By Joel Beall
Tiger Woods’ Hall of Fame induction will have to wait.

The ceremony for Woods, who was elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame in March, was supposed to take place in 2021. However, the World Golf Foundation announced Monday the celebration is delayed until 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Moving the ceremony back a year will give us a better opportunity to properly recognise and honour this important class,” said Greg McLaughlin, chief executive officer of the World Golf Foundation. “We look forward to shining a light on their achievements and inspiring future golfers around the world through this ceremony and celebration.”

The 15-time major winner will be honored at TPC Sawgrass during the 2022 Players Championship. Joining Woods in the Hall of Fame class are Susie Maxwell Berning, Marion Hollins and Tim Finchem.

Woods became eligible for Hall of Fame election thanks to a rule change in 2020, which moved the age requirement from 50 to 45 (Woods turns 45 on Dec. 30). The age limit had recently been moved from 40 to 50 just four years prior, but the Hall made the switch as “an effort to ensure the game’s greats from around the world are actively recognised and celebrated.”

“Recognising the game’s greatest players and contributors is an important endeavour and one our sport takes very seriously,” said World Golf Foundation board chairman and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. “We are committed to regularly evaluating the selection process to ensure we approach it with both historical context and the future in mind.”

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By John Feinstein
Several years ago, I was standing on the practice range at a golf tournament talking to then-PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who worked for President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale, before he got involved in golf.

“Better not stand too close,” Finchem said with a smile. “If you do, someone can get both Democrats who are part of golf with one shot.”

Finchem was exaggerating—but not by much. The number of professional golfers who identify as Democrats is pretty close to the number of players in the game’s history who have won double-digit major championships. (For the record, that number is three.)

I thought about that on Sunday as I watched Jim Herman battle Billy Horschel down the stretch at the Wyndham Championship. I’d never root against Horschel, who is one of the tour’s good guys. But I couldn’t help but feel myself wanting Herman to win because he needed to win a lot more than Horschel did.

Herman had entered the tournament in Greensboro 192nd on the FedEx Cup points list, miles away from being one of the top 125 who would qualify for this week’s first round of the playoffs. He had struggled all year, making just seven of 18 cuts and, at 42, he had to be wondering just a little bit how much longer he was going to be able to play competitively.

Herman once worked for President Donald Trump at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. He has played frequently with Trump—both before and after he became president—and talks often about how much Trump has encouraged him about his golf career through the years.

Herman is very much a Trump supporter. I am, if you haven’t already guessed, very much not.

And yet Herman and I get along very well. I remember a lengthy locker-room conversation with him shortly after he won for the first time on tour, in Houston in the spring of 2016. He was my kind of story: a grinder who had won for the first time at the age of 38 and had come a long way from giving lessons at Trump National. He was bright, funny, clearly devoted to his family. The kind of player I’d like to write about and have a beer with.

In many ways, Herman is a perfect example in these polarized times of not being defined by politics. This is a lesson I’ve learned through the years covering golf: We can all put politics aside, even now.

One of the first events I covered while researching A Good Walk Spoiled was the 1993 Ryder Cup. That was the year when President Bill Clinton invited the American team to visit the White House before the players boarded the Concorde to fly to England. Several players balked at going. The captain was Tom Watson, about as dyed-in-the-wool Republican as there is on planet Earth. He told the players, “We’re going over there to represent the United States. Bill Clinton is the president and the First Golfer. We’re going.”

They went.

A few weeks later, after the U.S. team had won the matches at The Belfry (the last American win overseas), I asked Davis Love III why so many members of the team had balked at going to the White House. You won’t meet a more reasonable human being than Love. His answer, though, was direct.

“If it had been President [George H.W.] Bush, who we all respect, it would have been different,” he said. “But after Clinton lied about raising our taxes, we weren’t that eager to meet him.”

In fact, Clinton had promised to raise taxes on anyone making more than $200,000 a year, and had done so. When I pointed this out to Davis, he shrugged and said, “Whatever.”

Athletes voting their wallets is hardly unique to golf. When Charles Barkley informed his mother years ago that he was thinking of running for governor of Alabama as a Republican, his mother said, “But Charles, Republicans are people who always want to pay less taxes.”

“Mama,” Barkley replied, “that’s me.”

Phil Mickelson once made the point to me that I mislabeled him when I called him conservative. “I’m really pretty liberal on most issues,” he said.

“But your No. 1 issue is how much you pay in taxes,” I said.

He smiled and said, “Oh, no, that isn’t my No. 1 issue—it’s No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and maybe 5.”

I gave him credit for being honest.

Most golfers—and most successful professional athletes—are like Mickelson. If you propose lowering their taxes, they like you. If you propose raising them, not so much. Many athletes don’t even bother to vote. When I was researching A Good Walk Spoiled, I asked Billy Andrade if he was a registered Republican or a registered Democrat.

