined to be a wild season, economic issues will provide a strong undercurrent to whatever happens with Woods, Mickelson, Singh or Scott. They will win waves of titles, while dodging financial waves that are tidal and then some.
After standing before a World Golf Hall of Fame audience last November and being perceived as downright cocky about the state of the tour's sponsorship going forward, Finchem's public comments since have grown more cautious and reserved. So far, damage has been mercifully minimal on the sponsorship front, with only one scheduled event biting the dust since the massive downturn began last fall.
"I certainly feel more concerned about the economy than I did four months ago," Finchem said Tuesday. "As far as the PGA Tour, not too much difference."
Knock on persimmon.
"I think we will lose some sponsors in this cycle the next couple years," he said. "I don't think there's any question about that. The challenge is to retain 100 percent sponsors -- you've got to replace sponsors in a downturn, and with the economy being as dour as it is, that will present some real challenges."
Davis Love III, one of the biggest stars of the past two decades, put it best a few weeks ago when he said, "I was prepared for a slowdown, not a meltdown."
Rank-and-file players have found that equipment endorsement money had dwindled since last year. Stars are still making hay, but freshly minted tour members via the Nationwide Tour and Q-school routes have taken a bite of as much as one-third off previous levels for equipment deals. Some entry-level tour members might have logo-less bags and hats.
It's not just the golf-specific companies that are transitioning from prosperity to austerity, either. Corporations with ties to the tour are taking a long, hard look at spending money on luxury boxes and pro-am spots for their CEOs because it sends the wrong message. Same for embroidering their company name on the sleeve of a player.
A total of 24 tournaments have major ties to companies in the ailing electronics, financial or automotive sectors. Four more events are linked to the ailing hotel and resort businesses. That's a lot of exposure, good vibes over the new president or not.
"What we are finding everywhere, with companies that have money and with companies that don't, is that they don't want to look like, to their shareholders, that they are spending money frivolously in a bad climate," said longtime player agent Mac Barnhardt, who has a stable of 13 tour members.
Even tournaments that figure to have Tiger Woods in the field are feeling pinched. Sales at the venerable Arnold Palmer Invitational, where Woods is defending champion, are off 10-15 percent, which is a significant hit for what historically has ranked as one of the best fields of the year.
The biggest losers, at time when community money is needed most desperately? Local charities. The vast majority of the stops on the PGA Tour are run by non-profit entities situated in tournament towns. Profits are directed to area groups in need. PGA Tour events have donated more than a $1 billion to charity over the years, more than any other sports league.
"I am comforted by our first couple weeks that our charity numbers were pretty close to last year," Finchem said Tuesday at the Bob Hope Classic. "So if that holds up for the year, that would be, I can't believe that it will, I think it we'll take some hits to charity. But if that holds up and we can get some new sponsors and as cyclical as it [the economy] has been in the past, maybe we'll get by without serious problems.
"But we have a lot of challenges right now, no question about it."
Other focal points of 2009 figure to be far less vexing:
Shake that groove thing
Backspin aside, and that's what this rule change is really all about, the game of golf doesn't often move in reverse. That what makes the rollback on grooves -- the first true retreat on equipment standards in decades -- such an interesting element to follow as the season progresses.
Simply put, the game's governing bodies have effectively banned U-grooves, which place tremendous amounts of spin on the ball, in favor of a less biting V-groove design. The notion is that it will curtail some of the dump-and-chase philosophy in the tee box that has taken root in the professional game, because armed with the toothy U-grooves, players have been able to spin the ball out of the rough. Driving accuracy has become the least-relevant stat in the game for long hitters.
It's designed to make the bombers think twice about reaching for the driver, although it will be interesting to see whether equipment makers merely design a ball that spins more to counteract the change.
One guy already has a leg up, and that's not a surgical joke. Tiger Woods plays a ball that spins more than any other on tour, because he likes to shape every shot. So the rule change should impact him less than any other player -- like he needs another advantage, right? The rule takes effect next Jan. 1.
"Yeah, it'll affect what's in my bag -- I can't have my two sand wedges the way I have them now," Woods said last month. "Some guys are experimenting with 64-degree wedges to try to help them out that way so they can hit fuller shots with more spin, or guys just might be making more mental adjustments in their course management skills, going for greens, because you know you actually can't get the ball to spin like you used to so it puts more of a premium on putting the ball in the fairway.
"With the wedges you can't blast it out there on the par-5s and expect an easy up-and-down. You've got to miss it on the proper side more than ever. But it'll be very interesting to see what happens, how guys make that adjustment."
If little else, as players gravitate to the new iron designs this year in advance of the 2010 ban, it should spur more tactical planning in an increasingly mindless, power-oriented game. That's never a bad thing.
Mining gold in golf
Initially, I was all for golf's bid for inclusion in the 2016 Olympics. The more I thought about it, though, I recognized that the pursuit was a desperate attempt by a sport that had maxed out its economic potential in the States. Using the same broken model to suck money out of other corners of the globe didn't seem like a noble reason to put the pedal to the medal, so to speak.
