SHOULD THE TOUR FORCE PLAYERS TO PLAY?

By kickntrue on 7/1/10

The PGA Tour is tossing around the idea of forcing pros to play in every event on Tour one time every couple of years. The PGA Tour denies it, but let's be honest, this is really just about getting Tiger and Phil to play the "scrub" events on rotation, right?

"Everybody seems to refer to this as a Tiger and Phil issue; it's really not," said PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who intimated that details of the plan wouldn't be ironed out for a few months. "It's really about having a representative number of top players week in and week out."

That's some solid commish-speak, but the simple fact is, not many other guys can move the needle. Let's face it: Nobody is buying tickets to watch Scott Verplank. No one is clamoring for more Tim Clark. No offense to either player -- each of whom is ranked in the top 50 on both the OWGR and the FedEx points list -- but if this rule is being built to showcase the big names at more venues, it might as well be referred to as the Tiger-Phil Formula.

The LPGA Tour has this rule in place and it works, but I'm not sure it can fly with the men. Last time I checked, the players on Tour are independent contractors which means they can do whatever the heck they want, right? Well, maybe. It is also the right of a hiring agency to use or not use any independent contractor as they see fit, so it's certainly within the PGA Tour's right to enact a rule like this. The players also get additional benefits that you're every day 1099'er isn't getting like a sweet pension.

That said- is the PGA Tour really going to have the guts to hold true when Tiger flat out refuses to play an event? What if it's his year to play an event and he has an "injury?" I'm not actually sure they could ban him from any major since the PGA Tour doesn't run those and would they really risk him deciding to play in Europe or just quitting in 5 years when he'd run out of time to avoid playing events he doesn't want to?

Here is my idea, though it will take time to truly see the effects; make the rule with a grandfather clause. You lose the Tiger's and Phil's, but get the every new PGA Tour member here on out. Heck- you could make a 10 year vet exemption and still be fine- so you can capture these young 20-something up-and-comers into the rule.

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Via GeoffShackelford.com


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