There is no doubt that Bill Haas played the best golf in the Tour Championship and deserved to win the whole kit and caboodle including two trophies and about $11 million in cash sweeps.  His magical play, especially as the ultimate escape artist on the three playoff holes, will be the remain a thing of legend.  His aquatic recovery on 17 would have made Lloyd Bridges and Woody Austin feel proud.  With this dramatic ending of two of the best young American players locked in battle, logic would say that everyone should be satisfied with this show, the sponsors, the fans, the players, and the tour officials.

But the truth is that the PGA Tour’s attempt to create “Playoff Fever” through the FedEx Cup mechanism is still a disappointing failure.  This has not turned into the back nine at Augusta or the stretch drive to the Super Bowl.  Their inability to communicate clearly to the fans and the players in real time who is gaining ground, who is losing ground, who can win the pot of gold, and who is out of it remains the Achilles Heel of this concept.

To his own admission, Bill Haas did not know he had won the FedEx Cup when he climbed the stairs after sinking the winning putt.  If he did not know for sure he was putting for the $11 million how compelling is this competition.

Let’s be honest, if you watched the broadcast of the final round there is no way you had a sense of how your personal favorite was doing until Steve Sands got on with a white board and a dry erase marker and penciled in the possibilities for you like a teaching assistant explaining the Laffer Curve to a class of freshman economics students.  At one point in the broadcast they showed one of the leaders in the clubhouse thumbing through an app on his iPhone-clearly this was the only way he was going to know where he stood in the proceedings. There is something wrong when the players and the fans need a seeing eye dog and an MIT professor to update them on the current status of a golf tournament.

Bottom line is that if they want to create a real sense of riveting anticipation they need to end the bifurcation of the results of the final tournament and the year long competition.  Fans and players cannot comprehend a parallel competition in real time.

After much musing  and deliberation, my number crunching cohort R.M. and I have come up with the solution.  It is really simple,  we need March Madness in September.  Four tournaments make up the playoffs.  In sequence the first two tournaments winnow the fields from 125 to 60 and 60 to 30 respectively.   The third tournament takes it from 30 to 4, the “Final Fore”, who play for the whole FedEx enchilada the last week.

This FedEx Championship event would be an innovative affair where the four guys play each other for three days in variety of formats for travel money and caddy fees to get it down to two finalists.  The two still standing play on Sunday a three point Nassau, with presses, for the $10 million-winner takes all.  Now that could be the back nine at Augusta every year.

September, 2011

Even before the first ball was struck all the Golf Channel pundits said that Suzann Pettersen was going to be the horse to ride if the Europeans were going to get the Solheim Cup back in their possession.

Pettersen set the tone on the opening day when she made a 15 footer to win the anchor alternate shot match and stifle any early momentum the Americans were trying to build.  She followed with two birdies on the final four holes in her afternoon best ball match teamed with Anna Nordqvist to beat Cristie Kerr and Michelle Wie and give the Euros a one point lead at the end of the day.   After resting the morning session the second day Suzann played an outstanding afternoon four ball making birdie on 16 to square the match against Morgan Pressel and Cristie Kerr.  It took the heroics of Pressel who birdied seventeen and to provide them the 1 up edge that denied Pettersen a perfect record in the competition.

After two days of intense partner competitions with the score tied going into the singles matches, the final day was going to be a doozie.  The day started on a bad note for the US team when Cristie Kerr’s ailing wrist kept her from playing her match and the first point of the day was conceded to the Europeans.  Things got worse as Paula Creamer, who had been a point making machine for the Americans, played her worst golf of the week and lost 6 and 5 to Catriona Matthew.  Stacy Lewis and Brittany Lincicome were struggling as well and it really looked bleak for the Americans.

The weather interceded, forcing multiple interruptions in the day’s play, and the last delay seemed to work in the American’s favor because they came out energized from the Snicker’s break and rode the outstanding play of MVP Morgan Pressel, a couple of rookies in Vicky Hurst and Ryann O’Toole, two unlikelies in Christina Kim and Brittany Lang, and the old war horse, Juli Inkster, to give them a real shot at their fourth consecutive win in this bi-annual competition.

