LPGA

Annika Sorenstam and Se Ri Pak are tied with two others for the lead after round 1 at the U.S. Women’s Open in Rhode Island. Sorenstam awoke from season-long funk and played very solid all day. Se Ri Pak is slowly startging to resemble the Se Ri from the “old days” when she battled Annika and Karrie Webb for the majors.

It’s very early in the tournament but Michelle Wie is only 1 back with Paula Creamer and Lorena Ochoa two back. American teen phenom Morgan Pressel shot a 76 and finds herself 7 back already. Pressel has been struggling with her putter as of late and just can’t seem to stay consistent with her stroke.

PGA

Tom Watson made some very candid comments in an interview the other day when asked about the PGA’s new FedEx Cup for next year. To paraphrase, he said that all that money on the PGA tour is corrupting American players to the point that they’re just not as competitive as their international counterparts.Watson very accurately pointed out that 20 out of the top 30 finishers at the U.S. Open were foreign-born players and that currently they are better golfers. I have to whole-heartedly agree with Watson as I’ve said the same thing here. There is virtually no incentive (save the Woods’, Mickelson’s, Els’, Goosen’s) for the tour players to push themselves week after week because the money is just too good.

Now, I don’t begrudge any of the PGA tour players, as I’d stand in line as well to collect those checks for playing average golf every week.  And if you think about it, save for Tiger Woods, who on the tour (American or international) has come out and said that winning majors is what drives them? No one comes to mind. Sure, they all say it during majors week, but look at their performance in non-majors.

Overview

Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour commissioner finally announced the long-awaited details of the FedEx Cup for 2007. Here’s the gist of the upcoming season:

Next year’s PGA tour season will comprise three distinct parts:

Regular Season

For each regular-season event, the Fedex Cup will award 25,000 points with the winner of each event earning 4500 points, 2nd place will earn 2700 points, and so on. The four majors and the WGC events will award 27,500 and 26,250 points respectively to each tournament.

The FedEx Cup Playoffs

After the regular season concludes, the point totals for alll the players will be totaled and this number will be used as the players seed for the playoffs. 144 players will be eligible for the playoffs but their regular season point totals will be reset heading into the playoffs. (Confused yet?)

Four tournaments (actually three plus the “finals”) make up the playoffs with 50,000 points available for distribution. The final playoff event will only consist of the top-30 players that made it through the first round of playoffs. (Really confused?)

The motive behind the FedEx Cup was simple. Entice more of the games top players to play more often and give them a monetary incentive at the end of the season for hanging around. 144 players will make the FedEx Cup, so that means you have to be a complete and thorough hack NOT to make the FedEx Cup preliminary rounds. And if that’s the case, just skip the “regular season” and jump right into the playoffs.

Just tracking the stats next year might prove interesting, but we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out.

The Women’s U.S. Open starts tomorrow at the Rhode Island Country Club. The course is going to play long and wet as the northeast has been pounded by rain the last week or so. Everyone is picking a Wie/Sorenstam showdown on Sunday, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Sorenstam is still out of sorts with her game, and Wie’s putting is going to be her achilles heal yet again. It’s hard not to pick Annika, but there are too many players now that can take it deep and none of them are intimidated by her presence.

The surprise absence from my top 10 is of course Karrie Webb. I can’t explain it, but I have this feeling that Webb is kind of having an “Indian Summer” type of year in that she’s found the magic (unexplicably), but the genie is just as likely to dive back into the bottle at any moment.

My picks for the 2006 Women’s U.S. Open:

Is it me or is there an incredibly large discrepancy between the LPGA and PGA tournament purses? Looking at the disbursement of money from this past weekend’s PGA and LPGA events respectively, it’s quite shocking to see that the women golfers are playing for less than a third of what the men are playing for. Granted, neither of these tournaments are top-tier events (or middle-tier for that matter), but I think the purses are indicative of the average tournaments on both tours.

So what’s causing the discrepancy? Many things, not the least of which is the TV money that the tours rely on heavily to pad their tournament coffers. The PGA tour just recently renegotiated their TV contract and it’s no surprise that their ratings and hence their purses continue to grow as the legend of Tiger continues to grow. Also, as any PGA tournament director will tell you, having Tiger in the field can possible triple attendance, which leads to higher ratings, which leads to more merchandise being sold. Annika Sorenstam is the LPGA’s “Tiger Woods”, but I’m not sure her participation creates the same negative or positive impact on tournaments the way Tiger’s does.

