The 19^th Hole

January 22, 2006

New Year, New Crusade

Last year, I spent a good amount of words in this column on my crusade to get the PGA Tour to consider a NASCAR-styled season-long points race for big bucks to draw interest and more superstar participation.  Along with some other golf journalists, we must have gotten into the ears of Tour marketing executives because they bought our argument.  Hook.  Line.  Sinker.  And now we will have the FedEx Cup in 2007.

With that crusade now accomplished, what is a crusader to do?  Well, I think that a crusader would be lost without a new cause to beat the drums for, and so I had to think for a few minutes for a new concept that I think would be good for the game.  After all, my undergraduate degree is in business and marketing.  So, I was driving in the car the other day when it hit me – a bigger and better World Golf Championships!

Those of you golf geeks out there might be thinking that I am out of my mind.  Let’s face it – the World Golf Championships have become an enormous disappointment.  Almost all of the events, except for the meaningless World Cup, are played in the United States.  Also, the requirements to get into these no cut events are so weighted to certain players that the series has devolved into three annual guaranteed paychecks for the last few Ryder Cup and President’s Cup teams.  What a joke.

The original spirit of the WGC has been lost.  It was meant to be a stunning series of events held AROUND THE WORLD that would showcase the global golfing talent, especially those that do not usually get an opportunity to play in the United States.  While the spirit of the WGC has not manifest itself in the WGC events themselves, the spirit has taken hold across the globe.

Just take a look at the past few off seasons on the PGA Tour and the regular season schedule on the European and Australian Tours.  More top stars are playing in off season events in Japan, Australia, and China.  Certainly, there are appearance fees for many of these events, but there are also huge paydays available to the best in the world to beat up on some slightly weaker competition. 

The best part for these events is that players are taking the bait.  The golfing off season on Tour was almost nonexistent for all stars, save for Phil Mickelson.  The HSBC Champions event in China and the Dunlop Phoenix Open in Japan attracted top notch fields.  And the trend does not appear to be slowing.  These strong fields help events follow in the path of the leading Euro Tour events to attract top PGA Tour players – including this week’s Abu Dhabi Golf Championship and the upcoming Dubai Desert Classic.

So, if these events outside of the WGC are successful in attracting top notch fields overseas – with a cut, no less – then there has to be a formula for making the spirit of the WGC come alive.  Thus, instead of all the talk in recent years of phasing out the embarrassing WGC events, I say that we should in fact expand the series.

Let’s go ahead and make the WGC a series of 10 to 12 events on the golfing calendar.  The series can transcend the schedules of the five major tours that are joined in presenting the WGC.  (That is really a joke.  The PGA Tour sponsors all of these tournaments and the other tours to comply for exposure purposes.)  The events can be held year-round and on at least once on every continent that isn’t permanently covered in snow.

The events themselves would be a combination of events on all five tours – and the developing Latin American pro scene – and would all have cuts.  Qualifying for the events would be done like they are for the majors.  If you’re in the top 150 in the world rankings two weeks prior to the event, you are invited.  The events have larger paydays than common PGA Tour events – well over $1 million to the winner.  And, what the hell, there could be a points system for this series, too, with an enormous cash prize to the champion.

By expanding the WGC to actually promote achievement across all professional golf tours, the series will gain credibility and recapture the initial excitement surrounding the events.  Since the golfing season is essentially year-round now, the golfing world should capitalize and allow for the game to get attention year-round by hyping the overseas events that are not part of the PGA Tour schedule.  In essence, the players, fans, and professional golf will win as a result of retooling the World Golf Championships to actually mean something and be done the right way.

The spirit behind this idea is the same behind the FedEx Cup – improving the exposure of the game to a global audience, increasing the participation of and competition between the world’s best, and to make the fan experience more meaningful.  It worked for the FedEx Cup – why not for the World Golf Championships?

Ryan Ballengee is host of The 19^th Hole Golf Show, found at The Golf Newsnet.com.  You can also get The 19^th Hole on the go through podcasting by clicking here Feedburner.com - The 19th Hole Golf Show.  Contact Ryan via e-mail at the19thholeshow@hotmail.com.

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