Tom Pernice Jr. Speaks His Mind
I’ve never been a huge fan of Tom Pernice Jr., especially after calling the tour police a couple of years ago after watching Tiger on TV blasting his drives past Mickelson and wanting the tour to test Tiger’s driver for compliancy, but he showed a different side yesterday at the Tour Championship.
He was asked about the FedEx Cup “playoff” format for next year and he fired a shot across the bow of the PGA Tour. The gist of Pernice’s comments are that he’s upset that for next year’s FedEx Cup “playoffs”, the tournament fields will remain the same for each event, meaning it doesn’t matter how well or poorly you play, you’re still guaranteed a spot in all three events. Pernice’s suggestion (and I agree with him) is that if the tour is going to call the events “playoffs”, then players should be elminated based on their performance, and it does make sense.
Of course, Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour commish, squelched that idea pretty quickly saying it was too late to be making changes. What? The three events are still a year away almost and now is as good as time as any to do some tweaking. Davis Love III also provided some insight by saying that the bottom feeders of the PGA Tour are the vocal majority pushing to keep the fields intact, and Love III made it clear that it was as much about politics as anything else.
Pernice wasn’t finished with his comments though. He did stick his foot in his mouth when he was asked about Tiger’s absence by saying “I think it’s a disgrace, it’s a slap in the face to (presenting sponsor) Coca-Cola and the tour. He wouldn’t make the money he makes if it wasn’t for the PGA Tour. At some point, there is a credibility as to what’s inside you as a person. There is a responsibility and an obligation to the people who helped make you who you are.”
Pernice is way off the mark here simply because Tiger Woods is the sole reason that the PGA Tour purses have skyrocketed over the last decade, and Woods has earned the right take time off whenever he deems necessary. End of story.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] How interesting that a couple of weeks after Tom Pernice voiced his opinion about the next year’s FedExCup playoff system, the shirts at PGA central magically implemented almost exactly what Pernice suggested. Now, Pernice is a former member of the Player’s committee so he does have some pull and influcence, but you gotta wonder if the fact that Woods and Mickelson both skipped out on the Tour Championship might have weighed on his mind a little as well. [...]