Excellent Gary Van Sickle Article on PGA Tour Issues

[Frank-0-Sport]

Greetings ...

In this excellent GOLF.COM article ,, writer Gary Van Sickle identifies some of the issues now facing the PGA Tour in the midst of the ongoing economic situation.

Two Van Sickle points I readily agree with ...

(1) The World Golf Championships and Fed Ex Cup Playoffs had adversely affected the stability of many regular tour stops.

(2) Tournament purses went up way too far, and way too fast.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Sport

[kafka01]

The bloated purses have also worked as a disincentive for top pros to play more. In the 1980s and early 1990s, many top players averaged more than 25 tournaments a year. Throw out aberrations like Vijay Singh, who plays constantly, and not many star players approach 25 appearances. That's why Finchem, in announcing the fall schedule, asked the top players to make an effort to play more events year-round. But players who have more money than they can ever spend don't want to do that, and who can blame them? Even players who don't win much have become fabulously wealthy.

I totally agree on that - i dont wanna see the Big Names only see all 4 weeks when no big tournaments are scheduled - i wanna see them battle it out more frequently in smaller tournaments. Look at the FBR leaderboard this week - there is nobody i can root for (i cant really go with Kenny Perry - else i could watch the Champions Tour), and i generally have a hard time watching something when i cant root for anybody.

But this problem that built up over the years wont guy away quick. As the author of this article wrote - these guys the public wants to see, already have so much money, they couldnt care less if Finchem tells them to play more or at least play all final Fedex Events when you get 10M afterwards for crying out loud, so hopefully there will be a new generation soon, that wont be flooded with cash like it happend in the last 10 years, so that this error doesnt repeat itself, and we can look forward to some epic games in the future.