Anyone heard of the Tiger Tour??????

[watrboy4]

I was watching real sports a little bit and wasnt sure what he was talking about. I was hoping that maybe you all could shed some light on the subject for me. Bryant Gumbal was saying that Tiger is trying to start his own tour or something because he was only interested in the Majors......From what they were saying is that he wasnt going to play any other tournies and that the PGA is starting to lose their sponsors. Is there any truth to this???

[golfchief]

NO, He will play in more than the majors.

[Shindig]

I was watching real sports a little bit and wasnt sure what he was talking about. I was hoping that maybe you all could shed some light on the subject for me. Bryant Gumbal was saying that Tiger is trying to start his own tour or something because he was only interested in the Majors......From what they were saying is that he wasnt going to play any other tournies and that the PGA is starting to lose their sponsors. Is there any truth to this???

Among other things, Tiger needs to have 15 starts in the year to maintain his PGA Tour card for the next year, unless he wants to go through Q-School or rely on sponsor's exemptions. And if he relies on sponsor's exemptions, they may well require him to commit to several years, something I'm sure he doesn't want to do.

[PalmIII]

I think you took him out of context. I think he was either saying:

A) Tiger has a fairly rigid schedule that he adheres to, certain events he plays or doesn't around the world w/o much deference to them being on the PGA Tour, except for the Buick in Cal and now the tournament in DC, which is basically a Tiger Tour.
B) Along the same lines, since Tiger has such a limited schedule and could work out something with certain sponsors, i.e. the Buicks, DC, Memorial, so on and so forth could cease being a member of the PGA Tour. However, I sincerely doubt he would want to publicly draw the ire of Nicklaus, Palmer, and Player, the guys who had the "Big 3" shows now on the Golf Channel.

IMG and McCormack approached those 3 about starting something, unofficially, away from the PGA Tour, and those guys could have crippled the PGA Tour, had they been so inclined, but they chose to go the traditional route in growing the game, and we are all the better for it.

But, more importantly, Tiger would be crucified in the world media for being so selfish as to try and monopolize an entire sport, something nobody has ever attempted to accomplish.

Tiger Woods has not made a non-calculated move since he turned professional. He is not going to start now.

[golfchief]

Back in the old days when Greg Norman was at the top of HIS game he tried to get a world tour going and leave the PGA behind but no other players were willing to leave the cash cow.

[Shindig]

Back in the old days when Greg Norman was at the top of HIS game he tried to get a world tour going and leave the PGA behind but no other players were willing to leave the cash cow.

And now that the PGATour has so much more money... purses have increased by some huge factor since Tiger premiered ten years ago.