2009 PGA Tour: What Is Hot and What Is Not

As the 2009 PGA Tour season is set to get underway, here is a list of stories and players that are hot and that are not.

Hot

Sergio Garcia

These days, Sergio Garcia’s name is rarely included in any sentence that does not also contain the phrase "the greatest player to have never won a major."

Garcia has been one of the best, if not the best, ball-striker on tour for quite some time—yet he has never been able to get it done in the majors. 

However, during the 2008 season, Garcia finally gave us some indication that he has improved upon two aspects of his game that had previously been the main causes of his inability to win a major championship.

During the 2008 season, under the tutelage of renowned short game guru Stan Utley, Garcia appears to have finally found a putting stroke that is able to hold steady in the face of the most intense pressure.

Another aspect of Garcia’s game that has shown a marked improvement in 2008 is his level of maturity both on and off the golf course.

The Sergio Garcia that was quick to point the finger at anyone and anything else other than himself was no more in 2008.

Now ranked number two in the world, could 2009 finally be Sergio Garcia’s year?

We shall see.

The Race to Dubai

Although the Race to Dubai is not part of the PGA Tour, you can be assured that the PGA Tour and Commissioner Tim Finchem will be keeping a very close eye on how it plays out.

The Race to Dubai is the European Tour’s version of the FedEx Cup, only it provides everything that the FedEx Cup has so far been unable provide.

The format of the Race to Dubai is simple and logical. The top 60 players on the European Tour’s Order of Merit, otherwise known as the Money List, will compete in the year’s final event in Dubai.

The top 15 players in that event will share in a $15 million bonus pool, while the winner will take home nearly $2 million.

Players are required to compete in 12 European Tour events to gain full status on the European tour, enabling them to compete in the Race to Dubai. 

Playing in 12 European Tour events and making it into the top 60 in the order of Merit is not as large of a commitment as it sounds.

The four majors and three of the four World Golf Championships are recognized as events on the European Tour. Six out of those seven events are played in the United States and are already attended by every top PGA Tour player.  

So, a commitment to participate in the Race to Dubai would consist of playing in only an additional five European Tour events.

Phil Mickelson, Geoff Ogilvy, Camilo Villegas, Adam Scott and Robert Allenby, amongst others, have already expressed an interest in competing in the 2009 Race to Dubai.

If the Race to Dubai proves to be a success, you can be assured that many other PGA Tour players will begin to play in more European Tour events in years to come.

The Young Guns

Could we have finally seen the emergence of some legitimate competition for Tiger Woods? 

Just the thought of it makes golf fans as giddy as a child on Christmas morning.

Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas burst onto golf’s main stage over the course of the 2008 season.

Kim won the Wachovia Championship as well as the AT&T National, hosted by Tiger Woods.

Villegas won the final two FedEx Cup events with wins at the BMW Championship and The Tour Championship. 

So what makes these two young stars different from all those who have gone before them?

We thought Mickelson could have been the Palmer to Tiger’s Nicklaus when he won the 2005 Masters, but as we know, that didn’t quite pan out as we had hoped.

We thought a young, confident Sergio Garcia could step up and challenge Woods early on in his career. Although Garcia has made a resurgence in 2008, he has yet to provide Woods with any real test in a major championship.

If Kim and Villegas were to crumble in Woods' path to shattering every record in the book, they certainly would not be the first. 

However, Kim and Villegas contain a quality that is difficult to describe; some refer to it as "the X-Factor."

Kim and Villegas exude a confidence that says, “I don’t care who you are, I am going to find a way to beat you.”

Kim’s performance at the Ryder Cup clearly displayed just how confident he is.

Many believe the Ryder Cup to be the most pressure packed event in all of golf. Kim not only thrived under the intense Ryder Cup pressure, but he actually seemed to enjoy it. 

Kim’s absolute thrashing of Sergio Garcia in his singles match at the Ryder Cup shifted that all-important momentum toward the American side and made Kim arguably the Americans' most valuable player of the 2008 Ryder Cup.

Villegas, at the age of 26, is a few years older than Kim and has taken a little longer really excel on the PGA Tour.