“I’m not registered,” Billy answered. “I don’t want to get called for jury duty.”

When I asked his wife, Jody, very much a Democrat, why she didn’t insist that he register, she shrugged and said, “If he registered, he’d just vote Republican anyway, so I don’t push him.”

Jody Andrade eventually talked her husband into registering. He’s now one of golf’s few Democrats. David Duval gave money to Barack Obama, and Paul Goydos, a former schoolteacher, is also a Democrat.

In 1994, I was at dinner during Doral week with Watson, Goydos, the late John Morris (who was then the tour’s director of public relations) and several other writers. Watson began railing against people on welfare, saying they should all be working. Goydos, who was in awe of being at the same table with Watson, finally spoke up.

“You know, Tom, I knew a lot of the families you’re talking about when I was teaching,” he said. “Are there welfare cheats? Sure. Just like there are Wall Street cheats. But most of the people I knew wanted to work, didn’t want to be on welfare—in fact, hated the idea of being on welfare.”

Watson listened to Goydos, and they then engaged in a lively but not-rancorous conversation. Two years later, when Goydos won at Bay Hill, his first PGA Tour win, I ran into Watson that night.

“I saw you walking up 18 with your boy,” Watson said. (Everyone on tour called Goydos “my boy” back then.) “I thought about that dinner at Doral, and I was really glad he won. We need more people like him out here—thoughtful, smart.” He paused and smiled. “Even when they’re wrong.”

Everyone knows that Bruce Edwards was Watson’s caddie for most of 30 years until the dreaded disease ALS killed Bruce in 2004. Tom and Bruce argued politics often—specifically the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms), which Watson is very much for. Bruce was very much opposed to it. Since Bruce’s death, Neil Oxman, who runs political campaigns for Democrats, has often caddied for Watson. They are almost as close as Tom and Bruce were.

“We don’t talk politics,” Oxman likes to say. “When we do, I don’t listen to him, and he doesn’t listen to me. It works well.”

Tom and I have run a charity golf tournament in Bruce’s name to raise money for ALS research since 2005. Last year, when Tom came to Washington for what we both fondly call The Bruce, he spent Sunday on a golf course with Donald Trump.

The next morning at breakfast, we talked about his beloved Kansas City Chiefs and my beleaguered New York Jets. Then we went to work raising money for a cause we both believe in deeply.

Watson and Jim Herman will vote one way in November; I will vote differently. And I hope I’ll have lots to talk about with them when the election’s over, regardless of the outcome.

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Scottie Pippen says Michael Jordan gave him a set of golf clubs as a rookie to “lure me in so he could take all my money.” Classic. #TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/Bgd4SZvuEt

— Alex Myers (@AlexMyers3) April 20, 2020

Jordan! What a savage. On second thought, I’m definitely going to keep watching because this docuseries is a content factory. In any event, let’s examine what else is (still) happening in the world of golf.

WE’RE BUYING

A June PGA Tour restart: At least, we’re buying its potential. The PGA Tour’s bold adjusted schedule seems extremely tentative at this point—especially because the European Tour continues to cancel events and has no timetable for a return—but it’s nice to have some positive news to report for a change. If all goes as planned, the season would restart at Colonial on June 11 and run all the way through a Labor Day Weekend Tour Championship for a total of 36 events in 2019-2020. The first four events wouldn’t have fans and there would only be one major (the PGA Championship in August) technically played this season and six next season, but who really cares? Golf would be back! Fingers crossed this all actually happens. There’s only so many possible Michael Jordan golf gambling stories to write about.

Alex Cejka: But there is still mini-tour news to report. This one-time PGA Tour winner and four-time European Tour winner is now a one-time winner on the Outlaw Tour after winning something called the Arrowhead Classic. Talk about a ringer. We’re guessing the $5,000 first-place check didn’t do much for a man who has about $20 million in career earnings around the world, but it looks like he’s keeping his game sharp. Cejka turns 50 in December so who knows? He could be senior tour eligible by the time play resumes.

Dinner at Tiger’s: Apparently, when you get invited to dinner at Tiger Woods’ house, bring a bat instead of a bottle of wine. As Justin Thomas told it on “Tiger Tales,” Woods and his son like playing home run derby in the living room after they eat. Yep, the living room.

Of course, JT couldn’t avoid breaking something. Anyway, sounds like fun. Speaking of “home runs”. . .

This invention: Kudos to Georgia’s Cobblestone Golf Course for coming up with a creative way to combat the spread of COVID-19:

Check out the new EZ Lift ball retrievers that we have installed on all flagsticks. No need to ever touch the flagstick again! pic.twitter.com/h5oKyXQME5

— Cobblestone (@CobblestoneGolf) April 16, 2020

Pretty slick. And pretty good for the back as well. I hope whoever invented this filed for a patent.

