To paraphrase former president Calvin Coolidge, The PGA Tour is in the business of business, which is to say making money. If the paying public preferred seeing a ton of young talent rather than the established players than a system would be in place to force out the old and bring in the new. Actually there is, but it isn’t fast enough for the guy on the other page.
Most golf fans like seeing their old favorites play, which is why the Senior/Champions Tour has had such a long shelf life and it’s not as though those who don’t get out on the PGA Tour right off the bat go hungry and have to turn to being door-to-door salesmen to feed their families. The Nationwide Tour not only gives young players (and former PGA Tour veterans) a place to hone their skills and learn the ropes, but a pretty nice living as well. That was not the case in the old days when you either finished among the top 60 money winners (now it’s top 125) or found a job as a club pro, giving lessons to Aunt Sadie and listening to some fat used car dealer complain about the sand in the bunkers.
There is nothing quite as grueling as trying to get through PGA Tour qualifying school and finishing high enough to get the card that says you can play with the big boys.
It has to be frustrating to those without star appeal to have to hope or beg to get into a tournament. It’s something Tiger Woods never had to worry about. Tiger had a sponsor’s exemption to play in the Greater Milwaukee Open the second he announced he was turning pro. He won enough money in a couple of months that he avoided ever having to go to Q School.
Players like Rickie Fowler get sponsors exemptions not because they are any more talented that Joe Shmoo (although they are) but because people have heard a great deal about them and want to see them.
When reigning U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein turns pro he will also likely be in line for more sponsor exemptions than some other player with similar skills but without the name recognition.
And while people such as Mr. Gorman complain that spots get taken up by has beens, who have not won in years or even contended, most of them were in a similar position at one time in their careers. They have those exemptions because they earned them.
Players who win major championships deserve special consideration. It takes a special kind of player to win a major. We want to see them as much as we can.
Funny thing about the tour; the kids keep coming. They bust their way into the fields and they make names for themselves. There are dozens of new players all the time. It’s quite simple. Qualify for a tournament and you’re in. It’s tough, to be sure, but the opportunity is there. All a player has to do is shoot low numbers.
If they can’t quite break in then there’s the Nationwide where the top money winners automatically get their cards for the next year. There are enough tournaments where the established players take weeks off to afford the youngsters their shot at the big time.
Certainly if this was a fair fight everyone would start on even footing, but its business and there’s nothing fair about it. There’s a reason Jack Nicholson can command multi millions to make a movie. He draws people into the theatres. It’s why Arnold Palmer, even at his advanced age and with a skill set nowhere near where it once was, can get id=”mce_marker”00,000. for a corporate outing.
Rory McIlroy is now a star because he won the U.S. Open in such amazing style. He kicked in the door and now he has that long exemption. It’s there because fans want to see him, will flock to see him and the PGA Tour will earn millions.
Fair? There is no $ in fair and the PGA Tour is professional golf where everything is spelled $$$.
(Tim Geary is a Rhode Island based freelance writer. He’s still waiting for his first exemption to play in a PGA Tour event).
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