Money flows during Silly Season
The seriousness is done, the silliness set to begin. The PGA Tour likes to call it the Challenge Season although it is commonly known as the Silly Season. That's because there is not much at stake, other than big bucks for the participants and major exposure for the venues.
It "officially" gets started with this weekend's Franklin Templeton Shootout, previously known as the Shark Shootout, in Naples, Fla. Hosted by Greg Norman, the two-man team event will have its serious moments as players compete for a $2.5-million purse.
But in the end, everybody goes home with something, and that is the point.
Big-name players and those who had good seasons are rewarded with these low-pressure paydays.
Some make the argument that these offseason events are bad for golf. Too much golf is not necessarily a good thing and because so many players take part in these tournaments, they have to take time off at some point, often at the expense of official PGA Tour events.
But there is a good side to these tournaments. Because they aren't so serious, players can let their guard down. Fans at the tournaments my have a better chance of getting on autograph. Television viewers see a little more banter. And players continue to be promoted at a time when their season is not in full force.
The unofficial events didn't waste much time. Six of the players who are to compete in the Shootout took part in other events earlier this week that were taped for later broadcast on TV.
Peter Jacobsen, Jay Haas and John Daly were in Las Vegas on Monday and Tuesday for the Wendy's Three-Tour Challenge, which will be televised Dec. 18-19. Hank Kuehne, Chad Campbell, Zach Johnson and Chris Riley were participating in the Tommy Bahama Challenge in Scottsdale, Ariz. The new made-for-TV tournament will pit the four 30-or younger Americans against four international players: Paul Casey, David Howell, Kevin Na and Ian Poulter.
Next Monday comes the ADT Golf Skills Challenge at Trump International in West Palm Beach, Fla. Among the scheduled participants are Norman, Nick Faldo, Jacobsen, Paul Azinger and, of course, defending champion Mark McGwire. It will air on Dec. 25-26.
There are some serious events, too. Next week's World Cup is a World Golf Championship event. The two-man team tournament is being played in Spain and the Americans will be represented by Scott Verplank and Bob Tway.
Tiger Woods is taking part in a skins game in South Korea with Se Ri Pak, then next week is playing in the Dunlap Phoenix, a tournament in Japan. Then it's on to the original Silly Season event, the Skins Game, on Thanksgiving weekend. He'll compete against Annika Sorenstam, Adam Scott and defending champion Fred Couples, the king of the Silly Season. Couples has made a second career of dominating in the offseason, and is the all-time Skins Game money winner with some $2.5-million.
The UBS Cup, played Nov. 15-21 is a Ryder Cup-style event for players over age 40.
The PGA Grand Slam of Golf is just before Thanksgiving and is supposed to bring together the winner's of the four major championships, although U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen won't participate because his wife is expecting.
The Office Depot Father-Son event is held Dec. 4-5 (watch out for the Stadlers).
Woods' Target World Challenge is Dec. 9-12 and offers some serious money, with a purse of more than $5 million being split among just 16 players. Woods typically donates his earnings to his own Tiger Woods Foundation. Last year, Davis Love III won $1.2 million at the Target.
Maybe it's not so silly after all.
Sorenstam did not compete with the men this year, as she did in 2003 when she made headlines by playing at the Colonial last year. And she did not win the Grand Slam, as was her stated goal at the beginning of the year. But she did add her seventh major title at the LPGA Championship, won seven times -- one more victory than last year -- and clinched her fifth straight Player of the Year award. She is skipping this week's Tournament of Champions but has one more event left, next week's ADT Championship for the top 30 money winners. Sorenstam's 55 LPGA victories ties her with Betsy Rawls for fifth all-time. She needs just three more wins to tie Louise Suggs and five more to tie Patty Berg. That would put her at 60, behind only immortals (Mickey Wright, 82) and Kathy Whitworth (88). At 34, the only thing holding Sorenstam back is motivation. |
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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. What's up with the "cream of the crop" of American golfers? Tiger never plays. Phil played twice after the PGA and withdrew from one of those. Davis never contended at the end of the year, missing cuts and withdrawing from the Tour Championship. And Jim Furyk was a no-show all year long. In the meantime, Els, Goosen and Vijay kept winning big events. Is it an issue of passion? Are they getting too old? Should we be hoping for a new crop of American superstars or has the rest of the world just passed us by? A. Woods did play 19 tournaments, which is about his norm on the PGA Tour. Mickelson admitted that after the PGA Championship, his motivation was waning. After winning twice, including the Masters, and contending in all four majors, it's tough to knock Mickelson, who finished third on the PGA Tour money list. And Jim Furyk missed a good part of the year due to wrist surgery, which kept him from playing until June. As for Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Vijay Singh ... well, they are excellent players who compete worldwide who happen not to be from the United States. It is simply a sign of the times: international players won 26 of the 48 events on the PGA Tour.
Q. Is it just me, or does it seem as though new PGA members via the Nationwide Tour are having remarkably more success -- and more staying power -- than those that come to the tour straight from college (David Gossett, Matt Kuchar, Bryce Molder, Jeff Quinney, Ricky Barnes, even Charles Howell III)? Doesn't that tend to prove that maturity is just as important, if not more, than raw talent if you want to make a career out of the big tour? A. There are a couple of notable examples of players who went right from college and had PGA Tour success -- Tiger Woods and Justin Leonard come to mind. But no doubt a little seasoning helps, and the Nationwide Tour, which began as the Hogan Tour in 1990, has proved to be an excellent place to develop skills. Zach Johnson went from last year's Nationwide Tour to this year's Tour Championship. Chad Campbell did it the year prior. The Nationwide Tour is far more similar to the PGA Tour than college golf and a far better proving ground.
Q. As excited as I am about Tom Lehman being named the 2006 Ryder Cup Captain, I wonder about someone that was never even mentioned as a potential captain: Wouldn't Hale Irwin have been an excellent choice also?
Q. Why do you think the PGA of America keeps snubbing Larry Nelson as captain for the Ryder Cup team? Also, why isn't he in the Golf Hall of Fame?
Q. If you were to look in your crystal ball for 2005, who would be Player of the Year? Comeback of the year?
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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.