WE’RE SELLING

A Ryder Cup with no fans: Playing regular PGA Tour events without fans? Fine. I’d even be OK with major championships being contested this way. But the Ryder Cup? That’s a different animal altogether. The ELECTRIC atmosphere is what makes this biennial event so, well, ELECTRIC. How can you not have the absurdly large grandstands around the first tee packed with people? Or the incessant “Ole, ole, ole, ole! Ole, ole!” chants? Or the player song parodies? OK, so we could do without the last part, but you get the point. If this is how it’s going to be, let’s just punt to next year instead. Because if I can’t hear European golf writers bitch about how crude American crowds are toward the Euros, then what are we even doing here?

John Daly’s Coronavirus “cure”: In a video that we won’t share, the two-time major champ jokes(?) about drinking a bottle of vodka per day to help get “over this thing” really soon. “And that’s the way you kill this coronavirus I believe,” he adds. Hmm. It should be noted the World Health Organization says alcohol may actually put people at increased risk of contracting the coronavirus. Of course, it also should be noted that John Daly is not a doctor.

Tiger’s taste in gum: A year ago, golf’s biggest mystery was what gum Tiger Woods chewed on his way to his epic fifth Masters win. And now, we finally seem to have the answer and it’s not Big Red! Instead, Woods said during a recent fan Q&A with GOLFTV that he and caddie Joe LaCava like to chew on “orange Trident”:

What gum is @TigerWoods always chewing in competition? ?

Use #AskTiger to submit your questions. pic.twitter.com/I1McnhhOZu

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) April 17, 2020

We believe he means Trident Tropical, which is decent, but it’s no Trident watermelon. Or Bubbalicious watermelon. Or, really, any watermelon-flavoured. Or Big League Chew, which apparently makes a watermelon flavour now as well. That definitely wasn’t around when I was a kid. Man, we had it rough, huh? Anyway, Tiger, there are plenty of options out there. Then again, if you won the Masters chomping on this, maybe you should, um, stick with what’s working.

ON TAP

This week would have been the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, AKA that team event on the PGA Tour where Brooks Koepka usually invites his brother. This had become a fun one since switching to twosomes in 2017. Oh well, there’s always next year. We think.

Random tournament fact: Billy Horschel is the only player to win the Zurich Classic as both an individual and team event. Talk about a guy who is great at working alone and with others.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Brooks and Bryson will team up at next year’s Zurich: 1 MILLION-to-1 odds
—My local courses will add some sort of flagstick contraption: Even odds
—More people will be chewing Trident Tropical on courses everywhere: LOCK

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Thanks to Brenda Calcavecchia for sharing this (NSFW) scorecard from her husband Mark’s win at the 2007 PODS Championship (AKA the Valspar now):

This is a look into what I have been dealing with the past 20 yrs. The first day of pods he told me to pack up everything and be ready to go as soon as he was done. If you look closely before he signed his name he wrote “I fucking suck”. He ended up winning that week pic.twitter.com/zloGYLVgRV

— Brenda Calcavecchia (@brendacalc) April 14, 2020

Mark is certainly not the first or last golfer to write that on a scorecard. We’re guessing he’s the only one to go on to win a PGA Tour event that week, though. Good stuff.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

How about Rocco Mediate looking like any other guy on the range at your local course?

Good morning!@RoccoMediate on the range!#Golf #minnesotagolf pic.twitter.com/f0YKiX5O57

— goldenvalleycountryclub (@GoldenValleyCC) April 18, 2020

And yet he almost took down Tiger Woods at a U.S. Open. Golf. . . what a great sport!

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (TRICK-SHOT DIVISION)

Or really, trick-shot video of the month. We’ve seen some impressive ones during #QuarantineSZN, but this won GOLFTV’s Lockdown Trick Shot bracket:

Best lockdown trick shot ?

The votes are in and you guys have chosen “the ring shot” as the winner of our #BestLockdownTrickShot bracket. pic.twitter.com/FPOt9Trj2h

— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) April 20, 2020

And for good reason.

THIS WEEK IN TOUR PROS BEING QUARANTINED

Gaby Lopez misses going to the gym so much she shared an old workout video:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_LpBtjFC5l/?utm_source=ig_embed

Lee Westwood has created his own gym and is posting shirtless workout videos:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_AEInMjvxv/?utm_source=ig_embed

And Ian Poulter is still trolling people:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_AHe-EFsRW/?utm_source=ig_embed

All kidding aside, Lee looks pretty jacked. And I don’t care if that’s an old video from Gaby, that’s mighty impressive. And probably not covered in 8 Minute Abs.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Well, seagulls are known for flying around and sh–ing on people . . . so I am a seagull. I fly around and drop sh– on people. And it usually makes them laugh or sometimes is pisses them off. It all depends on what mood you’re in.” — Charley Hoffman to SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio on why his nickname is “Seagull.” Love it.

