The Road To The PGA Championship

It's Sunday afternoon and me and a couple buddies are watching my Patriots finish off the Jets, their biggest and most hated rival. During the game, we're talking about some other teams (one of the guys is a Cowboys fan and the other is a Vikings fan) and some other sports - namely the MLB playoffs.

It's during these discussions that I start to consider the regular season schedules and playoff scenarios of the major sports in the U.S. For some reason, I compare this to golf, particularly, the PGA Tour.

Back in February I wrote a post about the need for a real PGA Championship. The question remaining though was, how do you get there? Is the final tournament based on the world golf rankings? Is it based on the money leaders? Hopefully not. But if not either of these, what then? Well, I've added another idea to the mix, but it would require a radical change.

Currently, we play Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday tournaments. At the end of the tournament we emerge with one winner. But what if we used those days to play a series of one-on-one matches? What if a player could emerge from a weekend with a record, say 3-1, rather than finish "16th, nine shots back." What if, rather than a money list or a ranking system that no one understands, there were actual golf "standings" with a win-loss-tie record?

I'm sorry but, whether you are a golf purist or not, I feel like I'm onto something here. Imagine opening up the sports page of your local newspaper or checking the standing on your favorite sports/golf website, and instead of seeing Luke Donald is #1 on the money list at $5,837,214.50 with Webb Simpson in second trailing by $68,971, you this:

PGA Tour Standings

Luke Donald 52-35-4

Webb Simpson 48-36-7

Nick Watney 47-36-8

Etc....

I gotta tell ya, this is a hell of a lot more interesting than looking at a money list. It's a hell of a lot more interesting than looking at a ranking list. And it sure makes each match mean a lot more when you are working your way toward an actual PGA Championship. Plus on Sundays, when many players are out of reach of the tournament win, this format would give each player a shot at still playing for an individual win rather than an additional $500 or $1000.

Each player becomes, for lack of a better term, a one-man-team. An individual rather than a nameless face in the crowd. Players will have a chance to pull away from the pack to give themselves better playoff seedings. And guys who are lower in the standings have the opportunity to play spoiler.

OK, so it's still a work in progress. But it's also a refreshing change to a stale sport. I've still got a few kinks to work out, but I'm sure I'm onto something. I know there are going to be plenty who hate this idea. But I also know there will be many who may see some potential. But in the end, all I'm trying to do is come up with some ideas to pump some new life into a great but fading game. And hey, whether you agree with me or not, you sure can't fault me for that.

Swing 'til you're happy!

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From Greens To Gridirons

This is my favorite time of year. The days are getting cooler and more comfortable. The nights are becoming, what I refer to as, "sleeping weather." Soon, the leaves will be blazing with the foliage of another beautiful Connecticut autumn. It doesn't get any better than spending a few hours out on the course on a Saturday morning in September or October. But not Sunday! Why not Sunday? Well, becaue of another reason this is my favorite time of year. It's football season!

Since I began playing golf, I try not to let much get in the way of being on the course. Sometimes I can't help it. Things happen. I can't control the weather. And with my wife being a photographer, sometimes her appointments, sessions or weddings get in the way. But hey, it's better for her to be making us money, than for me to be spending it, right? But the one thing that I will always allow to get in the way of golf is the NFL. I will put away my putter in favor of my Patriots.

I have long been a fan of football. Ever since I was just a little kid and my dad would keep me up at night to watch Monday Night Football. Nothing has changed since then. As a matter of fact, I find myself doing the same thing with my boys now. The minute the Super Bowl ends, I long for September to come around again. I want to spend my Sundays lounging in front of the TV with a beer, eating chips and wings. I'll play golf on Sunday, but I have to be home by 1:00.

However, as much as I love football and look forward to the start of the season, I guess it is a bittersweet feeling as well. Because when the football season is just starting up, that means golf season is winding down. So I begin to reflect on another season of golf. I look back on another season in which I didn't get to play nearly as much as I would have liked. I don't really reflect on my performance all that much. For me, it's more about quantity than quality. I think back on some of my favorite rounds. I look back and appreciate playing a course I've never played before, or one I haven't visited in a few years. I try to remember the good rounds and forget the bad. There's usually not a whole lot of good rounds for me to remember!

But along with the disappointing feeling of another golf season coming to an end, is the feeling of knowing I am also entering my favorite part of the golf season! Often times, we will try to save some of the best courses for last. Courses we know have the best views of the changing leaves. The prettiest courses in autumn. There's nothing like standing at the top of an elevated par-3, hitting your ball into a sea of reds, oranges and yellows, followed up by searching for the ball in the woods while the fallen leaves crunch beneath your Foot-Joys. How about playing a course with a few holes that wind around an orchard right when the apples are in season. There's nothing like eating an apple picked right off the tree. And it's even better when I can simply drive my golf cart right up to the tree, and pick out the best one I can find. Now that's great golf.

So let's all enjoy these last few weeks of the season. Forget your score for a while. Don't try so hard. Don't take it so serious. Enjoy the beautiful weather and comfortable temperatures. And if we're lucky enough to have that "golf weather" last deep into the year, then let's just enjoy the fact that we're out on the course at all! Just not on Sundays after 1:00.

Swing 'til you're happy!

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