Figure Out: What It Is-What It Would Replace

[Frank-0-Sport]

Greetings ....

Yours truly has conjured up a mythological event that is "scheduled for play" beginning in 2007.

Said mythological event ....
• Replaces an existing "exhibition" event
• Has a field of at least 50 pros
• Conducted over 72 holes
• Not necessarily an official event on the PGA Tour or any other tour
• It's a $7,000,000 event. Winner gets $1,260,000. 50th place gets $42,000.

For the moment I'm not revealing all of the invitational criteria I use. I would first like you to try and guess the categories on your own. One category is fairly obvious, and it provides a clue as to what the other categories are.

The field, as per the invitational criteria, is as follows ....

1 - Defending Champion. None, as this is the inaugural edition.

2 - Zach Johnson, Angel Cabrera, Padraig Harrington, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Geoff Ogilvy, Michael Campbell, Retief Goosen, Todd Hamilton, Vijay Singh, Mike Weir, Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel, Ernie Els, Rich Beem, David Duval, David Toms, Jose-Maria Olazabal, Paul Lawrie ** , Mark O'Meara **, Lee Janzen

** = players elected not to compete

3 - Rory Sabbatini, Justin Rose, Jerry Kelly, Stuart Appleby, Vaughn Taylor, Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Niclas Fasth, Bubba Watson, Nick Dougherty, Scott Verplank, Stephen Ames, Sergio Garcia, Andres Romero, Richard Green, Stewart Cink, Hunter Mahan, KJ Choi, Steve Stricker, Woody Austin, Aaron Oberholser, John Senden, Simon Dyson, Trevor Immelman, Kevin Sutherland, Boo Weekley

4 - Lee Westwood

5 - "If needed to complete minimum field of 50..." - Adam Scott (6), Aaron Baddeley (19), Ian Poulter (28)

#'s in parenthesis as of October 7th 2007

Thanx-A-Lot and Happy Guessing from Frank-0-Sport

[iacas]

1 - Defending Champ
2 - Major winners for the past 10 years
3 - Players with top-3 finishes in majors? Top 5?
4 - Uhhh?
5 - Remaining people ranked inside the top 50 in the world golf rankings

[Frank-0-Sport]

Greetings Iacas ...

You got #2 almost on the button - actually it's current year, plus previous nine years.

On #3, you lack guessing only the "Top" - it's a little bit beyond the number 5. Incidentally, the World Rankings play no part in Category-3.

On #4, others beside Westwood may also have "done it", but they qualified via categories 2 and/or 3. For the record, Westwood "did it" 4 times in 2007.

On #5, it's any of those after the ones in category-3. This time, the World Rankings DO play a part.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Sport

[Frank-0-Sport]

Greetings ....

The mythological event is the Grand Slam Invitational - my idea of replacing the PGA Grand Slam of Golf.

And the invitational categories are ....

1. Defending Champion.

2. Winners of Grand Slam events during the current year, plus the previous nine years.

3. Players among the Top 10 and ties in any one of the four current year Grand Slam events.

4. If not otherwise eligible, any player who officially completes all 72 holes in each of the four current year Grand Slam events.

5. If not otherwise eligible, and if needed to complete a minimum field of 50, players who were among the Top 15 and ties (but not among the Top 10 and ties) in any one of the four current year Grand Slam events. Such players will be selected in priority order of standing on the Official World Golf Rankings List published October 7th, 2007.

So There!

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Sport

[iacas]

2. Winners of Grand Slam events during the current year, plus the previous nine years.

Right. So, the previous 10 years. There are no Grand Slam events in October, November, or December, after all, so who cares if you include those months from 1997? :)

4. If not otherwise eligible, any player who officially completes all 72 holes in each of the four current year Grand Slam events.

That's a good one.

5. If not otherwise eligible, and if needed to complete a minimum field of 50, players who were among the Top 15 and ties in any one of the four current year Grand Slam events. Such players will be selected in priority order of standing on the Official World Golf Rankings List published October 8, 2007.

Okay, but what if you reach 50 before you get to #5? Or #4? Where's the cutoff in #3? Does a third-place finish in the Masters beat three fourth-place finishes? Is it like poker?

[Frank-0-Sport]

Greetings Iacas ....

Category-5 works like this ---

1 - Of course it is anyone not otherwise eligible in the 4 other categories.

2 - The Top-15 and ties in each Grand Slam event is interpreted to mean anyone who is not among the Top 10 and ties in each Grand Slam event.

3 - After determining who is among the Top-15, but not among the Top 10, the players are then selected into the field of my mythological Grand Slam Invitational event on the basis of their standing - be it 6th, 30th, 73rd, 126th or whatever - on the October 7th 2007 Official World Rankings List (assuming mythological event is played this weekend, October 18-21).

Check each of this year's Grand Slam events ....

Masters .. US Open .. Open Championship .. PGA Championship

Then check out the October 7th 2007 World Rankings

Oh, and about your line "Who cares about .. 1996" --- Category-2 goes back only to the calendar year 1998. If it went further back to the calendar year 1996, then the names of Justin Leonard, Davis Love III, Nick Faldo, Steve Jones, Tom Lehman and Mark Brooks would have appeared in my original listing.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Sport

[iacas]

1 - Of course it is anyone not otherwise eligible in the 4 other categories.

You've missed the point of my questions. My point was you could reach 50 contestants mid-way through the third or fourth item on your list, and then how do you decide what 50 make it? Again, is a single third-place finish in the year's majors going to beat out four fourth-place finishes? And why, if so? I'm talking about for players on the 50-player cut line. With 10 years of past major winners (up to 40 golfers) you could hit 50 mid-way through qualifying method #4.

And good luck getting 50 golfers to compete in your event. The season is over.

Oh, and about your line "Who cares about .. 1996" --- Category-2 goes back only to the calendar year 1998.

I said 10 years. You said "the previous 9 years + this year." That's 10 years. No majors were played after August, 1997 (and before April, 1998), so you don't have to make the distinction that it's "9 years + this year." It's 10 years. The winners of the previous 40 majors - 10 years.

"10 years ago" does not include April, 1997. It only goes back as far as, currently, October 18, 1997. In other words, when I said "past 10 years" I was clearly including this year, the majors for which are in the PAST.

[Frank-0-Sport]

Greetings ....

As stated in the lead-off post in this thread, the event's field is AT LEAST 50 players.

I realize now that I should have mentioned the fact that players in the first four categories are guaranteed entry even if this pushes field size above 50. Category-5 is employed only in those cases where a total of less than 50 players had qualified within the first four categories.

As for Category-2, that should have read as follows - "Grand Slam Champions of the current calendar year (2007), well as the previous nine calendar years (1998 thru 2006)."

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Sport

[iacas]

As for Category-2, that should have read as follows - "Grand Slam Champions of the current calendar year (2007), well as the previous nine calendar years (1998 thru 2006)."

In other words, the previous 10 years. As I originally said. Jeez.