THIS AND THAT

This week’s Golf Digest Podcast guest is Erik van Rooyen, an interview recorded before the start of the Players Championship. So about 13 years ago in Quarantine Time. . . .

Congrats to Tim Finchem, who did a great job as PGA Tour commissioner, for being the latest selection into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Of course, he also had great timing with Tiger Woods coming along. . . . Speaking of Tiger, how about this stat our Ryan Herrington dug up? Woods has won more than 40 per cent of possible prize money seven times in his career and is on pace to do it again this season. Tom Watson is the only other player to do this even once in the past 40 years—and he did it 40 years ago. Tiger! GOAT! . . . And finally, I’m on a big Wheat Thins kick of late:

That’s the undisputed GOAT of crackers in my book.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Who is the “Seagull” of the Golf Digest office?
What was Michael Joran’s go-to gum on the basketball court?
What are Michael Jordan’s career earnings on the golf course?

The post Gaby Lopez’ workout, Michael Jordan’s savage golf move, and a classic (NSFW) scorecard message appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

“I don’t think the challenges we had were in the same ballpark of what he’s dealing with,” Finchem said Monday on a conference call after the World Golf Hall of Fame announced his selection as an inductee in 2021. “I can’t tell you how many people in the last three weeks or months have come up to me and said, Would you like to be commissioner now? The answer is yes, because that’s what you like to do, and I loved doing it.

“But no, Jay … is dealing with a unique set of circumstances … trying to figure out how you can play sports competitions, and this applies to any of the major sports to some extent, and analyze the options that you have and the information that you need to get to make good decisions, and the outreach you have to perform to make sure that the constituencies that you have are knowledgeable about kind of the directions you’re going. It’s a whole other workload level, and to my way of looking at it, very tricky.

“I think Jay, thus far, has done a fabulous job,” Finchem added. “He is, as you know, a superb communicator, and he is going about it with his team in a way that is spectacular in my view.”

To date, the PGA Tour has cancelled nine events and tentatively reconfigured the schedule for the remainder of the year in cooperation with other golf organizations that either have postponed or, in the case of the Open Championship, cancelled major championships. Monahan shut down the Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship, after the first round was played on March 14. No Tour-affiliated tournaments have been conducted since, but competition is scheduled to resume with the Charles Schwab Challenge reset for June 11-14.

Finchem, who turned 73 on Sunday, served as PGA Tour commissioner from 1994 to 2016 before handing the reins to Monahan, his hand-picked successor. Finchem maintains a role with the tour as an advisor, but he insists that he hasn’t contributed much of late because of the distinct nature of the situation at hand.

Chris Condon/PGA Tour
Finchem poses with incoming commissioner Jay Monahan during the PGA Tour meeting in November 2016.

“He hasn’t leaned on me much at all,” Finchem said of Monahan. “Early on we had a couple conversations about what was happening. From time to time he’ll share with me what direction he’s going. But given what I said earlier, given the load that he’s dealing with … it’s kind of difficult to avoid working in the dark a little bit when you have so many variables sitting out there. He’s got to spend an enormous percentage of his time in those areas, and he’s got a great team.

“He lives about 100 yards from me, so if he wanted to talk to me about something, he knows I’m available. But he’s got to steer the ship. He’s got a million things going on, and I’m quite aware of that.”

During his tenure, Finchem oversaw an exponential growth in prize money, going from $100 million per year on three tours to more than $400 million on six tours when he retired. His biggest initiatives included the Presidents Cup, the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the creation of The First Tee, to which he devotes the most time today. In addition, Finchem was instrumental in seeing the Tour and its tournaments raise $2 billion in charitable contributions. That last accomplishment, he said, with the Tour increasing its charity fundraising from around $35 million to $200 million annually, “is near the top.”

Finchem will be inducted at a date yet to be determined in 2021, along with Tiger Woods—whose career spanned most of Finchem’s as commissioner—and Marion Hollins, an architect, course developer and outstanding female amateur. A fourth inductee is to be announced in the coming days.

Given the current socioeconomic circumstances, Finchem hasn’t allowed himself time to consider who will be his presenter at his induction. He has some ideas on what he plans to give to the Hall of Fame for his display. He hesitatingly revealed one item.

“I’ll tell you what it is without telling you what it says. It’s a letter to me from Arnold Palmer, and it’s one of the coolest things that I have in my office,” he said. “They’re not putting me in the Hall of Fame because I played golf great, so we don’t have to worry about that part of it. It’ll be more about people that I’ve dealt with.

“It just occurs to me how lucky I was to come along at a time that allowed me to get to know Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and then 100 other players. I mean, that to me … I was just lucky, I guess. Every one of those people, just phenomenal people, and very interesting people.”