Well, given the economic climate, I've become a little more tolerant of the underlying motives. The way things are going, golf needs every financial foothold it can find, far-flung or not, since it's darned expensive to play and seems likely to lose players during the economic fallout in Europe, Asia and the States.
The major tours and governing bodies made an initial pitch to the IOC last fall, hoping to earn one of two spots in the 2016 games. Six other sports are in the mix and the IOC has been assured that the biggest names in the game are on board with the notion. Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam are leading the publicity charge, in fact. A decision from the IOC is expected in October.
Golf was last an Olympic sport in St. Louis in 1904, and don't be so sure the Yanks have any edge in the medal race if golf gets added to the roster. The gold-medal winner in '04 was Canadian.
Only the grass is green
We'll keep this succinct, because this is starting to sound like a one-note opera, but the 2009 season stands as downright crucial for the LPGA, which is potentially losing a huge chunk of its domestic title sponsors after this season.
Already, events representing two of the tour's four biggest purses will have disappeared after '09. The unpredictable and season-ending ADT Championship has been foolishly relocated to the beginning of the 2010 calendar, depriving the tour of its slam-bang ending. The former ADT event is still in need of a site and sponsor, by the way. The LPGA has already laid off several staffers, including some top brass.
Staring at an 0-and-2 count
Third verse, different from the first. And the second.
This fall will mark the third wading into the waters of the PGA Tour's so-called playoffs, which have been rewritten so often, it'll be a miracle if fans grasp the newest set of revisions. Or even care to try.
One media wiseguy called it the FixEd Cup, because with three different sets of regs in as many incarnations, it has had more surgical work than Tiger's left knee. In a broader sense, the title sponsor bears watching, too. FedEx forced thousands of employees to take a 5 percent pay cut last month, shortly before it shelled out millions to sponsor the BCS championship football game. Spending $30 million or thereabouts annually to buy the naming rights for the FedEx Cup feels a bit galling if you drive an orange-and-purple delivery van.
On the plus side, the BMW Championship, one of the four FedEx tournament stops, returns to Chicago after a one-year detour to St. Louis.
The duality of man
For the better part of a decade, players from the European Tour have taken up joint membership on the U.S. circuit. It has almost always been a one-way street.
Now, with a $10 million bonus at the end of the European Tour season as the inaugural Race to Dubai begins, Americans are heading east. Among those who have taken up Euro membership are Americans Boo Weekley, Zach Johnson and Anthony Kim.
With Finchem imploring his top-tier players to play more often in the States to prop up tourneys during a tough economy, something's got to give. Sound a little hectic on the travel front?
"My goal is to become a global player," Kim said. "Being that my parents are from Korea, it's important for me to go back. But at the same time, I don't know what I'm doing.
"This is more of a trial and error. If I play enough European Tour events, I do; and if I don't, I don't. That's stuff we are going to have to talk about."
However it shakes out, the Dubai finale should provide a fitting and worthy denouement to the season, as opposed to say, the utterly marginalized Fall Series events on the U.S. tour, where the stars rarely play.
At one with the world
The official world golf rankings have been around for 23 years. In that vast span, a meager 11 players have topped the list.
Still, some of the names might surprise you, such as Tom Lehman (one week as No. 1), Bernhard Langer (three weeks) or even the mercurial David Duval (15 weeks).
But each of the former chart-toppers has something in common. All of them, at some point, won a major championship, which might prove providential if Sergio Garcia can turn the trick and chase down Woods this spring.
Every week that Woods sits idle, he loses ranking points. Garcia, ranked a career-high No. 2, finished eighth last week and picked up a tiny bit of ground, but is almost certainly going to need a victory to unseat Woods as the top player before the latter returns sometime over the next few weeks. Garcia has finished eighth or better in nine of his past 10 official starts worldwide over two seasons. He won the prestigious Vardon Trophy for best stroke average on the PGA Tour last season.
"Sergio has become more consistent," Woods said last month. "He's playing better. He's playing all around the world and playing well, so it goes to show you that he's made improvements."
Wasn't Captain Bligh a British subject?
There's been an unseemly underbelly to the Ryder Cup captaincy process in Europe, where members of the selection committee apparently leaked insider information, which in turn caused the betting line on the captaincy favorite to make wild jumps.
Forget whether the selection committee unethically bet the house on Colin Montgomerie. The media would sign over the deeds to our homes if it meant that he'll be formally named next week in Dubai as the European captain for 2010.
Making the glib Monty the captain, from a marketing and publicity standpoint, would be a brilliant move for the Continental side, especially as counterpoint to the bland U.S. pick, Corey Pavin. The prickly and unpredictable Monty blows hot and cold like no other prominent sports figure, but either way, it's possible he could make the matches more entertaining than Nick Faldo. Which, like Monty most of the time, is saying a mouthful.
