It was with real sadness that I learned of the death of World Golf Hall of Fame member Tommy Bolt, who passed away in Arkansas last Saturday at age 92.  Part of my reaction was rooted in the knowledge that Bolt – ever one of the game’s more colorful characters – represented the last of a bygone era of golfers, a time when Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson were pretty button-downed sorts, but men like Bolt, Sam Snead, Jimmy Demaret and Lloyd Mangrum brought a degree of “flavor” to things that will never again be seen on the PGA Tour.  But I was also bothered by two more items of interest.  First, Tommy Bolt – though undeniably an underachiever relative to his immense golfing talent – was also one of the game’s more underrated players; indeed, his 15 career PGA Tour titles (including the 1958 U.S. Open), while impressive, were forever overshadowed by stories (many apocryphal) of his legendary temper.  Which brings us to my third and final thought:

Despite this well-earned reputation as a hothead, Tommy Bolt was actually a very nice man.

Though I personally witnessed him loudly blowing up about slow play during the inaugural U.S. Senior Open in 1980, I had the chance to meet Tommy Bolt at Riviera during the early 1990s, when he spent several days at the club as a guest of the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce prior to the L.A. Open.  Suffice to say that he couldn’t have been nicer, more accommodating or more charming – indeed, Bolt was John McEnroe a good three decades before the mercurial tennis star perfected his own Jekyll and Hyde act on and off the court.

What follows, then, is my Book of Golfers entry for the late, great Tommy Bolt.  I sincerely doubt that professional golf will ever see another one like him.

TOMMY BOLT

There are names that all golfers know; those of Nicklaus, Hogan, Jones and several other immortals.  And while Tommy Bolt (b.Haworth, OK 3/31/1916) may not be quite as famous as those three legends, he truly isn’t very far behind.  The shame of it, of course, is that Bolt’s notoriety comes for all the wrong reasons.  For while many a Bolt story has been exaggerated, and men like Lefty Stackhouse, Ivan Gantz and Don Cherry were far more out of control, Thomas Henry Bolt has for many years served as golf’s poster child for a burning, uncontrollable temper.

Bolt stories, of course, are legion.  Heaving his favorite driver in a lake.  Advising players never to break their drivers and putters during the same round.  Being told by his caddie to use a 2 iron where a 9 would suffice, as the 2 was the lone serviceable club left in the bag.  Most such tales have grown exponentially over the years, often making Bolt seem more of a caricature than the tough, competitive and tremendously talented player that he was.  Yet here was a man who, upon missing a short putt, really did glare skyward and painfully intone: “Why don’t You come on down here and play me one time?”

Coming on Tour at the ripe old age of 34, the dapper Bolt was a winner right away, first at Pinehurst’s old North & South Open, then, in years to come, in virtually every corner of the country.  All told he would capture 15 PGA Tour victories with the biggest, by far, being the 1958 U.S. Open at Tulsa’s Southern Hills CC.  There, playing in stifling heat, Bolt defeated a 22-year-old Gary Player by four, reaching the peak he had always dreamed of and, by his own admission, losing a bit of competitive edge thereafter.

There are those who will say that given his remarkable talent, Bolt was something of an underachiever, and perhaps there is some truth to that.  His swing, after all, was generally rated second only to Snead’s, he was a superb driver of the ball who could move it either direction with ease, and his irons landed softer than anyone save Hogan.  It was a package that would keep Bolt at the top of his game for many years, allowing him very nearly to win the 1971 PGA (where he eventually finished third) at age 55.  There is little question too that Bolt was the best 60- and 70-year-old player in the world in his day, though he came along just a bit too soon to display his wares on the modern, big-money Champions Tour.

Bolt, for his part, learned to have fun with his tempestuous reputation, even writing a book entitled How To Keep Your Temper on the Golf Course (David McKay, 1969).  But after all the hyperbole and legend, there was still the competitive, super-talented golfer, a man who, upon losing interest in Dan Jenkins’ explanation of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, interrupted with: “Well, son, why don’t you just go out and round up them two, and Old Tom’ll play their low ball.”

…Have indeed proven greatly exaggerated.

