Tom Gorman
teetalk
Last Login: 06/27/11 07:24 AM
Location: Dedham, MA
Company: New England Golf Monthly
Are Golfers Really Athletes? Read all about how golfers are not athletes at May edition NEGM: www.mynegm.com
Looking forward to another road trip to Florida. This time to Innisbrook, where the pro play! May 21 - 26.
Can the PGA Tour flourish without Tiger Woods?
Not a chance.
Read all about it in April NEGM.
Road trip coming up April 5-10 and it's not to the Masters. Going back to PGA Village in Port St Lucie for some Golf Spring Training!
Less than two weeks to the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. Over 1000 vendors & golf talk 24/7. I can't wait! Lots of great stories to sort!
Is the FedExCup a Bust?
by Tom Gorman
YES. Admit it, golf nation. Do your ears perk up when Jim Nantz tells you how many FedExCup points Ernie Els stands to win if he finishes in the top-10 at the Duetsche Bank Championship? Are your eyes glued to the screen when they show the standings? If one golf fan in 10,000 said yes, I’d be surprised!
In fact, I would wager a C-note that the average golf fan, even one who flips on the Golf Channel a couple times a week, is clueless when it come to knowing anything about the FedExCup? What is it? How are points counted? Is it really a playoff? Who won the first FedExCup? Is there a $10 million dollar bonus?
During the summer of 2006, when the PGA Tour announced that the FedExCup is important and will inject a season-ending playoff system to the September and October golf calendar, the confusion started, and continues today. First, let’s try to define the expensive, failed experiment known as the FedExCup. It is four tournaments, 125 players and one goal – to crown the PGA Tour’s latest filthy, rich champion, since the winner receives a $10 million bonus. Now entering its fourth boring year, players earn a spot by virtue of being one of the top 125 players on the regular season’s FedExCup points list, which mysterious formula changes every year, so much that even the players don’t know how to keep track of points.
If there is one skill that PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem has been good at since he took over in 1994 that is convincing corporate America to invest over $250 million in PGA Tour purses. In this case, behemoth Federal Express, the world’s #1 express transportation provider, delivering about 3.5 million packages daily to more than 220 countries, is the sucker. Ranked # 60 on the Fortune 500 with over $35 billion in annual revenue, Federal Express shells out $35 million to self-promote an irrelevant, silly cup.
Golf does not need another cup. There are too many already with the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, Solheim Cup, Tavistock Cup and others. Federal Express does some dumb things like investing heavily in NASCAR, a total losers sport, and other major professional sports, but that will end soon. In July 2006, when the PGA Tour & FedEx announced the $200-million-plus deal, the stock was trading at a brisk $110 share. In April 2009, the stock fell to a shocking $55 share. Can you spell r-e-c-e-s-s-i-o-n? Stockholders want answers, not found promoting a phony cup. Think FedEx wants out of this scam that has been a bust with the public? It’s not a real playoff format despite the PGA Tour calling it the “playoffs”, the point system is complicated and some events are opposite the start of the NFL season, which is largest, most devoted religion in North America.
Not that those of us who grind over a $5 Nassau really care, but proof that the FedExCup has been disastrous from the beginning is overwhelming. Tiger Woods won the inaugural 2007 event and expected a $10 million bonus. What he actually got was a $10 million reward that was deferred to his PGA Tour retirement account and he didn’t even play in all four “playoff” events. The titanium–toting Tour millionaires grumbled about the deferred compensation and got Finchem to shake down FedEx, which now pays out the whole $10 mil. When Vijay Singh won in 2008, he won the Cup before teeing off in the final tournament. How does that happen in a legitimate playoff? All he had to do was play 72 holes and sign his card correctly in the elite final field of 40 to win.
