AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2006 > September > 09 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USFarewell to Grand Champions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Ball Ground — (Forgive me, I just had to use that dateline one time.) The kind of ball they’re playing up here has dimples in it, the players move about with studied caution and a kind of measured dignity. Most have put aside the rancor and raging fire that go with life in the trenches of the PGA Tour and moved gracefully into what Gil Morgan once branded the Mulligan Tour, others the Second Chance Tour. And if that applies, then this would be the Third Chance Tour, otherwise known as the Georgia-Pacific Grand Champions, contested out here over the velvety roller-coaster contours of Hawks Ridge Golf Club. And for the last time.
Give the PGA Tour hierarchy little credit for this. It was Georgia-Pacific, Atlanta-based, a major player in the world of timber and building supplies, which decided that as the Seniors Tour players aged, the older guys deserved a league of their own. So, as they reached age 60, the Grand Champions division gave them their own tournamnt within a tournament, the winner decided after the first 36 holes of the regular event. Then it was decided they should have their own Tour Championship, with a field of 16 leading finishers among the 60-year-olds. So it was that they came to Hawks Ridge this weekend, and it would be last call, for Georgia-Pacific has been sold to a private ownership which has no interest in carrying on.
While Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour commissioner, has made a sweeping attempt to invigorate the regular tour, as witness the Fed-Ex Cup format coming up next year, little has been done for the Seniors, except to change the name to Champions. Nice connotation but hardly a shot in the arm.
“We’ve always felt like the stepchild,” Raymond Floyd said. He is one of two former Ryder Cup captains who qualified for this G-P Grand Champions Championship, Dave Stockton the other. “I once had a businessman who wanted to sponsor a Seniors Tour event, and I took him in to meet with Tim Finchem. Next thing I knew, his company was a sponsor on the regular tour.”
A few days ago, this item came across news channels, alarming to the Champions Tour. It was purported that the LPGA is now outdrawing the Champions in television ratings. The women have had a few bump-ups, such as the dominance of Annika Sorenstam and an occasional shot in the arm from Michelle Wie, when she isn’t letting her ambitions run amok. But to outdraw a tour that offers Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Hale Irwin and the unorthodox but winning style of Allen Doyle?
Here’s another thing. Loren Roberts, Jay Haas, Fred Funk and Peter Jacobsen have been recent additions to the Champions roll, but hardly a gate-buster there. Not only that, but they can’t seem to break the regular tour habit. Funk played one Champions event, then went back to his old haven.
“And who’s coming along next?” Floyd said. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to play this tour. I’d had a pretty good career, but I decided it would be giving something back. That has all in the world to do with it. Greg Norman became eligible, but he’s having back problems. Seve Ballesteros, but his game has disappeared, Nick Price, Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, but nothing like a Nicklaus or a Palmer of old.”
And who’s to suggest that the Champions Tour can wait another 20 years for Tiger Woods, should he even give thought to extending his career at that level. The regular tour suffers a body blow when Woods isn’t in the field as is. The Canadian Open is watered down this week. Sergio Garcia is playing in Europe, Adam Scott and Ernie Els in Asia, and Phil Mickelson, Davis Love and Chris DeMarco sit it out.
Bob Charles, the elder statesman in this field, suggests another matter needs addressing, and that’s ball structure. “If something isn’t done soon to control ball flight, they’ll find the game has one tough battle on its hands,” he said.
Well, everybody’s got problems, but none like some players had out here last year. As they arrived on a certain hole and walked up to putt, a child’s voice cried out, “Miss it!”
Finally, an official was dispatched to the house abutting the green and a lady came to the door.
“Madam, when our players start to putt on this green they say a child calls out, ‘Miss it.’ Would you mind getting him under control?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but we have no children,” the lady said.
Turns out she did have a parrot, and while I can’t swear to the veracity of that yarn, I’ll let it go at that.
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Comments
By Par Shooter
September 10, 2006 09:22 AM | Link to this
The lack of any response here speaks volumes about the interest in the Champions Tour. I have seen 3 events on TV and counted about 15 spectators in total. The sponsor that Floyd brought to Finchem probably made his own decision to sponsor the PGA Tour when he saw that the average Champions Tour event draws maybe 50,000 viewers on TV. I can’t blame Finchem for wanting sponsors to actually get some value for the money they spend. I have been watching the LPGA tour much more than the seniors. Some players are attractive but it is fun to see that I would hit a 7 iron from where many of them are hitting 5 woods.
By taco slammer
September 10, 2006 09:46 AM | Link to this
What should we expect out of the elder players? These former ‘Champions’ are not the players they once were. This tour has its place I think, but to expect it to draw TV ratings or gate receipts comparable to the PGA Tour is ridiculous. Any interest in the Senior golfers come from senior fans. Alot of people now playing golf never saw Arnold Palmer or Chi Chi Rodriguez play a round of golf in their life. Nostalgia is what carries this tour. That is until it gets old.