An Amateur FedEx Cup?

Filed in archive Golf News on September 7, 2007

Courtesy: USGA

There's an old saying among press agents: there's no such thing as bad publicity.

If you walk down the halls of the PGA's headquarters right now, you'll hear that being mumbled like a mantra by everyone you pass.

A lot of ink is being generated around the FedEx Cup and how the big names are reacting to it in a mostly negative way.

Phil Mickelson, of course, really got the golf media's attention when he used network television to express his frustrations with the Tour.

Scott Lee at The Golf Channel.com is another journalist like me who believes money is no longer the motivator it once was on tour (see my post yesterday).

It seems that the PGA Tour has really only wowed one body with its huge prize money for the playoffs. And that's the media itself, particularly the networks - okay, NBC - who use every moment of dead-air avoidance to talk about the 10 million dollar first prize "at stake".

We now know that's not the incentive the PGA imagined it would be.

What would be incentive enough to induce players, weary after a long season, into staying the course (no pun intended)?

That's a much tougher question than "would they play if we offer them millions of dollars?"

It certainly wouldn't be The President's Cup, as laudable a competition as there is, which follows this whole FedEx Cup thing. The PC has its own concerns about where it ranks on radar screens.

Playing for one's country in the Olympic Games? Not likely, either. Many do that via the President's Cup and the far superior Ryder Cup already.

There may be no answer to the question. In fact, the question itself may be irrelevant.
Forget inducements and made-for-TV playoffs. That makes money for one entity only in the end: the PGA Tour.

The top players couldn't care less. And they're saying so by their actions and their words.

Just let them go home after a long season and enjoy their successes and their lives.

And then bring out the best amateur players from around the world and let THEM compete for some big prizes. Televise that with some hype and hoopla and a lot of golf lovers will watch. And relate.