PGA Tour needs to bring stars to smaller venues
What if the New York Yankees decided they only wanted to play against teams in big-market cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston? When the Yankees come into a smaller venue like Minneapolis attendance doubles per game. Should the Twins be denied that financial boost?
Obviously not, but that's exactly what is happening on the PGA Tour. The financial strength of the tour is determined in part by its appealing depth of talent, but the breadth of its schedule also bolsters it.
For 44 consecutive weeks this year there is a PGA Tour event somewhere, and on five of those weeks there are two. Somehow the tour has to figure out how to get more of the big-name players to support a broader array of events.
Certainly, being in a small-market is not necessarily a problem. The John Deere Classic, for example, is a hugely popular tournament among fans no matter who is in the field, as is the Buick Championship (formerly the Greater Hartford Open). But those tournaments -- and their fans -- need to be rewarded for their loyalty by having the stars of the show actually show up occasionally.
Two weeks ago the Buick Championship had a grand total of four players ranked in the top-50 in its field and only seven of the top-50 on the PGA Tour money list. That's no way to treat a tournament that has been on the schedule since 1952 when it started as the Insurance City Open. Last week, 12 of the top-50 in the World Ranking were at the Deutsche Bank Championship and 15 of the top-50 on the money list were on hand.
This is an extremely ticklish issue for PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. His players are independent contractors and, if anything, the stars have pushed for greater freedom -- perhaps a relaxation of the minimum of 15 required tournaments a year, or more leeway to play in events overseas without asking permission -- and would not react well to more restrictions on their play. But maybe it is time for the players to step up and support the product that has made them rich and offer a rotation in which, for example, they commit to playing each tour stop once every three or four years.
Since Tiger Woods came on the scene late in 1996, the total purse on tour has nearly tripled, growing from $80.5 million in 1997 to $240 million this year. When Woods turned professional after winning the U.S. Amateur, he decided to try to win his PGA Tour card by earning enough money to make the top-125 and avoid the rigors and whims of Qualifying School. That Woods managed to earn his card in only seven tournaments is memorable, but the fact that he got into those events through sponsor exemptions is what should be remembered as well. The Greater Milwaukee Open, Quad City Classic (now the John Deere), B.C. Open and La Cantera Texas Open (now the Valero Texas Open) are events that let Woods in and to which he has never returned.
The burden for boosting the quality of PGA Tour fields is not Woods' alone, but he provides a good window into the problem. So far this year, of the 17 events Woods has played, 15 are tournaments he played last year.
Wouldn't it be nice if there were a surprise thrown in now and then? Maybe a "thank you very much" return to Milwaukee or Endicott, N.Y., or an out-of-nowhere appearance at Hartford or Memphis. And such gifts to the fans and corporate supporters of professional golf should be the obligation of all top players.
The star power of the PGA Tour extends far beyond Woods, to be sure. And just as surely those stars have had greater and greater financial rewards built into their schedules. Over the last five years, the Official World Golf Ranking has become an accepted qualifying standard for all of the significant tournaments. A player ranked in the top-50 is now guaranteed a spot in the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship, Accenture Match Play Championship, Players Championship, NEC Invitational and American Express Championship and almost certainly qualifies for the Tour Championship. Those nine events have a combined purse of $60 million -- one-quarter of the tour's total purse.
Those nine tournaments also comprise about half the schedule of the top players and they have an average purse of $6.7 million. There are, however, 18 PGA Tour events that have a purse under $5 million. And these are the events that need a commitment from some of the top players.
Some tournaments have scheduling problems that can only be addressed by the tour moving them around on the calendar. Of the 18 events this year with purses under $5 million, nine are the week before or the week after one of the big-money events or the Ryder Cup. Such unfavorable spots need to be rotated, and the tour tries its best in that regard.
The necessary steps needed now have to be taken by the players. Through the PGA Tour Policy Board, and player-directors Olin Browne, Brad Faxon, Scott McCarron and David Toms, the rank and file needs to propose a system to beef up the fields of events ignored for too long by the top players. While success provides the wealth to be selective it should not eliminate the responsibility to be fair.
The players have two choices: Do a better job of supporting all tournaments, or risk the elimination of events that could weaken the overall marketability of the product. The situation will be highlighted over the next 10 weeks as the only players competing with regularity will be those on the bubble for keeping their PGA Tour cards.
In 1988, Curtis Strange became the first PGA Tour player to win $1 million in a single season. This year, Vijay Singh has already won $7.8 million and 59 other players had earned more than $1 million. Clearly, the tour has achieved one of the goals Finchem set when he took over as commissioner 10 ago -- the best golfers in the world no longer make less than a backup shortstop.
Now it's time to say thank you. The players need to show their appreciation by stepping forward and volunteering to accept a system under which they will all play every event on some sort of rotating schedule, a system already in place on the LPGA Tour.
Ron Sirak is the Executive Editor of Golf World magazine.