However, the prize system does open a window onto not only the rich-get-richer culture of the Tour, but also offers a unique financial opportunity to those players who occupy the lower rungs on the player pecking order. Last year, obscure pro Heath Slocum stunned the golf world with a Cinderfella performance when he held off a World Golf Hall of Fame list of challengers to win the first event and $1.3 million prize. Does anyone know or care how many points he earned winning? (500) The 2009 FedExCup victor Tiger Woods will likely not defend, until some off-course problems are resolved. And that oversized fake check Woods posed with last year on the 18th green at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, represented $9 million in cash, or about $5.9 million after taxes, and a $1 million contribution to his retirement plan. Just what he needs!
The FedExCup is bogus! With four majors, three World Golf Championship events, the Players Championship and the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup in any given season, it is hard to know where exactly the FedExCup fits.
The PGA Tour proclaims that “together anything is possible” and it is as long as corporate America and companies like Federal Express is paying their bills. When the PGA Tour announces its 2011 schedule in a few weeks, look for smaller purses and fewer tournaments. The PGA Tour slogan should be changed from “These Guys are Good” to “These Guys are Rich.” Some obscenely rich, should they win the FedExCup!
(Tom Gorman, a member of the Golf Writers Association of America, International Network of Golf and Golf Travel Writers of America, is a Boston-based freelance golf writer.)
Will EMC take over For Deutsche Bank as title sponsor?
Excuse the pun, but you can take this information to the bank!
My sources from the inner sanctums of Corporate America, where the rich-get-richer and have at their disposal limousines, Lear jets, and credit card allowances with lots of zeros, has confirmed that after an eight-year run Deutsche Bank is stepping aside as title sponsor of the Bay State’s only PGA Tour event.
That’s the bad news for Seth Waugh, CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas, who said on August 2, “If it comes down to jobs at the bank or us sponsoring the golf tournament, it’s not a fair fight.” The Labor Day tradition since 2003 may be over for Deutsche Bank, which has been hit hard by the worldwide recession the past six years. The recession has taken its toll and discretionary spending directed to the wallets of the world’s best professional golfers is ending in a few days. The banks’ European PGA Tour commitment terminated last year.
The good news for New England golf fans: EMC Corporation, a Hopkington, Mass-based company listed on the NYSE with $14 billion in annual revenue, and that specializes in information infrastructure solutions, is rumored to taking over the title sponsorship, effective Labor Day.
The new face of the soon-to-be named EMC Championship is expected to be Bill Scannell, executive vice president of sales of the Americas & Global Sales Program. Scannell joined EMC in 1986 and has held a variety of both domestic and international sales management positions within the company. According to the company web site, they experienced a record second quarter consolidated revenue, up 24% in one year, and stock is selling at about $18 share. Scannell is well-known in New England golf circles, is an avid golfer, and long-time member at Charles River CC maintaining a 6 handicap.
EMC has been a Founding Partner of the tournament for many years and has an extensive corporate tent/presence overlooking the 16th hole at TPC Norton. Several years ago the company partnered with the PGA Tour in an annual made-for-TV exhibition called the EMC Skills Challenge.
When 5 o’clock shadows from the towering pines at TPC hover over the 18th green on Labor Day, Seth Waugh will present an oversized fake check of $1.35 million to the winner of the eighth and final Deutsche Bank Championship. The purse this year of $7.5 million is proving to be a deal-breaker, one of many to be announced by Commissioner Finchem’s office in the next few weeks, as the PGA Tour unveils its 2011 schedule. The calendar will surely include fewer tournaments & smaller purses.
The list of Deutsche Bank winners is impressive: Steve Stricker (2009), Vijay Singh (twice), Tiger Woods, Phil Michelson, Adam Scott and Olin Brown.
Sources told NEGM that on Thursday Sept 2 the pro-am pairing shows Tiger Woods teamed up with Seth Waugh and Bill Scannell. That pairing is not by coincidence and it is expected that an official announcement will be made by Mr. Waugh.
It appears that he will pass the checkbook from Deutsche Bank to EMC.
Thanks Tom, I'm looking forward to it. I'll be up next week and I'm sure I'll be back on a regular basis, so we'll definitely have time to!
My Articles featured on myNEGM.com
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James Driscoll lights it up at Travelers Championship to finish 5th! His 2nd best career finish on PGA Tour. Read about it: www.mynegm.com