Padraig Harrington is an Irishman, but he must appreciate the old
British Navy toast, "To bloody war and quick promotion." He thinks the elimination of big names from the FedEx Cup will attract more fans to golf's playoffs.
"The
modifications [to the FedEx Cup] are a big improvement," Harrington
said Wednesday at Cog Hill outside of Chicago, site of Round 3 of the FedEx
Cup playoffs.
"I think you've got to perform in the FedEx Cup if you want to win the
FedEx Cup, and that's important in any playoff system. Anybody
who's teeing it up in the FedEx Cup can win it, as Heath Slocum is
showing, and that's what you want in a playoff situation."
Harrington
himself was a victim of the volatile playoff points system last
year, when the two-time major winner was bounced before
the Tour Championship. No hard feelings -- that's what happens in a true
playoff, Harrington said.
"That's called a playoff, and that's very important, that everybody can win and has a chance
of winning, not just a mathematical chance of winning," Harrington said. "Everybody has a
chance of winning, and also that big-name players get knocked out.
There's no point in having a cutoff if the people that are being put
off aren't some of the marquee players, because that makes it more
exciting.
"Whoever plays the best in the
FedEx Cup series should win the FedEx Cup. That's really what it should
be. You know, you do want to see a few casualties. That's what TV is about;
you've got to see a few guys knocked out, like I was knocked out last
year," Harrington said.
Harrington
must have been channeling his inner Vince McMahon on Wednesday because
he came up with an idea for the $10 million Tour Championship finale
that would make the WWE boss proud.
"I do believe they should give out the cash on the 18th green," Harrington said. "Just sit
it there just to have a good look at it. It would be great, like the
World Series of Poker. We could take it in a wheelbarrow up to the
clubhouse. Anything that falls out, it's the caddie's."
I'm off to Chicago this week for the BMW, so I can get a firsthand look at the new Cog Hill and hopefully pick up a new driver… unless Stevie wins the footrace.
"Regarding Tiger's club-throwing incident on Friday, do you think he's tired (as he said) or tired of missing putts (as Brandel Chamblee said)? I tend to agree with Brandel -- how in the world can Tiger be tired? He's the fittest guy out there."
The fatigue isn't physical, it's mental. Tiger has to put up with so much during a tournament week -- endless media prying, swarming fans, obsequious Tour staffers. Then he grinds harder than anyone on every shot. Tiger has always played a light schedule to allow himself to recharge before every event, but Deutsche Bank was his 9th tournament in 13 weeks -– he hasn't gone that hard since he was a bachelor in his early 20's. Dude is simply a bit fried.
"Let's say Tiger finishes in the top 5 the next two events and overtakes Steve in the coveted FedEx Cup points race. If he wins the Cup without winning a 'post-season' event, what does that say about the Cup, and is he POTY?"
Tiger is the player of the year until he isn't. He's won the most tournaments and money, he's got the lowest scoring average. He certainly doesn't have to take the Cup to be POY. Five quality victories is all the resume he needs. Turning your question around, if Stricker has two more good finishes (but no wins) and wins the Cup, he could very well steal the POY voting. He'd have the second-most wins on Tour and the second-best scoring average, and he would have closed the deal in the, er, playoffs. Don't forget, the players do the voting, and they bring all their jealousies and double standards to the ballot. Stricker would probably be rewarded for a career-year while Woods would lose votes for merely an average campaign by his impossible standards.
"Ship! Come on, can you comment on what's going on with Vijay's game and what you see him doing in the future?"
Sucking and fishing, respectively.
"The only thing funnier than the LPGA caddies helping to line up their players is the fact that not a single one of them ever tells the player 'Hey, you look a big closed -- let's open up and aim a little more left ...' So are they afraid to say something (knowing a live TV camera may be watching their every move), or does every single one of these players line up perfectly? And if it's the latter, then why even do it at all? Just once I want to hear one of those caddies say 'You're 25 yards right of where you want to be -- we've been working on this for weeks and you are still making the same mistake!' "
Yeah, this is part of the absurdity. I, too, have never seen a caddie call his player off for misalignment. I'm gonna ask a couple of LPGA players for some anecdotes and report back. But I really feel the USGA should ban this kind of caddie help and leave my 64-degree wedge alone.