As for his inclusion in the Hall of Fame, Finchem said, “I kind of, in many ways, don’t feel like I am deserving, because I just had so much fun being in the job for so long. It was absolutely captivating for me year after year after year.”

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By John Strege
Tim Finchem’s 22-year tenure as commissioner of the PGA Tour was overwhelming successful by any reasonable accounting, starting with the bottom line. Prize money grew from $91 million on three tours and to more than $401 million on six tours, while charitable contributions steadily increased and reached a record of more than $166 million in his last year on the job, 2016.

Finchem, 73, has been elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, the Hall announced on Monday. Finchem is the third tour commissioner to have been elected to the Hall, joining Joseph Dey and Deane Beman. He was selected through the Hall’s Contributor category.

“It is the greatest honour to be elected to join golf’s most legendary players and contributors in the World Golf Hall of Fame,” Finchem said in a release. “This is a truly humbling moment, for which I am most grateful, and I look forward to celebrating with my family and friends throughout the game of golf and the many people who made this possible for me. I am especially proud to stand alongside one of the world’s all-time greats, Tiger Woods, in the Class of 2021 and look forward to what will be an exciting year ahead.”

Finchem is the third member of the Hall’s Class of 2021 that includes Woods and Marion Hollins.

“Tim Finchem’s vision and leadership have made an indelible impact on the game of golf over the past 25 years,” Jay Monahan, PGA Tour Commissioner and World Golf Foundation Board Chairman, said in a news release.

“His enshrinement into the World Golf Hall of Fame will forever stand as a testament to his tireless dedication and contributions, but more importantly, so will the countless lives—whether those are the players on the PGA Tour and beyond, millions of First Tee participants, or charitable organisations around the world—impacted by his life’s work.”

In 1994, Finchem was selected to succeed Beman, and it was his good fortune to have Woods come along less than three years later. But Finchem expertly helped leverage Woods’ crossover appeal that lifted the game from its status as a niche sport to the benefit of the entire tour.

Finchem was instrumental in the evolution of the World Golf Championship tournaments, as well as the FedEx Cup and the FedEx Cup playoffs.

“The way the tour looks in 2016 compared with when Tim got the chair, it’s astonishing the difference,” former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy told Helen Ross of PGATour.com in 2016. “It’s been incredible. I guess on a global scale, the PGA Tour has always been the premium tour, but it’s not even a decision anymore. It’s just by far and away really the only place that anyone wants to play the best players in the world. It’s been an impressive, impressive era.”

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By Daniel Rapaport
PONTE VEDRA BEACH — The inevitable happened early Thursday UAE time. In perhaps the least surprising bit of news any golf fan could hear, Tiger Woods has been elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

“I am both honoured and humbled to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame,” Woods said in a statement. “This past year has been such an incredible journey, and the support I’ve received from my family, friends and fans has been overwhelming. This achievement is the ultimate recognition to never give up and keep chasing.”

Woods is the first member of the Class of 2021 picked by the Hall of Fame’s 20-member Selection Committee. The Committee voted on Wednesday from a list of 10 finalists. Additional inductees will be announced later, according to officials with the Hall of Fame. Specifics on the formal induction ceremony, which will take place next year, are also to be determined.

Woods, 44, has amassed 15 major championships and a record-tying 82 PGA Tour victories over his storied professional career. He’s one of the few phenoms who end up surpassing expectations—Woods won three straight U.S. Junior Amateurs and three straight U.S. Amateurs before turning professional in 1996.

He won his first major at the 1997 Masters, where he set the scoring record of 18 under par and won by a record 12 shots. He’d add 13 more majors over the next 11 years—including winning four in a row, the Tiger Slam, from the 2000 U.S. Open through the 2001 Masters—before winning his 15th last April at Augusta, after an 11-year drought marked by personal and physical struggles.

“Tiger has done more for the game of golf than anyone ever thought possible, and his historic feats on the course are only one aspect of his impact,” said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. “His imprint on the game is immeasurable, and his unparalleled legacy is one we look forward to celebrating as he’s inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame next year.”

Woods holds a number of PGA Tour records, including the most made cuts in a row (142) and most weeks spent atop the World Golf Rankings (683).

The only surprise is how soon Woods has been elected into the Hall of Fame—the minimum age for enshrinement had been 50 until it was moved to 45 earlier this year. Woods will turn 45 on Dec. 30.

The announcement comes during the Players Championship, which Woods is missing for the first time since 2017 to rest a sore back. He has maintained throughout the year that the singular goal of his preparation is to be ready to mount a strong title defence at Augusta National next month.

The remaining finalists who are being considered to join Woods are Johnny Farrell, Padraig Harrington, Tom Weiskopf, Susie Maxwell Berning, Beverly Hanson, Sandra Palmer and Dottie Pepper, and contributors Tim Finchem and Marion Hollins.

