Phil Mickelson once made it a point to start his season at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. The reason, he said, was the perfect weather, which is what you want when you're still feeling out your swing. But even before this week there was reason to worry that the relationship between Mickelson and the Hope was on the rocks.
The tournament changed its host course to The Classic Club, a track that skeptics point out is near a wind farm for a reason. In 2006, in a scene from Chris Lewis's book, "The Scorecard Always Lies," Mickelson's caddie, Jim Mackay, remarks upon his first look, "This is the course they're replacing Indian Wells with? Are you kidding me?"
The wind didn't blow that year, but it did in 2007. In the fifth and final round last year, in 40-mile-per-hour gusts, Mickelson hit three balls into the water in a three-hole stretch, had his hat blown off, made two doubles and five bogeys, and eventually carded a 78 to finish in a tie for 45th place. "Nobody's going to come back here," one caddie told me afterward.
Mickelson isn't. He will start his season instead at the Buick Invitational next week, leaving Hope host George Lopez and the rest of the celebrities to yuk it up without him.
Getting the top talent to show up is the name of the game on the PGA Tour, non-major division. Tournament directors use everything at their disposal, from perks to prize money, but their greatest asset or liability remains the course itself. With the jarring absence of Phil Mickelson, we'll see how long The Classic Club stays in the rotation at the Hope.
Not long, if the example of the Barclays is any indication.
The first event of the FedEx Cup playoff series in the fall, the Barclays made news in 2007 for its failure to attract Tiger Woods. It was an embarrassment for the Tour, considering all it had done to market the sport's new megabucks endgame, but Woods simply doesn't like Westchester Country Club. Never has.
Now, according to an article in Monday's New York Times, the Tour is bailing on the remaining five years of a six-year agreement for Westchester to host the Barclays. The tournament is expected to leave the storied club, which had hosted the event since 1967, for Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., perhaps as early as this year.
Among several points of negotiation mentioned in the article, the Tour asked Westchester to limit or restrict play in the week leading up to the tournament; wanted to remove three trees; and sought full access to holes 16, 17 and 18 for the six weeks it would take to build its corporate village and other fan accommodations. But members hadn't even had a chance to vote on those requests when the Tour gave up on Westchester. One club member, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the real reason the Tour was abandoning the storied venue was due to CBS's underwhelming TV ratings in 2007.
Which of course is where Woods comes in. New York, with its vast fan base and cluster of big-time media outlets, is one of the best places for the Tour to market its product, and yet Woods had played Westchester only three times in the last 10 years. For the Tour, it was the equivalent of getting a big, juicy fastball over the middle of the plate every year, only to be reminded that your home run hitter, the guy you really want up to bat, is thousands of miles away, maybe on his yacht.
Evidently somebody at Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., got tired of it. The only surprise is that it didn't happen sooner. Woods's aversion to Westchester has been obvious for some time now, and the Tour probably would have preferred to leave Westchester as promptly as Mickelson abandoned the Hope.
Westchester is a classic, old course with a grand history, but so was En-Joie Golf Club, former home of another bygone New York tournament, the B.C. Open. But the Tour follows the dollar, and more often than not the dollar follows Tiger and Phil.
Classic Club, you've been warned.
Rough Beginning for Ferrie
Kenneth Ferrie would have been better off had he played worse at the Sony Open, and that's only the latest reason why he leads the 2008 season in hardship.
Even before he'd had a chance to play in his first event, the Sony, Ferrie's father died after a long battle with cancer. But as dad would have wished for his son, Kenneth carried on, flying to Hawaii, where he easily made the cut after rounds of 66-70. But Ferrie, who tied for sixth place at the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2006, got food poisoning and had to withdraw. Then he got more bad news.
Due to an unfortunate Tour bylaw for players who withdraw, Ferrie was paid for finishing in 87th place, behind the group of 18 players at even par who made the cut but were not cleared to play on the weekend. (New Tour rule: If the number of players who make the cut is greater than 78, only the pros at the next lowest score and better get to play on.) Even worse than getting paid less than those who were four shots behind him through 36 holes (about $8,000 compared to $9,805), it was unofficial money. He also earned zero FedEx Cup points, compared to 46 for those at even par.
As a new Q-school graduate, he's fighting to make as much cash as he can as quick as he can so he can improve his status and get into tournaments. He shot 70 on Friday, but he'd have been better off shooting 74 and finishing with those 18 players at even. As he flew back to England for his dad's funeral, he had to be thinking 2008 could only get better.