"Not sure if it was a weak attempt at humor or what, but you are way off base saying that Todd Hamilton was the worst person in his profession for a week. After all, he had to qualify for the event in the first place and then he made the cut. Someone had to finish last among the 77 that made the Barclay's cut. That does not make Todd the "worst" professional golfer (or touring pro) for the week. Your comment was either misinformed or a cheap shot or a stupid attempt at humor. Where do you rank this week among sportswriters?" —Andrew Langan
About 77th.
"What are your feelings about Suzann Pettersen? I love her -- plays with fire, looks nice, and just has a really powerful game. It seems like she should be a bigger star than she is." -- Mailbag loyalist John from Austin
I'm a big Pettersen fan, too. It will be interesting to see she if she can build on last weekend's commanding victory at the Canadian Women's Open. A couple of years ago I asked her mom how Suzann had spent the off-season. "Skiing and partying," was the answer. Suzann has definitely become more dedicated to her craft. The issues with her are mostly mental, as she had blown a handful of tournaments since her last LPGA win, way back in '07. I think slamming the door in Canada will free her up, and I wouldn't be surprised if she won a couple more times this fall to grab her first money title and POY.
"Shipnuck -- the Mailbag disappears for, what, 2 or 3 years, mysteriously reappears deep into the golf season and you have the audacity to bust chops because either the quantity or quality of queries doesn't meet your standards? A season for the Mailbag should have the same arc as a season on the Tour, and late-in-the-season party crashers have to take what they can get...."
So true. I can assure you that next year the Mailbag will define the season from Hawaii to Atlanta. Think of this fall's entry as a little test run and a chance to earn my privileges, sort of like Tiger turning pro after taking the U.S. Amateur.
JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Phil Mickelson grew up in San Diego and
went to school at Arizona State, but he's become the New York area's favorite
golfer.
An incident in the middle of the first fairway at Liberty
National Friday morning shows why.
After making five bogeys through his first eight holes,
Mickelson made a 61-foot putt from the fringe on the 18th (his ninth) for a birdie.
The crowd roared and high-fives were exchanged as Phil strode to the first tee.
He then crushed a 335-yard drive that stopped in the fairway, 51 feet from the
pin.
As his playing partners — Kenny Perry and Lucas Glover — sized
up their approach shots from near the 100 yard marker, a fan called out to
Mickelson, "Hey Phil, I thought you were Kenny!"
Phil turned toward the fan and laughed along with the crowd.
Then, with his left thumb in his pocket, he subtly extended
his left middle finger downward and kept laughing.
The fan that had yelled out to him, along with the dozens of
fans braving the rain alongside the fairway, exploded in laughter.
Mickelson totally understands and accepts the New York
sports culture. He's always played a go-for-broke style that is exciting to watch, and his disappointments (Winged Foot), family challenges (wife Amy's breast cancer) and triumphs (Baltusrol) have humanized him in their eyes. The ribbing on the first hole Friday was good-natured, and Phil knew it. Like the guys at your club, sports
fans around here love to jab with athletes they consider friends. By playing
along, Mickelson shows that he's one of the guys.
The athletes New Yorkers really don't like are either
ignored or taunted. The difference is not subtle — just ask Sergio Garcia.
Mickelson followed that drive up with a stubbed chip that stopped six feet from the hole and his
birdie putt missed. What had seemed like the start of a Mickelson run turned
out to be a disappointing par.
But regardless of his score, one thing is certain: Whether
he's wearing pinstripes (as he did today) or not, Mickelson is an adopted New
Yorker.
Sponsorships are funny business. Sure, it’s swell to have your company’s name attached to a tournament or halftime show or a boxer’s sweaty back, but you never really know what you’re getting in return.