Several times during this 2008 season, I have referred to Vijay Singh as being on the down side, and at age 45 – and relative to his nine-win, Player-of-the-Year 2004 campaign, at least – he must certainly be.  

But not much.

By claiming his second straight victory at the Deutsche Bank Championship, and his third PGA Tour title in five weeks, Singh has once again proven himself nearly impervious to age.  Indeed, the Deutsche Bank was his 23rd American victory since turning 40, which moves him five ahead of Sam Snead in the made-for-TV category of Most Victories After Beginning One’s Fifth Decade.  

[Aside: By my own criteria – which differ somewhat from the Tour’s not-so-organized record book – Snead should also be credited with wins at the 1952 Julius Boros Open, plus an additional five triumphs at the Greenbrier Open/Sam Snead Festival, giving him 24 middle-aged victories and keeping him, for the moment, one ahead of Singh.]

Still the exceptional ball-striker, Vijay has obviously been getting the putts to fall of late – which suggest that he may well run the table for the duration of 2008.  Thus while Singh continues to roil many of his peers and much of the media with his particular brand of  “confidence,” there can be no denying that we should all be on such a “downside” after turning 45.

PGA Tour:  BMW Championship

Site: Bellerive Country Club  -  St Lous, MO
Yards: 7,456     Par: 71
Defending: Tiger Woods 262  (beat A. Baddeley by 2)
Field:   World Top 25: All except Tiger Woods (1), Henrik Stenson (6), Lee Westwood (12), Justin Rose (13), Miguel Angel Jimenez (18), Robert Karlsson (21), Luke Donald (22), Ian Poulter (24) & Aaron Baddely   Other Notables: All who survived the Deutsche Bank.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
European PGA Tour:  Omega European Masters

Site: Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club  -  Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland
Yards: 6,857     Par: 71
Defending: Brett Rumford 268  (beat Phillip Archer in a playoff)
Field:   World Top 25: Miguel Angel Jimenez (18)   Other Notables: Niclas Fasth, Anders Hansen, Edurado Romero, Charl Schwartzel & Lian-Wei Zhang.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Japan Tour:  Fujisankei Classic

Site: Fujizakura Country Club  -  Yamanashi, Japan
Yards: 6,185    Par: 71
Defending: Hideto Tanihara 205  (beat P. Marksaeng by 3)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Toshi Izawa, Shingo Katayama, Prayad Marksaeng, Frankie Minoza, Jumbo Ozaki, Craig Parry & Toru Taniguchi.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Sunshine Tour:  Telkom PGA Pro-Am

Site: Centurion Country Club  -  Centurion, South Africa
Meters: 6,373     Par: 72
Defending: Michiel Bothma 204  (beat J. Van Zyl by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Desvonde Botes, Hennie Otto & Des Terblanche.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Elsewhere…

LET – Nykredit Masters – Simons, Denmark
JLPGA – Golf  Ladies – Gifu City, Japan
Futures – ILOVENY Championship – Albany, NY
Nationwide – Utah Championship – Sandy Utah
European Challenge – Dubliner Challenge – Gothenburg, Sweden
European Seniors – Casa Serena Open – Prague, Czech Republic
Canadian Tour – Canadian Tour Championship – Barrie, Ontaio
Omega China – Luxehills Golf Championship – Chengdu, hina

PGA Tour:  Deutsche Bank Championship

Winner: Vijay Singh  64-66-69-63   262  (beat M. Weir by 5)
Site:  TPC Boston  -  Norton, MA
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS

Japan Tour:  Vana H Cup KBC Augusta

Winner: Shintaro Kai   69-70-70-69   278  (beat H. Hoshino by 1)
Site: Keya Golf Club  -  Fukuoka, Japan
 
STORY        RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Sunshine Tour: Vodacom Origins of Golf at Arabella

Winner: Garth Mulroy   69-72-69   210  (beat R. Sterne by 4)
Site: Arabella Country Club  -  Overberg, South Africa
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Asian Tour: Pertmina Indonesia President Invitational

Winner: Scott Hend    71-69-66-66   272  (beat W.T. Lin by 3)
Site: Damai Indah Golf & Country Club  -  Jakartah, Indonesia
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Champions Tour: Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach

Winner: Jeff Sluman   69-66-67   202  (beat C. Stadler & F. Zoeller by 5)
Site: Pebble Beach Golf Links -  Pebble Beach, CA
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Elsewhere…

Homestanding Minea Blomqvist edged fellow Fin Ursula Wikstrom by a single stroke to win the LET’s Finnair Masters in Helsinki.  A birdie at the final holes gave Blomqvist a closing 65 for a 202 total………Rui Kitada claimed her fifth career JLPGA title at the Yonex Ladies in Nagaoka, her 207 54-hole total beating Erina Hara by three………Gordon J. Brand won his second consecutive European Seniors Tour event at the Travis Perkins Senior Masters in Woburn, England, his 54-hole score of 207 edging Juan Quiros by two………Finland’s Antti Ahokas won his second European Challenge Tour title of 2008 at the EKKO Tour Championship in Copenhagen, carding 272 aggregate to slip past Wil Besseling, Eirik Tage Johansen, Roope Kakko and Taco Remkes by one………Canadian Kent Eger posted an impressive 26-under-par 258 total to win the Canadian Tour’s Seaforth Country Classic in Ontario, edging Americans Wil Collins, John Ellis andDaniel Im by two.

It wasn’t so very long ago – only about three years in fact – that Ty Votaw stepped aside, leaving the LPGA to search for the seventh Commissioner in its then 55-year history.  At the time, Annika Sorenstam looked on her way to challenging the career records of Mickey Wright and Kathy Whitworth, marketable young stars like Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer and Lorena Ochoa were in abundance, and, most tantalizingly, Michelle Wie seemed capable of lifting the entire enterprise upon her shoulders in the not-too-distant future.  I wasn’t paying enough attention at the time to know what motivated Votaw to quit, but I did know enough to make one cogent statement:
 
“They shouldn’t have any trouble finding a quality replacement because the way the tour is positioned, nobody could screw this up.”
 
Guess I was wrong.
 
Truthfully, I didn’t join all the naysayers who slammed the eventual choice, Carolyn Bivens, when she quickly got into a spat about photo rights with, among others, the Associated Press (talk about people who buy their ink by the gallon!), nor did I dwell too much on the cries of one or two tournament sponsors who felt pushed aside by the new regime.  Business, after all, is business – or something like that.
 
But this time Ms. Bivens has hit the jackpot.
 
Anyone with enough interest in golf to read this website is by now aware of the LPGA’s plan to make fluency in English mandatory among its players by 2009 – an utterly mind boggling idea that feels like it was pulled from a different century (and not even the 20th…).  Make no mistake, the idea of making players more sponsor and media friendly is a solid one; to a large degree, the tour relies on sponsors for its very existence, so making pro-am or press conferences easier is a more-than-reasonable goal, but…
 
How did Ms, Bivens not think this would be a P.R. disaster?
 
How did she not figure that it would strike many as discriminatory?  That some might even see it as an underhanded way to slow down the wave of young, highly skilled Asian players currently washing over the tour?  That it would certainly raise the hackles of the politically correct just on general principle?  Or, most tellingly, that with the LPGA being based in Florida, such a rule wouldn’t quickly get the attention of Sunshine State lawmakers wondering if it violates state laws preventing discrimination in places of public accommodation (which, as the Casey Martin case taught us, professional golf events most certainly are)?
 
And here’s another concern which might have struck Bivens & Co. as problematical: At present, the LPGA tour is far and away the tour in women’s golf.  Whereas the PGA Tour is occasionally overshadowed by events on the European or Asian circuits (where many foreign stars play as frequently as they do here), the LPGA holds a virtual monopoly.  It’s nearest competitor, the Ladies European Tour, is essentially a minor league by comparison, while the Japanese and Korean ladies circuits are, by LPGA standards, irrelevant.  But if a significant number of Asian players choose not to comply with Bivens’ edict, what will happen?  Since it’s unlikely that any such players will opt for retirement, they will surely head for the LET or Japan – very possibly the first step in those circuits closing the gap on the American tour just as the E Tour so effectively has on the men’s side.
 
So why risk the monopoly?
 
