I was looking at the LPGA’s 2006 schedule and it certainly does take the women a while to get started. Their first tournament isn’t until Jan 19 (Women’s World Cup of Golf in South Africa) and then it’s a 4 weeks until their next event, the SPS Open at Turtle Bay. I’m curious what the reasoning is behind the slow startup for the women? Is it a carryover from days long gone when women players were still doting housewives and weren’t getting the respect they deserved?

The LPGA is a major sports organization and as such they need to get their name brand out early and often. I remember all too well watching the handful (literally) of women’s golf tournaments in the 70s and 80s and while the caliber of players was excellent, the LPGA didn’t lend itself to mass appeal. Times have changed though and the marketing strategy needs to change as well as there are scores of excellent golfers on the LPGA, and the majority are young, hungry and want to make an impact today.

Well, Tiger Woods made it official and said he was not going to play in the Mercedes Benz Championship next week at Kapalua. His rationale was that he hadn’t prepared properly and wanted some additional time off before he started the season. I can’t blame him at all. Yes, the Tour brass are disappointed, but they didn’t see this coming? They’re probably more disappointed that Tiger (and Phil) aren’t there to give the new FedEx Cup some much needed support, but then, why should they be there?

In other Tiger news, he announced that he and his wife are expecting their first child sometime this summer. Great news for the Woods family. If you think Tiger is picky about when he plays now, wait until his child is born as I’m sure he’s the type of father that will want to be there for his child as much as possible.

It’s hard to believe but the start of the 2007 season is only 5 days away! The Mercedes Benz Championship is the coming out party for the new FedEx Cup and it will be interesting to see who shows (or doesn’t show). We know for sure that Stuart Appleby will be there as he attempts to become the first four-peat winner on the PGA Tour.

I wouldn’t bet against Appleby because the Plantation Course at Kapalua fits his eye extremely well and when he’s on, he’s definitely tough to beat. I like the course because the finishing holes provide for great television as the players bomb it off the tee coming home. Hopefully, the 2007 season will match the hype that the PGA Tour has been pushing since the FedEx Cup was announced.

I was perusing the 2006 PGA Tour statistics and while the numbers weren’t a complete suprise, there were a few things that made me chuckle. For example, the names Watson, Holmes, Garrigus, Wetterich, Daly, Hietala, Ridings, Frazier, and Hoffman don’t conjur up much of a top-10 image except that all of the aforementioned finished in the top 10 in driving distance. Yes, Woods is in that list as well, but the talent disparity between Woods and the rest is as wide as the Grand Canyon.

Also, of that list, only Woods and Wetterich finished in the top-25 on the money list. That’s not to say that the rest of the guys didn’t make money, but being able to drive it 300-plus yards does not guarantee a paycheck. Ryan Hietala finished 244th on the money list with $87, 772. Damn good money for your average Joe, but bottom-of-the-barrel stuff on the PGA tour.

Another misleading stat is average putts per round. Remember the cliche, drive for show, putt for dough? Here’s the scoop on that: Tiger Woods finished 137th with an average of 29.38 putts per round. The top-5 were Baddeley, Gay, Chopra, Stricker, and Azinger. And where did they finish on the money list? Yeah, I thought so.

However, the stat the most mirrors the money list is scoring average. And as anyone will tell you, Woods knows how to score from almost anywhere. The technology with the wedges nowadays is such that you can spin the ball from all kinds of gnarly lies, deep rough, and places where 20 years ago, you’d be dead. That’s not to say Woods isn’t talented because he’s the most talented to play the game in many years and in fact if you gave all the players clubs and balls from 20 years ago, Tiger would still be the best player. But it ultimately is about getting the ball into the hole no matter where your drive ends up. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are examples of being able to that year in and year out.

Lorena Ochoa was named the A.P.’s Female Athlete of the Year for 2006. I say that’s outstanding news for Lorena and it caps an excellent season in which she also unseeded Annika Sorenstam as LPGA Player of the Year as well. As I said in yesterday’s post, she needs to have a great 2007 season to prove all the naysayers wrong (and more importantly, gain even more confidence).

Ochoa more than doubled the second-place vote getter, Amelie Mauresmo (who?). I know I don’t follow other sports nearly as much as I used to, but I’ve never heard of Amelie Mauresmo until today. Evidently, she didn’t sway a lot of voters her way with her tennis accomplishments (and that’s not to diminish Ochoa’s award).

I was reading (almost ad nauseam) the accolades bestowed upon Tiger for winning the A.P. Athlete of the Year and it got me thinking about not only his great year, but Lorena Ochoa’s year as well. How do they top their great year’s of 2006? Or can they? In Tiger’s case, literally anything is possible with him. He could run the table and walk away with another Tiger Slam, or he could struggle this year and not win any majors (doubtful). Regardless, Tiger has the set the bar high again and the expectations from fans and media alike are going to be very high, almost unrealistic in my opinion. Except for winning all four majors in 2007, how could he improve?

