Golf Nut, I just read about the yet to be finalized but revamped PGA Tour schedule. What is your initial reaction to this major change for professional golf?

I definitely have mixed feelings on this one. Or is that split feelings, no that’s split personality, my feelings are definitely mixed, not split. Anyway, I have always felt that professional golf’s managing authorities were very wishy washy about making hard decisions. So I’m sure that I’ll express my opinion and the decision and format will probably change many times. As Tiger Woods was quoted as saying yesterday “I’ve met with Tim (PGA Tour commissioner Tim Fichem) five times and I’ve heard five different things.”

My mixed feelings come from the fact that I think a change is needed but I believe that this is a weak attempt by the Tour. The problems stem from the large purses and what they have done to the game of professional golf. I have believed for the last few years that the success of golf at the pro level was going to come back and bite the tour. The huge amount of money on the men’s circuit has created a situation where you don’t have win and win big to make a fantastic living and gain financial independence through endorsement contracts.

This situation creates a number of problems. The big name golfers tend to focus on fewer tournaments, in particular the majors. It has also become easy for a professional golfer to get comfortable making a good living finishing in the top 10 consistently and not be driven to win. Tiger Woods is probably the single exception to the rule. He is THE dominant male golfer today, but is still driven to succeed and has made his second major change to his golf swing in the last year. But how many are there out there that are like him?

So I don’t think the answer is the current new design with a “NEXTEL Chase for the Cup” style design. UNLESS they consider holding back a large chunk of the prize money from each golf tournament and awarding that during the “championship” run to the top 5 finishers overall. I don’t think that this will ever be allowed to happen. But if you don’t tie money to it, I don’t believe that the current crop of professional golfers, as a group, will be motivated by this new format. All that this will do is give the second tier players a chance to make more money.