However, in 2008, Villegas definitely arrived on golf’s main stage.

Villegas’ swing might not look as smooth as some of the other young up-and-coming stars such as Adam Scott or Anthony Kim, but Villegas gets it done when it counts.

In 2008, Villegas clearly displayed his ability to make the big shot in the most crucial of situations, a skill critical for challenging Woods.

So, have we finally seen the emergence of a few players that have the talent and mindset to challenge Woods?

Time will tell, but Kim and Villegas have given golf fans their greatest hope in quite some time of finally seeing Tiger Woods involved in some intense Sunday duels.

The Economy

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past six months, you will know all too well that we are in the midst of the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression. 

Every aspect of the business world will be touched in some form or another by this recession, and at the end of the day, sports is a business.

Perhaps no other sporting league has the potential to be as detrimentally affected by the financial crisis as the PGA Tour.

20 PGA Tour title sponsors are from either the financial services or auto industry, two industries that are likely be hit hardest by this recession.

Luckily, the PGA Tour has most of their current sponsorship deals locked up through the 2010 season. However, there is not much they can do if one of their title sponsors files for bankruptcy or goes out of business completely.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has even gone so far as to take take the unprecedented step of sending out a video to each and every tour player and their agents appealing for them to do their part in helping out the tour during this tough economic time by attending more events.

Finchem is not concerned about the tour’s financial health in 2009 or even in 2010, but he is gravely concerned about the tour’s financial health in 2011 and beyond. 

It will be hard to believe that a company within the auto or financial services industries will be able to justify using some of a government handout to sponsor a PGA Tour event.

Finchem’s appeal to the players to attend more events in 2009 is an effort to give the current sponsors a better bang for their buck while also creating an additional selling point to present to new potential title sponsors for the 2011 season and beyond. 

If Tim Finchem’s appeal falls upon deaf ears and the financial crises continues into late 2009-2010, we could very well see a vastly different PGA Tour schedule in 2011.

Tiger Woods’ Return

The one question that trumps all others as we head into the 2009 season is when Tiger Woods will return and how well he will perform upon his return to the PGA Tour.

Ordinary logic would suggest that a player returning from reconstructive knee surgery on his left knee, which absorbs the full force of his swing, is unlikely to return to full force in 2009.

However, this is no ordinary player.

As we have seen time and time again over the past twelve years of Woods’ career, ordinary logic simply does not apply to Tiger Woods. 

As we all know, Tiger Woods has played a central role in the significant increase in the PGA Tour’s popularity over the past decade.

For good or for bad, the vast number of fans Woods has drawn to the game are interested in Tiger Woods and only Tiger Woods. 

NBC’s final round telecast of the US Open, where Tiger was leading the tournament while playing on one leg, had one of the highest television ratings ever for a golf tournament.  The number of viewers watching the final round of the 2008 US Open even exceeded those watching Game Five of the NBA finals, which was broadcast at the exact same time.

After Woods went down with season-ending knee surgery following the US Open, the PGA Tour's television ratings and attendance figures took a serious nose dive.

The television ratings for the 2008 British Open dropped 14.6%, and would have been significantly worse if it were not for 53-year-old Greg Norman’s miraculous run at the Claret Jug. 

Despite Padraig Harrington making a late Sunday afternoon charge en-route to his second consecutive major championship, the ratings for the final round of the 2008 PGA Championship were down 55% from last year when Woods won the event at Southern Hills.

The ratings for the AT&T Classic and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, two events Woods normally attends, saw a dramatic drop in their ratings without the presence of Woods.

Television ratings were down 48% for the AT&T Classic and 39% for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

The AT&T National, which Tiger hosts and participates in, saw a drop of more than 32,000 in their 2008 attendance figures.

Anyone who remotely follows the PGA Tour is anxiously awaiting Woods’ return.  

But perhaps no one is following Woods’ return more closely than Commissioner Tim Finchem as he knows that Tiger Woods carries the popularity of the game upon his back, which in turn affects sponsorship deals, television contracts, attendance figures, etc.