We’re only just scratching the surface on this but already, it would appear that the English-only rule has the word D-E-B-A-C-L-E written all over it – in bright red neon.  Having already garnered the LPGA all manner of unwanted headlines, it is the type of story which is not likely to drift away in the next sports week’s news cycle.  Short of a complete scrapping of the entire idea, this mess figures to get a lot worse before it gets better – and it’s really very difficult to envision it all ending well.
 
What were they thinking?

There is a bit of a rumble growing that with his victory at last weekend’s KLM Open at Kennemer, Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke may well have played his way onto Nick Faldo’s European Ryder Cup team – and, I believe, rightly so.  The likeable Clarke, who closed with rounds of 64-66-66 over the venerable Dutch layout, has certainly been through it, enduring the death of his wife in 2006, then struggling to a 138th-place finish in the E Tour Order of Merit during a disappointing 2007.  But in 2008 Clarke has returned to his elite form of the past, logging early top-four finishes at the South African and Joburg Opens before breaking through for a win at the BMW Asian Open in April.  A tie for 6th at August’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitation slipped him back onto the international stage, and while an MC at the PGA Championship slowed the momentum, it was recaptured quickly enough in the Netherlands, where Clarke easily cruised past Paul McGinley by four.  Currently standing 17th on both the European Ryder Cup world and E Tour points lists, Clarke will not play his way into an automatic berth on the team with anything shy of a miracle.  However, with five past Ryder Cup appearances and a career Cup record of 10-7-3, it would seem difficult for Faldo not to select so proven a performer.  And given the magnitude of Clarke’s personal tragedy and comeback, it will be a very well-deserved selection indeed.
 
Meanwhile, I ran into an exceptionally well-placed source this weekend who indicated real optimism that Rocco Mediate will, in fact, be one of Paul Azinger’s four upcoming captain’s picks for the American team.  The popular Mediate, whose MC at the Barclay's broke a streak of 13 consecutive cuts made, may be slightly past his peak form of late spring, but were I Azinger I’d pick him instantly – and not just because the two are close friends.  On a U.S. team that may struggle mightily to find players capable of producing under the stifling Ryder Cup pressure, Mediate, whose game settled in at a new level after taking Tiger Wood’s to the limit at June’s U.S. Open, would appear an ideal prospect.  It seems odd that both he and fellow veteran Steve Stricker would be Ryder Cup rookies if tabbed by Azinger, as each has logged volumes worth of good golf over the years.  But inexperienced in this particular event or not, I’d sooner bet on either of them to come through at Valhalla than any of Azinger’s other obvious choices.  Indeed, I’d be inclined to pencil them onto Zinger’s dance card right now, leaving Zach Johnson Sean O’Hair, Hunter Mahan, Brandt Snedeker and several others to sweat over roster spots 11 and 12.  But we’ll see…

Though he spent little time mixing with the world of professional golf, the game lost one of its greatest friends and historians when Bob Labbance passed away this past weekend after an all-too-short battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease.  A Vermonter for as long as I knew him, Bob’s writing résumé covered a great deal of ground, including the guidebooks for Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine public-access courses, numerous club histories throughout the region and, most recently, a pair of wonderfully diverse titles that summarized well the range of his knowledge: The Life and Work of Wayne Stiles (an attractive and detailed catalog of the underrated Golden Age designer’s career) and The Vardon Invasion: Harry’s Triumphant 1900 American Tour, a long-overdue title that I told Bob, enviously, that I wish I had written – but I doubt I could have done it as well.
 
Yet beyond his huge literary contributions, Bob meant an even larger amount to me personally, this despite the fact that we never actually met face-to-face.  The reason for this was simple.  Much of my own golfing past lies in New England, where I went to college, worked for a number of years in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and enjoyed the chance to play so many of the region’s little-known Golden Age courses that Bob so ably chronicled.  But 17 years ago I moved to Los Angeles – about as far from all those quirky old New England designs as it gets.  Almost immediately I pined for the Old Country (and still occasionally do), and it was Bob who always kept me in touch, sending copies of his regional magazines, and faithfully answering whatever questions my own research led me to ask regarding one ancient New England track or another.
 
A whole lot of people in the golfing world will miss Bob Labbance, but in a strange way, none more than me.
 
New England, which Bob kept right at my fingertips all of these years, now feels a million miles away.