The post Tiger Woods elected to World Golf Hall of Fame as first member of Class of 2021 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Chances are good though, based on reports of the planned changes, that the tour still won’t get it right. It has been trying—sort of—for 12 years now to get it right. The problem is it doesn’t REALLY want to get it exactly right. Which is sad, because it shouldn’t be that difficult.

A little background: Tim Finchem deserves credit for many achievements during his 22-year stint as PGA Tour Commissioner. But there’s no doubt that the PGA Tour Playoffs—or, as he would insist on calling them, The FedExCup playoffs—were his masterstroke.

They were born of some desperation. The Tour Championship had been created in 1987 with the notion that at least once each fall golf’s stars would come out and play again, post-majors. Only 30 players qualified and the money was—for those days—huge: $2 million dollars divided among the 30 participants with no cut. Everyone took home a check. A nice deal.

Tom Watson won $360,000 for winning the first one, about double the typical payout to tour winners at the time. By 2006, the purse was up to a total of $7 million, with Adam Scott talking home the $1,170,000 first prize.

There was, however, a problem. The top players weren’t inclined to take the clubs down in late October or early November for a week when they could be resting, spending time with their families—or playing overseas for lucrative appearance fees that paid them big bucks regardless of performance.

Somehow, with the economy in reverse, Finchem convinced FedEx to go all in on a ten-year contract in which it committed to pay out $35 million in bonuses for the players who qualified for the newly created four-tournament “playoffs.” We’ll return to those quotation marks shortly; they’re intentional.

Five years in, the contract was adjusted to change the official name for the playoffs from PGA Tour Playoffs to FedExCup Playoffs. Almost as important, the top 125 players who reached the postseason off the points list qualified as exempt players for the next season. Prior to that, the money list—which didn’t end until AFTER the playoffs during the so-called, ‘Fall Finish,’ decided the top 125.

Finchem’s plan worked. The money was so big that even golf’s multimillionaires couldn’t resist. Four tournaments with $8 million payouts PLUS the bonus pool—with the winner receiving $10 million—was impossible to resist, even for Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, golf’s two biggest names at that moment.

There were some predictable early headaches. Many players complained that the $10 million shouldn’t be handed to the winner as a retirement annuity but as hard cash. Mickelson was the loudest of the complainers. For year two, the tour and FedEx changed the payout to $9 million in cash, $1 million in annuity.

Woods, still the dominant player in the game, won the first FedExCup Trophy. Then, when photographers asked him to kiss the trophy, he refused. Clearly, he wanted people to understand that the money was nice, but you only kiss major championship trophies. One wondered who was more upset by that—Finchem or the FedEx people.

Streeter Lecka

Then, in year two, Vijay Singh clinched the championship in week three, meaning he didn’t even have to finish the allegedly climactic Tour Championship to collect the bonus and the trophy.

That brought about another change to the points system—it had been changed after 2007 to make it more difficult for a player to win the $10 million without playing in all four events—though it still wasn’t impossible. In fact, Jim Furyk won the bonus in 2010 even though he was disqualified from the opening tournament because his alarm didn’t go off and he missed his Pro-Am tee time.

The post-Singh change made it impossible for anyone to clinch the Cup prior to East Lake. That was good. The problem was the system was so contrived and confusing that the most important person at East Lake each Sunday was NBC’s Steve Sands, who stood in front of a whiteboard and explained the implications of one more birdie or one more bogey on the outcome.

If Sands understood what was going on, he was often the only one.

In fact, when Bill Haas won the tournament in 2011, he walked onto the victory platform, shook hands with Finchem and said, “So who won the FedExCup?”

Face drained of color, Finchem answered, “You did.”

How’s that for drama? The winner didn’t even know he’d won.

Now, seven long years after that humiliating moment, the tour is finally going to change the system (again). As first reported by Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press—whose tour sources are usually impeccable—the tour is going to create a separate bonus pool for the so-called regular season, with $3 million going to the winner. Ferguson also reported that the plan is to let the points leader start the Tour Championship at 10-under-par with everyone else chasing from behind.

Related: Is the proposed FedEx Cup format a good idea? Two editors debate

That’s a terrible idea. The notion of a regular season champion and bonus pool is a good one, but it should also include changing the regular season points system.

Kevin C. Cox

Because it wants so badly to convince the public that the events it controls are REALLY important, the tour barely gives more credit to those who win a major than to those who win the John Deere Classic or The CareerBuilder Challenge.

The winner of a regular tour event receives 500 FedExCup points. Those who win a WGC event—also part of the tour—receive 550 points. And, in a show of sheer gall, the tour awards 600 points to the winner of The Players Championship—the same number of points a player receives for winning major championship.