Take FedEx. What percentage of avid golf fans do you suppose know that the mail carrier is the title sponsor of the PGA Tour’s season-long points race and four-tournament playoff series (an avid fan being someone who looks up Tour scores several times a week, watches at least 11 tournaments per year and has a favorite player)?
Seventy-five percent? Not even close. Fifty? Nope. Try a mere 30 percent, according to an eye-opening survey published in a recent issue of Street & Smith’s SportBusiness Journal (you can’t access the story online unless you’re a subscriber).
That figure sounds shockingly low to me, and even more shocking is the fact that 4 percent of avid fans think that Nike sponsors the Tour's playoffs and another 3.5 percent give credit to Coca-Cola. Hey, at least they didn’t say UPS.
The good news for FedEx — which reportedly spent tens of millions on the sponsorship deal — is that it’s actually "enjoying higher awareness levels than many of the Tour’s other partners," the paper reported. Only 17 percent of avid fans, for example, correctly identified MasterCard as the Tour’s official credit card, while more than twice as many thought it was American Express, which doesn't pay the Tour a dime. (Amex did have a 10-year partnership with Tiger Woods, which didn't hurt its golf cred.)
The biggest winner in the survey: AT&T, which 36 percent of avid fans think is the official wireless carrier of the Tour. The kicker: the Tour has no wireless partner.
I've been down this road before, but I'm inspired to go down it again after reading my colleague Gary Van Sickle's amusing interview with Steve Dennis, the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup points guru. I don't know Mr. Dennis, but I do know Van Sickle, and on golf matters I find it wise to agree with him. (I have a harder time with his ranking of great episodes of "Lost in Space," among other iconic TV shows of the '60s.) Gary has now come up with a phrase that could fix the FedEx Cup mess: Cumulative Scoring. The idea is to treat the four playoff events as one 16-round tournament. He even got Steve Dennis to use it.
The PGA Tour season would conclude with the PGA Championship. If you're in the top 125 on the money list, you have your card for the following year, and you get into the first round of the three-week FedEx Cup playoffs. There's a dark week after the PGA; then you go three straight weeks. The winner is the guy who--get this--takes the fewest strokes for all 216 holes! Cumulative Scoring.
So, 125 would start, with a cut to the low 80 players and ties after the second round of the first tournament. Then cut to the low 60 and ties after the second round of the second tournament, so about 60 guys would play the third and final event. You have to play, of course, all 12 rounds to qualify.
Then you take off another week and play the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup. You can still have your Fall Finish tournaments. They should be what they already essentially are: nice, low-key community events doing some charitable good that gives professional golfers the opportunity to make money and golf fans the chance to watch.
Ball wielded hickory-shafted sticks in that event, finishing tied for 38th out of 72 competitors. Back then it was called the Augusta National Invitation Tournament, and Ball remembers the event as casual – yet festive.
"It was a small invitational tournament, and there was quite a bit of drinking going on," he said, bringing the house down. "I wish I would've had a drink before that final round." (He shot 74-75-74-86.)
Ball is whip-smart, and still regularly hits the links. He said Bobby Jones was the best golfer of his era, and Tiger Woods is the best ever. He capped his morning by hitting the ceremonial opening tee shot – wielding a graphite-shafted driver, but no golf glove -- and ripped it about 150 yards, right down the middle. A 97, his swing is still much better than mine. Figures.
Play is under way at the Tour Championship. More from East Lake coming soon.
ATLANTA -- Ten of the 12 players from the triumphant U.S. Ryder Cup team are at East Lake for the Tour Championship this week. (Fan favorites Boo Weekly and J.B. Holmes finished outside the top 30 in FedEx points and didn't qualify for the limited-field event.) There's no question those 10 players rolled into Atlanta a little frayed after a week of intense pressure, followed by fervent celebration. A few players spoke candidly about the challenge of getting mentally prepared for the FedEx finale after the exhilarating experience.
"It's weird kind of going through that and then having to come to such a big event like this," said 26-year-old Hunter Mahan. "It's a great field, good golf course ... it may take a round or two to actually get back into the flow of playing tournament golf again."