Although the PGA Tour is larger than one man, the way in which Tiger Woods returns to the tour in 2009 is likely to have a major impact on how well the PGA Tour is able to navigate through this tough economic climate.

Not

The FedEx Cup

Well, for the second time in two years, the FedEx Cup has been modified with the hope of providing more volatility.

By this point, most fans have lost any interest in getting out their calculators, excel spreadsheets and calling up the best math tutor they know just to figure out yet another new FedEx Cup point system.

The FedEx Cup is severally lacking in one main feature—it does not provide a climactic conclusion.

The FedEx Cup is the NFL Playoffs with a meaningless Super Bowl; the NCAA Final Four without a championship game; the NHL Playoffs without the Stanly Cup Finals.

Sure, the new points system allows for more volatility in that one player cannot have the FedEx Cup completely locked up heading into the Tour Championship.

However, under the new points system, there will still be only a small handful of players who will head into the Tour Championship with a legitimate chance to win the FedEx Cup.

Furthermore, it is still very possible for a player to skip one of the FedEx Cup events, and still win the title. 

It is as if the PGA Tour has been taking baby steps towards the ultimate answer that everyone is waiting for—the winner of the Tour Championship wins the FedEx Cup.

After two abysmal FedEx Cups that have been severally lacking in excitement, a lot of fans have simply lost all interest in the concept of a PGA Tour playoff series.

Adam Scott

Prior to the emergence of Anthony Kim and Camillo Villegas, Adam Scott was considered to be one of the best up-and-coming players on the PGA Tour. 

However, Scott’s career has been somewhat of a disappointment, and he now finds himself in the long, dark shadow cast by Kim and Villegas as we head into the 2009 season.

In fairness to Scott, he was suffering from several injuries and a severe case of tonsillitis during the second half of the 2008 season which affected his play. 

But, Scott will need to come out and have a big season in 2009 if he wants to make his way back onto that list of the best up-and-coming players on tour.

Trevor Immelman

Who won the 2008 Masters? 

Oh yes, that’s right, it was Trevor Immelman.

Following his win at Augusta, Immelman went on a whirlwind media tour which he was not at all prepared for, and which detrimentally affected his game. 

Throughout history there have been many players to have won a major and then lost their game.

However, few have collapsed as quickly and dramatically as Immelman did following his win at the 2008 Masters.

After his win at Augusta, Immelman proceeded to miss his next two cuts, finish in a tie for 65th at the US Open, and miss the cut at the PGA Championship.

Although Immelman did finish up the year strong with a 13th place finish at the BMW Championship and a 10th place finish at the Tour Championship, the game that led him to win his first green jacket never really returned during the course of the 2008 season. 

Immelman will need to come out firing in 2009 to get back onto the radar screen of players who can contend at the majors.

The Presidents Cup

The Presidents Cup is always viewed as inferior to the Ryder Cup in terms of the attention it receives.

But, as American golf fans are still reeling from their spectacular win at the 2008 Ryder Cup, this year’s President’s Cup is likely to gain even less attention than usual.

The Presidents Cup will be played in October at the Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco and true golf fans will surely follow the event closely.

However, most American golf fans are more concerned with how well Corey Pavin will be able to fill Paul Azinger’s shoes at the 2010 Ryder Cup than they are with the outcome of the 2009 Presidents Cup.

Phil Mickelson

Phil Mickelson has not really contended in a major since his now legendary meltdown at Winged Foot in 2006, and he has now lost his familiar position as the second ranked golfer in the world to Sergio Garcia.

Despite showing up at the host courses weeks before the majors with short game coach Dave Pelz to comb every inch of the course with a magnified glass, Mickelson’s performance at the majors have actually gotten worse over the past few years.

Heading into the 2009 season, Mickelson is rarely even mentioned as a top contender for the majors. 

Approaching 40 years old, Mickelson’s career has reached a crossroads. 

He can either rise to the top once again and win a major, or he could start heading down the other side of the mountain, and slowly move further down the world golf rankings.

2009 could very well be a deciding year in Mickelson’s career and he will need to make some noise to regain the respect he has been accustomed to receiving throughout his career.