Site: TPC Boston  -  Norton, MA
Yards: 7,207     Par: 71
Defending: Phil Mickelson 268  (beat A. Oberholser, B. Wetterich & T. Woods by 2)
Field:   World Top 25: All except Tiger Woods (1), Henrik Stenson (6), Lee Westwood (12), Justin Rose (14), Miguel Angel Jimenez (18), Robert Karlsson (21) & Luke Donald (22)   Other Notables: All who survived the Barclay’s.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
European PGA Tour:  Johhnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles

Site: Gleneagles Hotel (PGA Centenary course)  - Perthshire, Scotland
Yards: 7,320     Par: 73
Defending: Marc Warren 280  (beat S. Wakefield in a playoff)
Field:   World Top 25: Lee Westwood (12), Justin Rose (14)   Other Notables: Michael Campbell, David Howell, Graeme McDowell & Colin Montgomerie
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Japan Tour:  Vana H Cup KBC Augusta

Site: Keya Golf Club  -  Fukuoka, Japan
Yards: 7,173     Par: 72
Defending: Katsumasa Miyamoto 269  (beat S. Conran & K. Oda by 1)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Toshi Izawa, Prayad Marksaeng, Frnkie Minoza, Jet Ozaki, Jumbo Ozaki & Craig Parry.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Asian Tour:  Pertmina Indonesia President Invitational

Site: Damai Indah Golf & Country Club  -  Jakartah, Indonesia
Meters: 6.048     Par: 72
Defending: Juvic Pagunsan 269  (beat G. Bhullar by 2)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Wen-The Lu & Thaworn Wiratchant
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Sunshine Tour:  Vodacom Origins of Golf at Arabella

Site: Arabella Country Club  -  Overberg, South Africa
Meters: 6,381     Par: 73
Defending: Andrew Curlewis 207  (beat A. Michell in a playoff)
Field:   World Top 25: None    Other Notables: Desvonde Botes, Darren Fichardt & Richard Sterne.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Champions Tour:  Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach

Site: Pebble Beach Golf Links -  Pebble Beach, CA
Yards: 6,822     Par: 72     
Defending: Gil Morgan 202  (beat H. Irwin by 2)
Field:   Ranked: The entire Charles Schwab Cup top 20 except Bernhard Langer (2), Eduardo Romero (4) & Scott Hoch (5)   Other Notables: Ben Crenshaw, Bruce Fleisher, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Sandy Lyle, Gil Morgan, Larry Nelson, Mark O’Meara, ave Stockton, Curtis Strange & Fuzzy Zoeller.
 
                    ENTRANTS          WEBSITE          GOLF COURSE          AERIAL
 
 
Elsewhere…

LET – Finnair Masters – Helsinki, Finland
JLPGA – Yonex Ladies – Nagaoka, Japan
KLPGA – SBS Charity Ladies Open – Gangwon-do Province, Korea
European Seniors – Travis Perkins Senior Masters – Woburn, England
European Challenge – EKKO Tour Championship – Copenhagen, Denmark
Canadian Tour – Seaforth Country Classic – Seaforth, Ontario

Site: Ridgewood Country Club  -  Paramus, NJ
 
STORY         RESULT        MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
European PGA Tour:  KLM Open

Winner: Darren Clarke   68-64-66-66   264  (beat P. McGinley by 4)
Site: Kennemer Golf & ; Country Club  -  Zandvoort, Netherlands
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Asian Tour:  Brunei Open

Winner: Rick Kulacz   68-66-67-70   271  (beat W.T. Lu in a playoff)
Site: Empire Hotel & Country Club  -  Jerudong, Brunei
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
LPGA Tour:  Safeway Classic

Winner: Cristie Kerr   71-67-65   203  (beat H. Alfredsson & S. Gustafson in a playoff)
Site: Columbia Edgewater Country Club  -  Portland, OR
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Champions Tour:  Boeing Classic

Winner: Tom Kite   69-67-66   202  (beat S. Simpson by 2)
Site: TPC Snoqualmie Ridge  -  Snoqualmie, WA
 
