Up
Putting the 'W' back in WGC
The particulars of this week's HSBC Champions event in China are odd, to be sure, and we're not talking about the foibles of the host country. Added at midseason to fill a blank spot listed as "TBA" in the PGA Tour's schedule, it's not an official U.S. event and the earnings won't count toward the money list. But at least one common complaint from players has been rectified -- the World Golf Championships are finally traveling outside the States. For the past few years, the mega-money and exclusive WGCs have been parked in America, where the sponsors and TV networks seem to prefer events to be based. Miami, Akron, Ohio, and Tucson, Ariz., have each hosted the three oldest WGCs for two or more seasons and none are relocating anytime soon. Taking the series on the road is long overdue, since these are co-sanctioned events by all the major tours, not just another stop on the U.S. circuit. The final move toward legitimacy will come when the event is moved on the calendar and/or given full status as an official event in the States. Fans might have to watch highlights at odd hours or on a tape-delay basis, but spreading the game around globally, especially with the stars the WGC events attract, should be worth the hassle.
Year of the Korean, parts III and IV (and counting)
A pudgy 21-year-old named Jiyai Shin last week sewed up the LPGA's Rookie of the Year award, which came as a surprise to exactly nobody who saw her win three times last year as a tour non-member. But she's also on the cusp of setting a new standard for the high-flying contingent of South Koreans, male and female. With three events remaining, Shin leads the LPGA money list by $212,785 over Japan's Ai Miyazato, putting Shin in position to become the first Korean to lead either of the major U.S. tours in earnings (as a historically significant aside that usually gets overlooked at this time of year, the last American to top the LPGA in earnings was Betsy King in 1993, which was eons ago from a competitive standpoint). It's hardly surprising that two foreign-born players are leading the women's tour in earnings -- no American has won since May, a record-obliterating skein of six months and 16 consecutive events. By the way, getting back to the breakthrough year by the Koreans, native son Chan-won Han won the inaugural Asian Amateur Championship on Sunday outside Hong Kong to earn a berth in the 2010 Masters. Koreans also won the U.S. Amateur and PGA Championship this summer.
England swings like a pendulum do
At midsummer, a U.K. publication published a particularly nasty story in which it described the English golfers as having contracted "Luke Donald Disease." The symptoms are passivity in the clutch and the tendency to value dollars on a paycheck as important as victories. Funny how trends turn out to be momentary blips in the passage of time. English players won two big events last weekend on the European Tour, with Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher handling the honors, making it five victories in the past six tournaments for Her Majesty's golfing forces. Moreover, while the Englanders need to pick up the pace in the majors, the country now has six players in the top 37 of the world golf rankings, a somewhat surprising development in the balance of world power. Fading Australia has only two players in the top 50, which is as many as tiny Northern Ireland. South Africa has three in the top 50. Meanwhile, England has four in the top 17. Can somebody who speaks Limey please explain?
Is A.K. on road to A-OK?
We're not sure how they fashioned the pairings for the match-play event last week on the European Tour, but when loose-lipped Robert Allenby was run over by Anthony Kim in the semifinals, it not only represented a measure of revenge for the skidding American star, it marked a reawakening of sorts. Think about this question: Which player had the more disappointing season in 2009, Kim, Camilo Villegas, Adam Scott or Sergio Garcia? None of the 20-somethings mustered a victory despite heaps of expectations. Kim had the additional burden of being a mega-hyped American, so when he zapped Allenby -- who had brusquely dissed him at the Presidents Cup for being a party animal -- he showed more life than we had seen from him all year. OK, so Kim got whipped by Fisher in the match-play finale, but at least he had a sniff at winning for the first time in months. Is he back on track? Kim recently fired yet another caddie and bopped around the Prez Cup like a teenager on a field trip. Evidence suggests that his relative levels in maturity and talent remain greatly out of whack. But it's a start.
No. 2 gets a re-do
For those of us familiar with the Sandhills region of North Carolina, it was welcome news. The owners of the Pinehurst resort decided to renovate the venerable Donald Ross gem in an attempt to restore the rustic feel that had long been primped, preened and over-manicured into oblivion over the years. Better yet, the highly regarded design team of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore will handle the task, and these guys are tree-hugging minimalists compared with some heavy-handed, bulldozer-embracing architects of today. Hopefully, while restoring the rough-hewn edges of the resort's signature track, they will take a long gander at No. 2's trademark greens complexes, which have become so absurdly humpy in spots they no longer resemble the putting surfaces Ross built decades ago. Years of top-dressing has made them look like turtle shells. Don't believe me? Ask Hall of Fame architect Pete Dye, who first played No. 2 in the 1940s and says the greens were never this convex.