Suzann was not going to have any of that- she saved the best for last in her highly anticipated singles match against Michelle Wie.  With only three matches left on the course and the team score tied at 12 1/2 each, the Euros needed a win in this match to give them a realistic shot at bringing home the cup. Down one on sixteen Suzann rendered the first of three memorable fist pumps for the day slam dunking a twenty footer for birdie to square the match.

After both of them hit precise drives into the tight landing area of seventeen, she won the duel of wedges hitting it stiff and making a birdie.  To Michelle’s credit she was up to the challenge and buried her own 20 footer to halve the hole and send the match to eighteen as sudden death.  With the pressure ratcheting up another notch on eighteen, it was deja vu all over again-Pettersen hit the perfect tee ball and stuffed another wedge in tight to set up the birdie to win this decisive match and bring the Euros within reach of the cup.

Given how well all the rookies played over the three days it seemed appropriate that a Caroline Hedwall and Azahara Munoz cashed in the points in the last two matches to seal the 15 to 13 victory and set off the celebration that will continue well into the night.

Anyone who watched this Solheim Cup has conclude that this is a huge win for women’s golf.  They seem to comprehend the concept of team competition much better than the men.  There is true camaraderie, a spirit of shared accomplishment, and competitive drama that just cannot be scripted.

September, 2011

Which is what the Europeans are trying to do in this 13th offering of the women’s international team competition at Killeen Castle just outside Dublin.  They are trying to break the death grip the Americans have had winning the Solheim Cup three consecutive times.

This golf competition is like no other-it has the pageantry of a partisan Friday night high school football game in Texas, complete with hand written signs, chantin’ and singin’, and even face painting-of the players.  But it is all business once they put the tees in the ground for the first foursome’s matches-you can see the tension in the faces of the players, especially the rookies, and the Euros have five of them playing in this circus atmosphere for the first time.

The Irish weather was brisk and windy for the first day’s matches which brings us to the second most important feature in this biannual event-the fashion.  Unlike the men’s version which too often tends to offer the bad fashion taste of the wife of the captain, these women know how to put it together and accessorize.   With the possible exception of Michelle Wie’s tacky shoes (pictured) and Laura Davies’s signature 4X windbreaker, these girls were dressed to the nines.

They had on so many layers to deal with the morning conditions that it looked like there was a different pairing on each hole as they were peeling off layers to acclimate to the changing conditions.

The competition was no powder puff affair as both teams showed incredible moxie in dealing with a long Jack Nicklaus golf course, quick greens, nerves, and more than a wee bit of an Irish breeze.  Michelle Wie and Christie Kerr won the first point for the Americans but Catriona Matthew and rookie Azahara Munoz won a decisive 3 and 2 match over Stacy Lewis and Angela Stanford.  Paula Creamer is in her element in this kind of grind your guts golf and she teamed with long ball Brittany Lincicome to win their foursomes match.  But the decisive swing in momentum in the morning matches came when Suzann Pettersen buried a 15 footer for birdie on the 18th hole to pull the Euros even at 2 to 2.

The afternoon four-balls were equally dramatic as the Europeans seemed to be throwing a shutout.   With five holes to play the scoreboard was a dark shade of blue as the Euros already had one match in the bank and were leading in the other three.  The unlikely American heroes might have been the always flamboyant Christina Kim and the only one in the field of Irish descent, rookie Ryann O’Toole who came barrelling from behind in the last four holes to tie their match and steal a half a point.  Paula Creamer won her second point of the day teaming with Morgan Pressel to outlast Laura Davies and Melissa Reid with a 1-up win.  But again it came down to tough Suzann Pettersen and Anna Nordqvist taking down the Wie-Kerr pairing in the pivotal anchor match 2 up.

After a day of compelling golf performances, the scoreboard read Euros 4.5- USA 3.5.  Both captains had to feel good about the play of their teams, especially their rookies, whose performances belied the early nerves and were critical to the day’s outcome.

We are looking at what promises to be three days of gripping golf drama without any panes of broken glass as they try to get their hands around this cherished piece of cut glass.

September, 2011