STORY         RESULT         MONEY LIST         STATS         INTERVIEWS
 
 
Elsewhere…

France’s Gwladys Nocera claimed her eighth career LET victory at the SAS Masters in Oslo, her 13-under-par 203 total beating Tania Elosegui and Samantha Head by three………Miho Koga won for the ninth time on the JLPGA tour, carding a nine-under-par 210 total at the CAT Ladies to edge Mi-Jeong Jeon by one………British Columbia’s Samantha Richdale took the Futures Tour’s Gettysburg Championhip with a 211 total, edging the tour’s dominant player, Vicky Hurst, by two………Scott Piercy won for the second time in three weeks on the Nationwide Tour, posting a 267 aggregate to win the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic by two over Brendon De Jonge and Cameron Percy………England’s wonderfully named Seve Benson won his second European Challenge Tour title at the Ypsilon Challenge in the Czech Republic, beating Rafael Cabrera Bello and Branden Grace in sudden death after the trio tied on 16-under-par 268 in regulation………Gordon J. Brand beat his near namesake, Gordon Brand Jr., on the sixth hole of sudden death to capture the British Senior PGA Championship on the European Senior Tour.  The pair deadlocked after 72 holes at four-over-par 292………American Alex Coe won the Canadian Tour’s Jane Rogers Championship, his 265 total beating Canada’s Graham DeLaet by three in Mississauga, Ontario.

Having avoided writing about this for several days, I had absolutely no clue how to begin this, an obligatory piece on a tiresome subject.  But then I ran into a club professional friend on Thursday afternoon, and before I could say much beyond “Hello,” he asked, very simply, “Does anyone care about the FedEx Cup?”

Of course, there’s a fundamental (and generally overlooked) truth about the PGA Tour’s decision to build its business model after the culturally not-so-analogous sport of stock car racing:

The FedEx Cup was a resounding success before its first spine-tingling shot was ever struck.

Why?

Because few people keep their eye on the sparrow more effectively than Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem.  This, after all, is a man who spearheaded the creation of the World Golf Championship events – not because there was any great need to drag international stars to America any more often, but rather to quell any rumblings about the creation of a world tour.  

The FedEx Cup is little different.  A former economic advisor to President Jimmy Carter, Finchem more than understands that from a competitive perspective, the FedEx Cup serves no meaningful purpose.  In a game dominated by four time-honored Major championships, it is historically irrelevant and will likely remain so, regardless of how many promotional dollars the Tour throws at it.  Indeed, I suspect that history will far better recall Rocco Mediate for losing the U.S. Open that it will whomever holds up the vaunted cup next month at East Lake.

But that was never the point.

The FedEx Cup was, in fact, a really brilliant idea because it served a vital purpose.  Conceived during 2005, it was hatched as a bargaining chip for dealing with the major American TV networks as yet another massive broadcasting contract was set to expire.  At the time, golf’s TV ratings were on the decline, and the rumblings were loud that the days of jacking the networks for ever more money were fast coming to a close.  So Finchem and his administrative cast of thousands devised their “playoffs” – or, more accurately, decided that where money was concerned, stock car racing was an ideal role model for the PGA Tour.

The results, we should note, were not altogether perfect.  ABC/ESPN saw through the ruse (or simply found the Tour’s increasingly dull product a bad investment at any price) and walked away outright.  With the other networks picking up the slack, this may not have affected week-to-week broadcasts too much (save for those who’d fallen in love with ABC’s inspired Nick Faldo-Paul Azinger broadcast pairing) but it does figure to prove a crucial negative in one harder-to-define way.  With ABC/ESPN out of the equation, the Tour’s placement on Sportscenter, the sports information vehicle of modern American society, will inevitably slide – and it’s going to be difficult for Finchem to reach his goal of competing with this nation’s major sports if his standard weekly events are garnering only brief mentions in Sportscenter’s 28th minute.

But this little hiccup notwithstanding, the FedEx Cup achieved Finchem’s fundamental goal, because despite little logical reason to do so, CBS and NBC indeed broke the bank and shelled out record money for a new broadcast deal.  This remarkable achievement on the Commissioner’s part kept his bosses – the PGA Tour players – a happy bunch.

The manifest silliness of a golfing “playoff,” after all, is of little interest to them.  When it comes to judging their Commissioner, they simply see four consecutive seven million dollar purses in August and September and know they’ve got the right man for the job.