So what can the LPGA do to increase the total purse amount? Marketing, marketing, marketing. The year started off with a slew of adds touting the “fresh, young faces” of the LPGA”, and other ads touting “these girls can play!”. There is no doubt that the quality of play on the LPGA is first-rate, and the tour is incredibly deep with talent, both domestic and international.

It wasn’t that many years ago that the LPGA was full of 30-something soccer-mom type of players that no doubt could play golf, but it wasn’t exciting and quite frankly, they looked like Aunt Edna from down at the country store. Yes, attractiveness sells tickets. It’s not a coincidence that in the last couple of years that Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis, Michelle Wie, Lorena Ochoa, Cristie Kerr, and many others have made watching the LPGA more enjoyable. Maybe that’s a chauvinistic in some eyes, but it’s cold, hard, facts. It’s also not a coincidence that the aforementioned girls are outstanding players on the LPGA tour.

It behooves Carolyn Bivens (LPGA Comish) to negotiate hard at the next round of TV talks to get the LPGA the kind of purses it desperately deserves.

(The table below lists the top-10 finishers of this past weekend’s tournaments and their respective payouts.)

LPGA

The Women’s U.S. Open starts this week and for the first time in a very long time, Annika Sorenstam is not the prohibitive favorite. Yes, she’s still number one in the world, but her dominance is fading quickly this year as the competition has stepped it up. Not only do you have the LPGA’s “young guns” making noise, but the Asian players are ready to completely dominate, and even veterans Se Ri Pak and Karrie Webb have won again.To keep it in perspective however, Sorenstam might be having just an off year, as many players before her have had, which is not surprising consindering she’s played at such a high level for about 9 years now. I personally don’t think she’ll be a factor this year, because the talent pool is so deep on the LPGA tour now.

PGA

Ben Curtis has to wait yet another day to see if he can hold on to win the Booz Allen Classic. Rain and thunderstorms caused the final 3 holes to be played Tuesday, barring more rain. Curtis still has a 7-shot lead and can almost sleepwalk into the clubhouse. Note that this is the first Tuesday finish on the PGA tour since 1980!

European Tour

Paul Casey won the Johnnie Walker Championship in Perthshire, Scotland defeating Andrew Marshall and Soren Hansen by one shot. Colin Montgomerie had a chance to win but faltered and shot a final round 73 and finished two shots back.Casey has struggled since his ill-timed comments about American fans a few years ago. The comments he made were derogatory enough to cause him to lose some of his sponsors and make playing over in the U.S. extremely difficult. Oddly, I was watching his interview after he won yesterday and he seemed to be back to his old cocky self.

PGA

Ben Curtis will have to wait yet one more day to close the deal and win only his second PGA tournament. Play was suspended at the Booz Allen Classic because of weather and will resume on Monday. Curtis has an 8-shot lead with 7 holes remaining and is pretty much a lock on finally getting his 2nd tour win since 2003.

LPGA

Jeong Jang shot a final round 70 to win by one at the Wegmans LPGA tournament in New York. Julieta Granada shot a 5-under 67 and finished second with Brittany Lang and Marcy Hart yet two strokes back of Jang. Lang had her 15 minutes of fame at last year’s Womens U.S. Open at Cherry Hills when she finished second to eventual winner Birdie Kim.Speaking of which, the Womens U.S. Open starts this week at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island. Grace Park withdrew from the tournament with yet another setback in a year that has been very difficult from a health standpoint.

Personal Note

It’s been three years this week since I was afforded the opportunity to play the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links in Monterey, California. It was always a dream of mine to play there and never in a million years did I think I’d ever make it. It was everything I imagined and more and I was in awe the entire 18-holes. You can view pictures here.

PGA

Suprising as it may seem, Ben Curtis is still leading the Booz Allen Classic after three rounds. Curtis shot a 4-under 67 and now leads by 5 over Brett Quigley. Curtis has struggled since he won the Open Championship three years ago in one of the most bizarre Open’s in many years. That same year, Shaun Micheel also caught lightning in a bottle and won the PGA Championship and like Curtis, has struggled to win again.

LPGA

Jeong Jang shot a 66 on Saturday at the Wegmans LPGA and leads Mi Hyun Kim heading into Sunday’s final round. Jang is the defending champion of the Women’s Open Championship and her game is peaking at the right time.

