A championship that's not like others
Source: Agencies |
November 3, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE PGA tour opened itself to criticism - and even silly whispers of a conspiracy - by deciding to wait until after the HSBC Champions in Shanghai before sending ballots for its postseason awards.
The tournament counts as an official win if a PGA Tour member is holding the trophy on Sunday at Sheshan International, so it was the right decision to wait.
For those who saw ballot delay as a slight against Luke Donald, they're missing the point. The only bias this exposed was how the PGA Tour continues to treat this WGC differently from the other three. Otherwise, there is no way it would have forgotten that the season really didn't end when Donald ran off six straight birdies, shot 64 to win at Disney and establish himself the clear favorite as player of the year.
And the bias looks even worse considering the other "world" events are all played in America.
"This should be treated as the rest," Thomas Bjorn said. "It comes at a time when certain people are not going to play, but that's the nature of the beast. It's a world-class field on a fantastic golf course. There's a couple of players missing, but not too many. This event has everything it needs. It showcases the game in this part of the world. And this is where the future is lying financially for golf."
The tour makes a reasonable argument for giving the HSBC Champions only partial status. Because of where it falls on the calendar and on the globe, many of its stars aren't playing as much. The HSBC Champions has the fewest percentage of PGA Tour players (44 percent compared with about 70 percent for the other WGCs), thus the tour is hesitant to award all its perks when the majority of the field is not already a member.
Fair enough. But if any player wins against this field, is that not worthy of PGA Tour membership?
"I don't think it can be both ways," Nick Watney said. "If it's a WGC event, it should count as official money. It should be all or nothing. I don't understand how it can be an official win, but not be official money. It's kind of like, 'Who do we think we are?' Yeah, you can put our name on it, but we're not going to count it toward our tour. I just don't get it."
The HSBC Champions will be played a week before Disney next year. There is no reason it shouldn't count as official money. If the money list means that much, a player should be willing to travel to Shanghai. And if players aren't eligible, they can always play better.
What might help is increasing talk about starting a new PGA Tour season - the money list and FedEx Cup points - with the Fall Series. In that case, the HSBC Champions and even the Asia Pacific Classic in Malaysia could be part of the schedule.
The tournament counts as an official win if a PGA Tour member is holding the trophy on Sunday at Sheshan International, so it was the right decision to wait.
For those who saw ballot delay as a slight against Luke Donald, they're missing the point. The only bias this exposed was how the PGA Tour continues to treat this WGC differently from the other three. Otherwise, there is no way it would have forgotten that the season really didn't end when Donald ran off six straight birdies, shot 64 to win at Disney and establish himself the clear favorite as player of the year.
And the bias looks even worse considering the other "world" events are all played in America.
"This should be treated as the rest," Thomas Bjorn said. "It comes at a time when certain people are not going to play, but that's the nature of the beast. It's a world-class field on a fantastic golf course. There's a couple of players missing, but not too many. This event has everything it needs. It showcases the game in this part of the world. And this is where the future is lying financially for golf."
The tour makes a reasonable argument for giving the HSBC Champions only partial status. Because of where it falls on the calendar and on the globe, many of its stars aren't playing as much. The HSBC Champions has the fewest percentage of PGA Tour players (44 percent compared with about 70 percent for the other WGCs), thus the tour is hesitant to award all its perks when the majority of the field is not already a member.
Fair enough. But if any player wins against this field, is that not worthy of PGA Tour membership?
"I don't think it can be both ways," Nick Watney said. "If it's a WGC event, it should count as official money. It should be all or nothing. I don't understand how it can be an official win, but not be official money. It's kind of like, 'Who do we think we are?' Yeah, you can put our name on it, but we're not going to count it toward our tour. I just don't get it."
The HSBC Champions will be played a week before Disney next year. There is no reason it shouldn't count as official money. If the money list means that much, a player should be willing to travel to Shanghai. And if players aren't eligible, they can always play better.
What might help is increasing talk about starting a new PGA Tour season - the money list and FedEx Cup points - with the Fall Series. In that case, the HSBC Champions and even the Asia Pacific Classic in Malaysia could be part of the schedule.
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