Tiger Tour

Tiger can play in whatever tournaments he feels like. Just cut out the "winning streak" crap.

It's a crock

 

None of the four majors are run by the PGA Tour. Tiger's got a lifetime exemption to the Masters and another decade at the U.S. Open. I'm unsure about his status for the British Open (though I'm sure he's exempt there for a while for winning last year) or the PGA Championship. Sooner or later, won't his eligibility run out, especially if he decided to leave behind the PGA Tour? Seems like someone thinks Tiger's bigger than the game. One day, after injury or old age or simple bad luck catches up to him, wouldn't he like to have the old PGA Tour to kick around?

 

Allow me to educate:

1. The Tour minimum is 15 events.
2. Woods is eligible to play the Masters for life (or until the club chairman in 2047, when Tiger turns 70 years old, tells him he's too old to play), and is eligible to play the PGA and British until he's 65. He gets a 10-year exemption to the U.S. Open every time he wins it.

We figured this out one day: how many events could Woods play if he resigns his PGA Tour membership and wouldn't be on the official money list?

Since he's eligible for all four majors for the foreseeable future, and the three World Golf Championship events are based on being among at least the top-50 on the World Golf Rankings, he's got those seven right there, without having to be a member of the Tour.

The Players Championship is, by definition, the "major" for the PGA Tour. However, there are provisions for non-Tour members to compete in that event by winning any of the other four majors, the World Golf Championship events or being among the top-50 on the World Golf Rankings. There's eight.

Anyone who wins a Tour event is in the Mercedes Championship. That's nine.

The invitationals he usually plays are Bay Hill, the Memorial, the Byron Nelson, the Buick Invitational. Since he's won them all (multiple times, except the Nelson), he'll always get invited back no matter what his status. That's 13 events.

Then there are sponsor exemptions. He doesn't need to be a Tour member to play the same schedule he's been playing. Now, throw in the fact that if he wasn't a member of the Tour, he wouldn't be limited in the number of events in Europe and Asia he could play for appearance money.

I don't think he would be able to start his own tour. But he could quit the PGA Tour today and his life wouldn't change a bit.

 

That is interesting and helpful, hondo, on the breakdown.

Does anyone think Tiger might, perhaps, take a leave from the PGA Tour when the kid is born?

 

As long as he's a spokesman for Buick and American Express, he'll play at any event those companies sponsor.

 

Eldrick better stay the hell off of Shooter's Tour!

I hear he eats pieces of shits like you for breakfast!

 

Hondo's post is excellent. Think about this, the PGA Tour doesn't run the four majors, but those are still considered tour events for the money list, etc. So are the WGC events. So there's seven right there he plays every year. He plays at least two or three of his Buick events. So there's nine or 10. He'll play the Players Championship. That's 10 or 11. It really allows him to cherry pick the other four or five he has to play to keep himself eligible for tour stats, money list, etc., etc.

I would love to see the LPGA rule invoked on the PGA Tour, the one that makes every player play every event at least once every four years. I'd even give it a caveat and make it pre-Fall Finish events. Hell, the only people playing in the Southern Farm Bureau Classic are the ones trying to scrap their way to a card for the next year. But places like Pebble Beach and Riviera, Greensboro and Hartford, yeah, even the Quad Cities, should be able to count on Tiger and other big stars playing every once in a while.

Those stops do just fine without him, though. It's not like they don't sell tickets and people don't show up. But the events lack any sort of national buzz without Tiger there.

 

At least one of the big problems here is that the independent contractor status of PGA Tour players is much more pronounced than it will ever be for the ladies. Overall, the ladies are "in it together" more than the guys ever will be because of any number of factors, most of which go back to the general viability of the tours based on TV, sponsorships, etc.

When Votaw came in a few years ago and tried to bring sexy back to the LPGA and use the more of a star-marketing model hinged on Annika, that's when the one-in-four rule showed up. He also sliced the number of events significantly to try to improve the field at each stop, thereby getting rid of many of the 84 Lumber Classics of the world. Some players whined about it, but really, it made a lot of sense.

Granted that Tiger's effect on the TV contract and sponsorships is a large part of the equation that makes these purses possible, more than 70 PGA Tour players cleared $1M in winnings in both of the last two years. But that's just it: as long as Tiger's sometimes presence affects the TV contract and the larger Tour sponsorships, the money will be there for whomever shows up that week. And as long as many of the smaller stops can survive without Tiger and Phil -- and make no mistake, some of them CANNOT strike it hugely rich without the star power, but it's a minority -- the Tour won't risk doing anything to piss off its meal tickets. They are independent contractors who obviously do very well because of the Tour, but in the end, the Tour needs it big guns more than they will ever need the Tour, at least at this point. You can't say the same with the ladies.

On a related note, check out Bob Harig's piece about the cost of doing business with the Tour on ESPN.com. It's a good insight into the business end.

 

The reason Tiger won't do this?

People would fucking hate him for it and he needs to remain likable if he's going to continue to bring in the kind of endorsement coin that he's doing now.

Could he do it? In a second... Does he want to be known as the guy who ruined the PGA Tour? I seriously doubt it...

 

Don't for get the Memorial... aside from not playing last year because of his dad's death, Tiger usually heads to Dublin to play in Jack's tournament... who's going to tell Mr. Nicklaus he's not playing in his tournament? Sure as shit won't be Tiger.

Anyway, I like that Tiger plays in tournaments he wants to play in... I'd rather seem him geared up to play the Buick Invitational/Open/Tournament/Gala than fake it through the Nissan Open.

Oh, and despite the inaccurate post about Norman BYH, I still enjoyed it.

 

donnie, great post, especially this part:

D.C. and Colorado being great examples.