Down
Didn't the Vikings build boats?
The Viking Classic was an unmitigated washout. It has been raining in Mississippi for weeks, with rainfall amounts approaching two feet over that span. Thor Heyerdahl couldn't have stayed afloat in that mess, which was called off Saturday before a shot was hit. Players groused, and rightly so. They are faced with two off-weeks before the season finale Nov. 12-15 at Disney World, and those hoping to mount last-ditch rallies financially lost a crucial at-bat when the Viking purse disappeared. Personally, I think the PGA Tour should toss another $1 million into the Disney coffers to make matters more interesting in the top-125 race next week, to add the volatility that was lost when the Viking drowned. Amazingly, it became the third event in the post-war era to be completely flushed because of poor weather without a shot being hit. As it stands, the guy at No. 125, David Duval, has $623,824, which is down substantially from the tally of Martin Laird ($853,752) at No. 125 last year. With the way tournaments are disappearing and purses are seemingly headed, Duval's number will almost certainly become more of the norm in future years.
Dopes and the doping
We should salute the notoriously paranoid PGA Tour for following through on its promise to release the name of any player suspended for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs, but as is usually the case with bad news and the tour PR machine, the details of the case regarding Doug Barron were as clear as Mississippi mud. Barron's agent said the player reached an agreement with the tour not to comment beyond Monday's three-paragraph statement announcing the suspension, and it raised more questions than it supplied answers. Barron seemed to be saying that he tested positive by accident. The banned substance was not outlined. By omission, the tour and Barron made the case seem more sinister than it probably is. If Barron, a journeyman who hadn't had status on the PGA Tour for three years, made a medication mistake borne of ignorance, then just say so. Moreover, the insensitive timing of the suspension undercut the happy buzz from the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony, a once-a-year gig.
No RSVP required
What if they held a press conference and nobody came? That's close to what transpired last week when the LPGA elected to introduce its new and largely unknown commissioner, Mike Whan, in the media capital of the world, New York City. After sending out a press release at around 9 p.m., just 12 hours before the news conference with Whan was to be held, the LPGA once again ensured that its coverage would be minimal, even among the outlets covering golf. Apparently, nobody noticed that the Yankees are in the World Series or that the NFL and NBA seasons are in full swing. According to one count, the number of LPGA players and officials seated with Whan at the dais, five, matched the number of reporters in the room -- and that's including an unaffiliated blogger in the media head count. Somebody ought to be fired for being this myopic, but the LPGA has chopped off the heads of so many employees, there's nobody left to boot.
Is he or isn't he?
Tracking the flight plans of Rory McIlroy has become nigh on impossible, thanks in part to conflicting reports emanating from overseas, where his agent claims McIlroy is not considering joining the PGA Tour in 2010, while McIlroy says otherwise. McIlroy, who at age 20 is already ranked No. 18 in the world, would surely be a credit to the U.S. tour, but he would be far better served by logging a few years overseas, where piling up wins won't be as difficult. Besides, in Europe, he's a veritable sensation, with a Ryder Cup session close at hand. When he played earlier this year at the Honda Classic outside Miami, I'm not sure anybody really noticed. Stay home for a spell, kid. The goodwill fostered among the European fans will be worth whatever cash you might miss on the richer American circuit.
Not exactly a Kodak moment
The loss of the Viking Classic not only deprived some players of earning another check as the top-125 deadline looms, it shortchanged some who were in the mix for an underpublicized pot of bonus gold, too. The drama in the inaugural Kodak Challenge, a winner-take-all race with a $1 million payout, was all but washed away, too. The series allows players to use their 18 best daily scores on the designated Kodak holes at 30 tour stops. It's a "ringer" score, in other words. Second-year man Kevin Streelman has a tally of 16-under, which is two shots clear of second place. Trouble is, last week's designated Kodak hole was a short par-5, where eagles and birdies would have been plentiful. Next week's final hole is the 17th on Disney World's Magnolia Course, a brutish, 485-yard par-4 from the new back tee. That means that either J.J. Henry, Nathan Green or Bo Van Pelt –- all tied for second at 14 under -– need to eagle the hole to tie Streelman. It almost certainly won't happen, obviously. Kodak and the tour discussed adding a second hole at Disney to make up for last week and reach the target number of 30, but elected to stick with the original outline. A year in the making, this won't produce a photo finish, will it?
