Golf: It’s greed with a capital G

Richard Dunn

OK, not every Toshiba Senior Classic comes down to the wire or

features a long playoff.

But the issue that dampened the most moods last week in the media tent

at Newport Beach Country Club was this crazy idea about a proposed Major

Champions Tour.

The tour would be for major championship winners between 37 and 55 and

negatively affect the Senior PGA Tour and PGA Tour.

But nobody outside of the camps of Fred Couples, Greg Norman or Nick

Faldo are giving any indication that the tour is going to happen, leading

most to believe it will not and that recent reports were nothing more

than a trial balloon.

Fuzzy Zoeller, one of four Senior Tour players eligible for the

proposed tour, said the new tour isn’t going to fly and suggested that

the players looking for push for it should “practice harder.”

The proposed tour, which would offer a minimum purse of $2 million per

tournament with a winner’s share at $600,000, could feature up to 35

players with the current crop of eligible PGA Tour and Senior Tour

members.

Television producer Terry Jastrow is behind the tour and reportedly

still looking for a commitment from Fox, but without a television

contract, there’s no tour.

To invite players to give up their PGA card and abandon the ship that

steered them to financial freedom in the first place is asking for

trouble, and several members of the Senior Tour voiced their opinion last

week.

“They would really hurt the tour that made them who they are,” said

Allen Doyle, last year’s leading money winner on the Senior Tour and

champion of the inaugural Charles Schwab Cup and $1 million annuity,

which he donated to charity.

“If they were that greedy that they couldn’t look at their monthly and

quarterly financial statements and see where their wealth came from, then

that blows my mind. Everything I am today is because of the PGA and

Senior PGA tours.

“It’s greed with a capital G. It would absolutely blow my mind if the

greed is that bad that couldn’t see that this will hurt both tours.”

Doyle would not qualify for the proposed tour because he never won a

major on the PGA Tour, but Ben Crenshaw, a Senior Tour rookie this year,

is a two-time major winner and said he isn’t leaving the Senior Tour.

“It’s a tough period from a competitive standout. All of us here are

lucky to have a place to play after the age of 50,” said Crenshaw, who

understands how a player like Couples, who hasn’t won on the PGA Tour

since 1998, is frustrated with his poor play.

After watching the greatest golfer in Senior Tour history (Hale Irwin)

play three classic rounds to win the Toshiba by a tournament-record five

strokes with a tournament scoring record of 17-under 196, the 56-year-old

Irwin, who would be too old for the proposed new tour, made a case about

age.

“Greg Norman tried something like that (the World Golf Tour in the

mid-1990s) and it was not necessarily warmly received,” Irwin said. “I

think you can attach names to players in that age group. Why 37? That’s

an interesting number. I think it’s got a long way to go.”

Added veteran Dave Stockton: “I’m very disappointed myself (in players

considering a proposed tour). I hope Fred Couples becomes a force again

on the regular tour. I can’t imagine somebody wanting to play on a tour

like that.”

Other see things a little differently.

“I can totally agree how some guys in that age bracket would want to

set up another tour,” said veteran Bob Charles, 66, the most successful

left-hander in golf history with 75 overall wins worldwide. “I can

empathize with guys who are less competitive when they reach their 40s.”

George Archer, the inaugural Toshiba Senior Classic champion in 1995

at Mesa Verde Country Club, said: “I’m not immediately against it if it

can fly, but the big question is whether it can get off the ground and

go. And the biggest thing is whether it can compete against the Tiger

Woods Show. What he’s done for television ratings is phenomenal.”

These days, if a golf tournament doesn’t have Tiger, you can forget

high television ratings.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.