That’s ridiculous. A recent poll asked tour players if they would rather win 10 times on tour or one major. By a margin of not quite two-to-one players said they’d take the 10 wins—mostly for the money. Some said it would depend on WHICH major. I’d bet if the question had been three wins or one major, the answer would have been about 10-to-one (or more) in favor of the major.

Which is why a major should count for at least three times as much as a regular tour win in the points system. Winning a major is SO much harder than a regular tour event: the quality of the field; the pressure on Sunday; the understanding that you are playing for history, not just money.

It is ludicrous that Brooks Koepka won two majors this year and goes into the Tour Championship in seventh place on the points list. Tony Finau, who has not won anywhere, is third. Koepka could add the Tour Championship to his resume this week and NOT win the FedEx Cup. Seriously?

Most important though is restructuring the “Playoffs.” First, make them true playoffs. In every other major sport—football, basketball, baseball, hockey—everyone begins at zero in postseason. Yes, there’s home field advantage for the teams with the best record and football gives its four best teams a first round bye while baseball makes the four wild card teams (of 12 playoff qualifiers) play one game to advance to the final eight.

But no one begins a game with a lead. The NFL’s Super Bowl is played at a neutral site. In 2008, the 18-0 New England Patriots did not start out with a 14-0 lead on the 12-7 New York Giants. The Giants won.

So, once you crown a regular season champion in golf, everyone should start at zero. With the playoffs becoming three tournaments instead of four beginning next year with the new pre-NFL season schedule, this would ratchet up the pressure each week.

Let everyone play for two weeks—perhaps cut the qualifers to 100 with all 125 sharing in the regular season bonus pool—and then let the top 32 advance to Atlanta. Sure, the sponsors in Atlanta and NBC might moan about some stars not making it there but that already happens anyway.

See “Spieth, Jordan” this year. See “Mickelson, Phil” a year ago. Not to mention “Woods, Tiger” the last four years. They still held the event.

I say 32 players because the Tour Championship should be match play (more moans from sponsors and TV). That would make it different than all but one tournament on tour and every day would have huge drama—the way the World Match Play used to have before TV convinced the tour to go from straight knockout to pool play.

This would be higher drama because of what would be at stake: not a major title, but a big one with massive money also on the line each day. The last match 18 holes mano-a-mano for $10 million with no constant cutting to Sands and his whiteboard could be fabulous, if not quite historic.

Heck you might be able to convince Woods to kiss the trophy if he were to win. Now that WOULD be historic.

The post The FedEx Cup Playoffs are set for another tweak, but they still don’t have it right appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
If Deane Beman had his way, the Bill Murray Experience would have ended as soon as it started. It was 1993, and the then-commissioner was furious. Murray, in his second appearance at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, had dragged an older (albeit willing) woman from the gallery for a quick soiree in a bunker, one that ended with her flailing into the sand.

Coupled with other antics, like Murray yelling “Hurry Up!” towards former Vice President Dan Quayle—let it be known slow play is far from a modern issue—Beman had seen enough, calling the funny man’s behavior “inappropriate and detrimental.” Never one to fall in line, Murray fired back. “It’s a Nazi state out here,” he joked. “He’s trying to ban us from the tournament because it’s too much fun. He’s out of touch. He’s just another screwhead too big for his britches.”

Beman was a visionary, his tenure marked by growth and prosperity. But diplomacy wasn’t always his forte. Though he punished Murray the following year by relegating him to a tee time outside the TV broadcast window, Murray remained one of the biggest draws at Pebble. Tournament organizers not only disregarded Beman’s request to have Murray tone down his act, they openly sided with the comedic force.

“Bill Murray has been great for this tournament,” said Darius Keaton, vice chairman of the AT&T, in 1994. “We raise money for charity. He’s been a great help and a terrific guy. And Beman would push him out of the tournament.”

Beman retired from his post shortly thereafter, and his successor, Tim Finchem, restored the tour’s relationship with Murray. Two decades later, that olive branch has proved fruitful for both sides. Murray is a part of the tournament’s marketing campaign, a featured player on the weekend broadcast, and continues to garner the week’s biggest crowds.

In turn, Murray’s Pebble popularity has helped spawn his own golf clothing line, and one could easily correlate his pro-am theatrics fueling his “America’s favorite photo bomb” persona.

And yet, every time golf returns to Carmel Bay, a segment of golf fans wish Beman would’ve prevailed.

C Flanigan

Murray’s relationship with Pebble has engendered, to some, a share of unfortunate consequences. Celebrities (and their marketing teams) saw what Murray had become and thought, “Hey, why can’t we tap into that?” An invite to the Monterey Peninsula need not be just a three-day excursion to play on some of the best golf courses with the best players; it could be an opportunity to build one’s brand.