"I think we'll be fine," Chad Campbell said. "Might be tough getting back into things, but once you start to feel it again, it'll fall into place."
Jim Furyk added: "We're all a little bit worn out after last week. I found that at 38 I don't recover like I did at 23. I knew that, actually, but I've proven it once again."
ATLANTA -- While lacking in palpable excitement, it was still a great day for golf at East Lake. Sunny, breezy, maybe 80 degrees. The pros were out enjoying a casual practice round, and the fans -- I’d guess about 2,000 are here -- were soaking it all up.
Jerry Keck was lugging a giant cardboard box around the course in search of one man, and one autograph. In the box was a poster-sized black-and-white print depicting more than 50 past Masters champions. It’s a pretty impressive piece. Some 44 players have signed in green ink near their own likeness, including Tiger Woods, Tom Watson and Trevor Immelman. Several signatures belong to legends who have since died, including Byron Nelson and Gay Brewer.
"It all started on a dare," says Keck, a 70-year-old native of Roswell, Ga. "I’m a big autograph guy, and one of my buddies saw this picture for sale. He bet me I couldn’t fill it up with signatures, and I took the challenge."
Keck has failed to corner just one living Masters champion to sign his print: Phil Mickelson. As Phil sauntered up to the 10th tee on Wednesday, Keck was told by a club employee that Lefty only signs at the end of rounds; it’s his way of staying focused during practice and preventing mob scenes from tee to tee. Keck concocted a plan to wait for Phil in a prime spot off the 18th green. We’ll see if it works.
"Congratulations, you almost won," Seinfeld says. "Of all the losers, you came in first of that group. You're the number one loser. No one lost ahead of you."
When it comes to ranking the best golfers of the era behind Tiger Woods, though, second place is nothing to sneeze at. One of my favorite 19th hole discussions is trying to figure out who is golf's silver medalist. Is it Vijay Singh or Phil Mickelson?
With his victory Monday at the Deutsche Bank, including a final-round 63, Singh now has 34 PGA Tour victories, including three majors. With his two wins this season, Mickelson also has 34 wins, including three majors.
What gives Singh the upper hand -- at least at present -- is that he has been Player of the Year (something Mickelson has not) and been ranked No. 1 in the world (also something Mickelson has not).
There are other points in Singh's favor, too: twenty-two wins after the age of 40, which is a PGA Tour record. The most PGA Tour wins by an international player. All of that and he's close to clinching the second edition of the FedEx Cup playoffs (won by Woods last season).
At 38, Mickelson has plenty of time to take the silver medal away from the 45-year-old Singh, but for now it is property of the hulking Fijian.
I can tell you the No. 1 reason the FedEx Cup doesn't have anything remotely resembling a playoff feel. There is no fear of elimination. At least, no elimination of anyone who matters.
Yeah, the guy who ranks 131st in the contrived points list gets eliminated but so what? True playoffs, like in baseball, mean the best team from the regular season can get ousted in the first round (sorry, Cubbies). That's tension, that's pressure, that's drama.
Last year's FedEx Cup was an exercise in futility. The winner was always going to be someone who won one of the four FedEx Cup events or one of the top three point-getters. This year, with the points tweaked, I'm hearing players complain that it's too volatile, there's too much movement, and something is wrong if Padraig Harrington, who won the last two majors, is eliminated.
Yes, there's something wrong. Harrington missed two straight cuts. He should be eliminated. That's what playoffs are for.
And that's exactly why the FedEx Cup will never be a real playoff. Creating a system with real eliminations raises the possibility that Tiger Woods could be eliminated early. The PGA Tour doesn't want that. Television doesn't want that. Tiger is the tour's meal ticket. Let's face it, he is the tour from the standpoint of public interest. This year's FedEx Cup will prove that it can, in fact, survive without Tiger. But I don't think anybody dares to try for two in a row. Until this format provides the fear of eliminations, it'll never be a real playoff, just another friendly cash grab.
