WGC events lessen value of PGA Tour
If you are going to have tournaments designated as World Golf Championship events, it certainly makes sense that you have to play them around the "world." Hence, this week's American Express Championship in Ireland.
But they are hardly "world" events. Other than the offseason World Cup, which is a two-man team event and considered unofficial, these tournaments hardly move around at all. The Match Play Championship and NEC Invitational are all but anchored in the United States.
That is not all that is wrong with the World Golf Championship events, a concept that has been around since 1999. In theory, it is a great idea, and there have been benefits -- mainly getting the world's best players together more often.
Of course, it takes a huge $7 million purse and the promise of a no-cut payday to do it.
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 This week: American Express Championship Site: Thomastown, Ireland Course: Mount Juliet Conrad (7,112 yards, par 72). Purse: $7 million (Winner: $1.2 million) Television: Thursday: 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; 2-5 p.m. ET (ESPN) Friday: 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; 2-5 p.m. ET (ESPN) Saturday: 1-3 p.m ET (ESPN) Sunday: 1:30-6 p.m. ET (ESPN) Defending champ: Tiger Woods
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Otherwise, how many of the pampered U.S.-based players would have ventured to Ireland this week?
Already Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Mike Weir and Kenny Perry dropped out. No way they'd have done so were this a major championship.
Indeed, the drawbacks seem to outweigh the positives.
First, how well do you think next week's event in Las Vegas is going to fare with so many of the top names competing in Ireland? Las Vegas wasn't even a sure thing until a few weeks ago when the PGA Tour landed a title sponsor. That kept a long-time stop intact. But the Las Vegas folks are sure to see a watered-down field. Good luck to the guys who travel across eight time zones to get there.
And that's the point.
Too many of the rank-and-file, regular PGA Tour events are affected by the big-money WGCs. The very lifeblood of the tour, the events that link one week to the next and keep golf in the spotlight between the biggest events, often take a hit because no PGA Tour player can play every week.
Take any top-10 player in the world on the PGA Tour: He is going to play the four major championships; the three WGCs; the Tour Championship; and the Players Championship. If he won a tournament the year prior, he'll be in the Mercedes Championships. That's 10 tournaments right there.
If we're talking about Tiger Woods, throw in annual stops at places such as the Buick Invitational, Nissan Open, Bay Hill Invitational, Disney, Memorial and the Deutsche Bank -- which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation -- and we're up to 16 events. If he plays 20, that leaves just four others. He often plays the Western Open and one of the other Buick events. He also likes to play the Byron Nelson. This year, Woods played in Charlotte for the first time. That's usually his max.
What about the Honda Classic, where Woods has never played as a pro? What about Milwaukee, where he's not played since getting a sponsor exemption in 1996. This is not to pick on Woods, because similar scenarios play out with others. And in fairness, they can only play so much, and if they skip the WGCs, they get heat from the tour.
One solution is to bring the WGCs to existing tour stops. On a rotating basis, you could have the Match Play at La Costa one year and at Doral the next. Have the NEC Invitational played at Hartford one year, or Milwaukee or Memphis or New Orleans. That way, the players are still in a world event, but supporting the regular tour stops at the same time.
Of course, it is not quite that simple. The PGA Tour runs the world events, and other organizations are in charge of the regular tour stops.
But when you hear complaining at various tour events as to why their field isn't stronger, remember this week, when most of the sport's best players are in Ireland.
Whether that has an affect on those at the PGA of America remains to be seen, but it is interesting that Nelson, 58, was not even a thought a month ago. The conventional wisdom had Paul Azinger, Mark O'Meara, Fred Couples, Corey Pavin or Tom Lehman getting the job for 2006. And one of them still might. But Nelson does provide an intriguing choice if the PGA of America wants to change things up and go away from its model for players in their mid- to-late 40s who are still competing on the regular tour. The idea is that they are still in touch with the players. The reality is the U.S. has lost four of the last five Ryder Cups and needed the biggest final-day comeback in history to capture its only win during that span. If the PGA of America does pick Nelson, it would help right a very bad wrong. Nelson should have got the job at some point. He won three major championships, including two PGAs -- the organization's own major -- and was stunning in Ryder Cup play, going 9-3-1, including 5-0 in 1979. |
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 Got a question about the PGA Tour? Ask ESPN.com golf writer Bob Harig, who will answer your inquiries in each installment of This Week in Golf.
Q. I submit that the U.S. Ryder Cup team would be best served by having no captain and having the card-carrying members of the tour choose the final two players. Any tough decisions would be made in the locker room and players could pair themselves much as we would for our weekend games. Any thoughts?
A. For tradition purposes alone, there needs to be a captain. Every Ryder Cup team has had a captain. Now there could be a playing captain, which used to work in the old days for the Americans. Walter Hagen and Arnold Palmer did a pretty fair job in such a role. But today, the captain is also a promoter. He's expected to do plenty of media interviews and talk about the captain's picks. It is hard to imagine someone who is playing well enough to make the team to want to be burdened with the responsibility.
Q. Why has Johnny Miller been overlooked as the captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup Team? A. It probably has to do with the fact that Miller played in just two Ryder Cups and had an average 2-2-2 record. Also, the recent captains have still been active on the PGA Tour. Miller, 57, was not even a full-time player when he won his last event in 1994.
Q. How bad would Tiger Woods' Ryder Cup record have to be before some U.S. captain would consider not playing him all five matches? We all know he's No. 2 in the world right now, but his Ryder Cup record is only 7-10-2. Why not sit him for one or two matches? It might send a pretty neat message to both Tiger and the rest of the team.
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Bob Harig covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times and is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at harig@sptimes.com.