That logic overlooked one big point: There’s only one Bill Murray. His actions were extensions of his own unique character—or at least the one the public had known from his work. It gave his theater-on-the-grass authenticity, but also made it hard to replicate.

Indeed, Murray is the exception, not the rule. Athletes, singers, actors and CEOs try their damnedest to ham it up in front of the cameras and fans at the tournament in the Murray vein, but more often than not it feels forced—and frequently falls flat. Murray preening over a good shot? Great. Andy Garcia or Chris Berman doing the same, not so much. Even in our culture that’s infatuated with celebrity, it can lead to brutal television.

Which brings us to another uncomfortable consequence of Murray’s act: the broadcast. Because of the positive response to Murray, the networks—in this case CBS—think this applies to all celebrities. It’s a decision that leads to B-list stars getting more air time than the tour pros, particularly on the Saturday broadcast. Worse, CBS has been guilty of giving its own talent a disproportionate amount of spotlight, the golf tournament becoming a platform to talk up its sitcoms and programs.

As a former tournament official told us, “Come for the golf; stay for the 30-minute ‘NCIS’ promo.”

Harry How

Because he’s become the face of the tournament, Murray routinely receives a disproportionate amount of criticism for its perceived shortcomings. That’s regrettable, since it was Murray who provided a shot of vitality to the event, and the sport at large. Murray’s performance, in many ways, was a revelation. Golf had long battled its association with sanctimony, exclusivity and stuffiness. Here came Murray, tearing those walls down with a never-ending repartee with the gallery.

He tossed beach balls into the crowd, signed autographs between shots, pulled off the exploding ball trick with aplomb, and wore clothing designed from your grandma’s wallpaper. He had taken Caddyshack and made it real. And as weird as it sounds, that disposition was considered cutting edge at the time.

Murray was silly, and with good reason: He reminded audiences that golf is a game, and games are supposed to be fun.

“There were times when nothing I did was acceptable, and that somehow, what we were doing was a distraction,” Murray said in 2013. “It’s funny, people are very proprietary about golf, everyone thinks they’re in charge of golf, and it’s their own game, but it’s a massive thing. It’s like saying each person has to live the same way. We’re all supposed to be in this life for the amazement that everyone has a unique difference.”

Oh yes, “distraction.” That’s another charge often levied at Murray—that he had become too big a one. Except, when you talk to his former playing partners, who insist otherwise.

D.A. Points, who won his first PGA Tour title at the 2011 tournament, credits Murray for keeping him calm that week. “The levity was the biggest help,” Points told Golf Digest earlier this week. “We were having a lot of fun.” It probably didn’t hurt that Murray bought the pair ice cream on the final day’s back nine.

If anything, Points notes he was a good diversion, keeping the endlessly polite man from tightening up as he neared the precipice of a career breakthrough. Scott Simpson, the former U.S. Open champ who was Murray’s partner for years, testified the same.

“Bill wants to have fun,” Simpson said. “He knows the history [of the tournament] and feels that everyone is there to have a good time. So he amps it up a notch…or 10.

Jonathan Ferrey

” As he nears 70, Murray might not be the showman of yesteryear, but he continues to resonate in a way unmatched by anyone in the game. A tournament official relayed a tale that one year the gate was down from the previous season, a shock given Tiger Woods was in the field for the first time in awhile. The next winter, ticket sales were back up as Tiger once again skipped the event, and the team came to the realization that it was Murray, not Tiger, that connected with the people.

“Bill Murray transcends all generations of golf and non-golf fans alike,” says Steve John, CEO and tournament director of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation. “If you take a look at his gallery, you’ll see that it is made up from men and women ages 15-70.”

And while he is the consummate entertainer inside the ropes, he also takes his golf seriously. He won with Points in the pro-am portion of the event in 2011, arguably Murray’s most impressive feat to this day.

In short, Murray embodied the “grow the game” ideology years before golf made it a rallying cry.

Officials find humor that some of Murray’s biggest critics are the same people who champion supplemental activities like Topgolf or the increasingly rowdy scenes at the Ryder Cup and Waste Management Phoenix Open. Without Murray, those seeds of acceptance would likely have never been planted. “This sounds sacrilegious,” said a Pebble Beach spokesperson, “but other than Arnold Palmer, I’d put Murray up there with anyone in terms of influence over American public golf.”

As for those who don’t enjoy his shtick, there needs to be some acknowledgement that Murray has good intentions at heart.

“The original Crosby was about fun. As it became more corporate, it became less about fun sometimes,” Murray said in 2013. “You can really cause a joyous moment, if you can sort of build up some sort of expectation, and then it actually takes place. … That’s what we try to do. Put on a little pressure, to make it more fun. To have a little more joy.”

Even Deane Beman would agree, golf could use a bit of that.

The post In defense of Bill Murray appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.