Some have implied that Ochoa’s year, while not a fluke, was certainly not repeatable. I vehemently disagree. Ochoa might not win as many tournaments in 2007, but I think she’ll be more of a factor in the majors, and in fact, she should win at least one before the year ends. Does she have any weaknesses? Of course. I think her head movement while she putts is a major issue that she needs to resolve. And she still needs to be conscious of getting loose at the top of her backswing. Something she finally conquered in 2006, but there are times when you can see the club waggling a little at the top. However, I still think she’ll have another great year.

Tiger Woods won the A.P. Athlete of the Year Award for 2006. Yes, yet another award that Tiger really doesn’t need. There’s been quite a bit written that suggests Roger Federer should have won for his dominating performance in professional tennis. I’m a huge tennis fan as well and while Federer has had some outstanding years, he doesn’t transcend tennis the way Woods transcends golf. Even if you’re a casual golf fan, you know how Tiger Woods is, no matter what country. The same can’t be said about Roger Federer. Great tennis player, but really, who cares outside of tennis?

Sadly, I think the glory days of tennis are long past. It wasn’t that long ago when Sampras-Agassi were the darlings of the tennis world. And before that there was Lendl, McEnroe, Connors, Bjorg and the list goes on and on. But I digress. This is about golf, not tennis. And though it’s been a few weeks since the announcement, Woods should have won the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year instead of Dwayne Wade. Dwayne who? Yeah, I know, Wade is a good role model off the court for younger folks, but again, he doesn’t transcend basketball.

For the purpose of this writing, I’ll refer to “international players” as those players that are non-U.S. and non-European-born. This does include players from Australia, South Africa, Fiji, New Zealand, and Asia. I was aware that the international players were well-represented in the top-30 of the year-end money list, but I had no idea how much. As shown in the table below, the international players comprised 50% of the PGA Tour’s top 30. That’s incredible when you really analyze the numbers. And this doesn’t include the likes of Michael Campbell and Mike Weir, both of who have won majors in the last few years.

As is incredibly obvious, the international contigent is extremely strong and is only getting better each year. So what’s on tap for next year? Vijay sounds like he’s fixed his swing problems and will be a force to reckon with. Retief Goosen and Ernie Els are both looking to come back very strong in 2007 primarily because of their poor performances of the last couple of years.

I’m not convinced (yet) that Ogilvy and Immelman are the real deal. They need to have a good 2007 to secure their positions on the money list. I think Appleby is a darkhorse that might break through and win a major in 2007. He’s got excellent length and a great short game, so don’t be suprised if he’s hanging around come Sunday at the Masters.

It’s no secret that the European Tour has produced some of the world’s best golfers over the years, and they seem to gel at the same time every two years for the Ryder Cup. Nick Faldo Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, and Colin Montgomerie are the three that come to mind as stalwarts for the Europeans over the last 20 years.

However, I think the last 10 years or so, the European Tour has produced a barrage of excellent European players and a good many of them are starting to play the PGA Tour on a regular basis. (Note: the PGA requires a player to play a minimum of 15 tournaments to keep his card.) Sergio Garcia was supposed to carry the torch for the European’s after his initial splash at the 1999 PGA Championship, but he’s been average at best since then.

Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), there have been others that have stepped up to the plate and carried the torch very well: Padraig Harrington, Paul Casey, David Howell, Luke Donald, Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter, Darren Clarke. For 2007, I look for Padraig Harrington to have a breakout year and seriously contend, if not win one of the majors. Paul Casey had a breakout year in 2006 but he needs to follow it up with a good 2007 to be considered a serious contendor.

I think 2007 will be a pivotal year for the LPGA. Yes, they are no doubt riding a tremendous wave of interest and I see this continuing for the next decade or so. However, I think there are some short-term question marks that could cause some gear slippage in upcoming season.

First off is Michelle Wie. While she’s not a card-carrying member of the LPGA (and does she want that?), her forrays into men’s golf are now starting to cause serious credibility issues within the LPGA suits. There’s still plenty of interest in Wie, both here and abroad, but I think if she doesn’t win in 2007, then 2008 could lead to a serious disinterest in Wie (at least domestically).

Natalie Gulbis needs to win in 2007. She’s got the game, but she needs to close the deal in 2007 and prove that she belongs in the top 10 year in and year out. Is it a coincidence that both Wie and Gulbis are winless, yet both are managed by meddling fathers that have no business managing their daughter’s careers? As I’ve said before, when Tiger purged the management team his Father created when he was a rookie, he became the true professional he is today.

Is Morgan Pressel for real? It’s too early to tell, but I think she’s the real deal. Because of her emotions, she’ll probably lose more tournaments than she’ll win, but eventually she’ll figure that out.

Will Paula Creamer return to form? Absolutely. I see Creamer having a good year in 2007, and probably challenging in all the majors. But she needs to win early to get her confidence back.

Ochoa vs. Sorenstam. Is this the big rivalry in 2007? It could be and it should be. However, I think Ochoa has to be careful of a letdown after having a banner year in 2006, and you know Annika will constantly be at or near the top in the tournaments she enters.

Will the Asian girls continue to be a factor in all the tournaments? Yes indeed. They are the real deal and if the non-Asians aren’t careful, they could literally dominate the leaderboard week in and week out.