Big Break

The Golf Channel announced that the Big Break VI will be a co-ed affair this year with nine males and nine females competing with and against each other at Trump National in Los Angeles.From looking at the bios of each golfer, this is looking like a tournament you might see at a minature golf course in Las Vegas.

Of the nine women, the oldest is 25 (there are four) and the youngest is 23. Of the nine men, the oldest is 56 and youngest is 49. What? Is this a gimmick to rival the Battle of the Sexes tennis match from 1973 that pitted Billie Jean King against Bobby Riggs? Please Golf Channel, don’t turn what is a great challenge show into a gimmick just for ratings purposes.

Mickelson Still Smarting

In a very unusual move, Phil Mickelson pulled out of the ING Par-3 Shootout (a silly season event) at Treetops Resort in Michigan, saying, “It’s always about having fun and I didn’t think it was fair to the event to act like I could have a lot of fun right now.”

PGA

Ben Curtis shot a 9-under 62 at the Booz Allen Classic and leads Jeff Gove by 1 shot. Rumor has it that this tournament may disappear for a year or two while the PGA tries to secure a sponsor for next year. The Booz Allen Classic was left out of the “Chase for the Cup” and had its date moved to the fall, well after next year’s new Tour Championship kicks off.

LPGA

Shu Hyun Ahn shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday and is leading by one over Brittany Lang at the Wegmans. Ahn has been playing very consistent in the last few weeks and its not surprising to see her leading the tournament.

For those that aren’t aware, both the PGA and LPGA tours offer player statistics on their respective sites. For example, you can view Ben Curtis’ statistics here and Shu Hyun Ahn’s stats here.

Women’s Public Links Championship

The Women’s Public Links Championship is being played just 45 minutes south of where I live so I’ll be attending this weekend’s matches in Pueblo, Colorado. The tournament is being played at Walking Stick Golf Course, a layout my brother and I have played many times over the years. It’s a links-style par-72 golf course that is being played to 6,263 yards this week and the women shouldn’t have too much trouble with the course as it’s in excellent shape (we played it a week ago).

PGA

So how will the death of Tiger’s father, and his performance at the U.S. Open affect him the remainder of the year? It’s hard to say and I’m fortunate that I haven’t lost an immediate family member so I can’t remotely relate to what he’s going through. Suffice to say that if chooses to take his time coming back the next time, then so be it, as he obviously wasn’t emotionally ready to play last week. I’m going to call the remainder of the year a wash for Woods, but look out next year. I have to believe that after this year’s U.S. Open debacle by the world’s best players, he’ll be chomping at the bit next year to make amends.

One more column on the U.S. Open and I swear it’s the last! Actually I’d like to comment on the television coverage that was provided by NBC and The Golf Channel (pre/post game shows).

NBC

Is it me or did I detect that NBC reigned in Johnny Miller this year? He didn’t seem to offer his usual (and refreshing) candor during the tournament, especially on Sunday afternoon. I know Miller gets the ire up of some people because he calls it like he sees it, but he says things that most of us are thinking, and he’s right on the mark most of time. For example, when Mickelson tried that 4-wood, half-lob attempt on number 5 and whiffed it, Miller (or anyone) didn’t say anythning at all about Mickelson’s bizarre decision. That’s not to say that every decision the players make should be critized, but there are certainly times when at least some analysis would be insightful from Miller and the rest of the on-course crew.

Dan Hicks definitely lost his objectivity as he was blatantly pulling for Mickelson on the closing holes, and the disappointment in his voice was clearly obvious. At one point Miller made a comment that the only thing missing from the tournament was Tiger Woods, but Hicks quickly corrected Miller by saying that Tiger didn’t earn the right to be there. Gee, no bias there Mr. Hicks. I’d like to see NBC hire Azinger and Faldo and bring more candor and honesty to the telecasts as I’m sure they’d do.

Grade: B-

The Golf Channel

As usual, The Golf Channel did a bang-up job on the pre and post-game shows all week, but I’m not sure the value Peter Osterhaus brings to the analysis team as he doesn’t offer a lot of insight. He seems more concerned about not offending anyone. Kelly Tilghman and Kraig Kann host their respective analysis shows very professionally and they’re excellent at asking the right type of questions of their counter-parts that bring out the best discussion.

Grade: A