The PGA Tour—She Ain’t What She Used to be

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Golf Potpourri

by

Mac Stevenson

The PGA Tour--She Ain't What She Used to be

The PGA Tour is changing, and not for the better.
Golf in general has changed greatly since the
decades of the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.

The biggest transformation has been in the equipment.
Many of the professional golfers on tour average
over 300 yards on their drives; this is because of
the metal heads and graphite shafts on the drivers
and the hot golf balls that keep adding more
distance.

If you haven't noticed, many of the big names are
skipping more tournaments than they play. Tiger
Woods and Phil Mickelson are two prime examples.

And who's to blame them.

With tournament play and endorsements, Tiger made
more than 100 million dollars in 2006. Woods can
pick and choose the few tournaments he wants to play
in.

This shouldn't matter much, but it does; when Tiger
Woods is absent, TV ratings drop drastically during
those tournaments. And so does the number of paying
on-course fans. Few, if any, professional athletes in
any sport have ever had the charisma and drawing power
that Tiger possesses on the PGA Tour.

In the late 1940s and 1950s, great golfers like Sam
Snead, Julius Boros, Byron Nelson, and Ben Hogan were
dominant on the PGA Tour. But they had plenty of
competition and the players had to make money in
tournaments they entered or the family finances were
in trouble.

Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer were rivals when Nicklaus
won his first U.S. Open in 1962. But they had plenty of
fierce competition from the likes of Gary Player, Hale
Irwin, Ray Floyd, Lee Trevino, Billy Casper, and many
others. Tom Watson became one of the tour's leading
players in the late 1970s and 80s.

In those days, the biggest names played in almost every
tournament on the tour. They had to finish high in the
standings to make any significant money. That was
pressure that today's tour players don't face.

If you take a close look at the current PGA money list
through May 1, the figures are staggering:

#1--Tiger Woods $4,425,000 in 5 tournaments

#2--Phil Mickelson $2,488,830 in 9 tournaments

#3--Geoff Ogilvy $2,147,400 in 9 tournaments

#4--Stewart Cink $2,105,512 in 9 tournaments

#5--Vijay Singh $2,092,417 in 10 tournaments

#6--K.J. Choi $1,801,432 in 9 tournaments

#7--Justin Leonard $1,786,402 in 12 tournaments

#8--Boo Weekley $1,768,985 in 12 tournaments

#9--Adam Scott $1,540,444 in 6 tournaments

#10--J.B. Holmes $1,536,195 in 11 tournaments

And to further illustrate that the PGA Tour is great way
to make a living, the player who is 100th on the money
list, Michael Letzig, has collected $374,653 in 11
tournaments.

These money winnings are for the 2008 season, which is
less than half over. When the player listed 100th on the
money list has made close to a half million dollars, it's
easy to understand why the intense competition of years
gone by is missing.

One other thing to consider is that these dollar figures
do not include advertising money or endorsements; those
numbers can be staggering.

It's difficult to compare players of different eras, even
more so today because of the changes in equipment. But the
mental toughness isn't there with the current members of the
PGA Tour.

Tiger Woods is, by far, the best of today's tour players.
But he has a darkening cloud hanging over his great record:
Woods has never come from behind in the final round to win a
major tournament. That's when Nicklaus, Trevino, Palmer, and
the rest of the great players of their era were at their best.

TV coverage, except for the majors, has become boring. For
one thing, they show so much putting that it's enough to put
you to sleep. And a number of the announcers try to be comics
rather than commentators.

Johnny Miller is an exception; Miller's broadcasting is
outstanding and he tells it just like it is. He often teams
with Andy North, Judy Rankin, and Dottie Pepper, who are also
talented and entertaining on TV.

Without Tiger Woods, the tour would be in trouble. Most of the
money comes from TV and the corporate sponsors, and Woods creates
the interest that brings in the money.

What's missing on today's tour is the spirit of competition that
existed in the aforementioned decades. This lack of
competitiveness shows up in the Ryder Cup Tournament, where the
soft American team has been humbled in recent years.

Too much money and too much coddling causes today's pros to fold
when the pressure is on. Financial problems are inevitable if the
TV money ever tightens up, and that seems certain if the competition
doesn't improve.

The tour needs some young guns who are talented and tough enough to
challenge Woods, but today all of them are just rich youngsters with
pop guns.

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To everybody responded to the survey... thank you.

It helped me out tremendously and I will be able
to provide you with better information in turn.

Just to let you know, we have to go re-shoot the
video that's coming your way for providing feedback.

The video editor wasn't happy with one particular
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It should be in your lap next week.

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Joe's Quick Tip

A Towel A Day Keeps the Shank Away

This quick little exercise takes 5 minutes a day
and is fantastic for strengthening your hands
and forearms.

Take an ordinary bath towel and squeeze it between
your hands - rotating back and forth with as much
might as you can possibly muster.

So as one hand rotates away from you, the other
simultaneously rotates toward you.

This is a great tool for adding distance to your
drives and prevents cocking of the hands too
quickly on your backswing (which is a very common
mistake with a lot of high-scoring golfers).

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Quote:

"Golf, like measles, should be caught young."

-P.G. Wodehouse

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Until next time, good golfing!

Joseph Forbush

http://www.thinkandreachpar.com/

ThinkandReachPar.com

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