Seniors Considering Youth Movement

The Senior PGA Tour looks a little different this year with a new TV contract, a new bonus pool of

$2.1 million and a new attitude about course setup. What some tour officials would like to see, however, are some new faces in the fields to spice it up.

The buzz around the tour, which kicks off its West Coast swing this week at Newport Beach Country Club, is that changing the minimum age requirement from 50 to 45 would boost its sagging popularity.

Established senior tour players, who would have to approve such a change, are against the idea because it would significantly disrupt the tour’s competitive balance.

The issue arises every few years, but one tour official said the change is needed now more than ever.

“I’m a big fan of dropping the age,” said the official, who requested anonymity. “The senior tour reinvents itself every year with new players, but the number of big names you have is significantly lower than it was in the past. We need a couple of big names to come out to reinvigorate the tour. I hope it’s visited a little more closely.”

Mark O’Meara turns 45 next January, Curtis Strange is 46, Peter Jacobsen is 47, Ben Crenshaw and Bruce Lietzke are 49 and Jay Haas is 47. There is little doubt that these players would infuse the tour with more fan and media interest.

There is also little doubt that players such as O’Meara, only three years removed from winning two majors and the PGA Tour player of the year, would devour large chunks of the $59-million senior tour pie.

Those most affected would be players at or over age 60 who would no longer be competitive with the addition of 45-year-olds. Players such as Gary Player and Chi Chi Rodriguez, who still make enough money to make playing worth their while, probably would be reduced to playing for a pittance.

“You’d have some guys who are closing in on 60 that wouldn’t be that competitive, and it would kind of be defeating the purpose of why this tour was started in the first place,” said Larry Nelson, 53, the 2000 Senior PGA Tour player of the year. “It’s supposed to give the guys who left the regular tour and were stars a competitive place to play.”

Crenshaw, who acknowledges that he’s looking forward to turning 50 in January, said it would have been a better idea to start the tour with a minimum age of 45 than to try to change it now. “I hope they don’t,” Crenshaw said during the Nissan Open last week at Riviera Country Club. “I would miss 4-5 years.”

But he also said that the idea has merits, considering he hasn’t felt competitive on the PGA Tour since he turned 45.

“I’ve been beat up for five years out here,” he said. “It’s a struggle. This is a young man’s game. You don’t feel quite as competitive as you once did.”

FLOYD BLOWS WEST

For years, you could count on three things during the PGA Tour stop at Doral Resort and Spa in Miami: water, sand and Raymond Floyd.

But this year Floyd, who redesigned the Blue Course at Doral, is skipping the tournament for the first time since 1966 and is playing in the Toshiba Senior Classic this week at Newport Beach Country Club.

Floyd, who recently moved from Miami to Palm Beach, Fla., said the decision wasn’t that difficult. A change in sponsorship of the Doral event played a role, as did his commitment to play the SBC Senior Classic next week at Valencia Country Club. Floyd is sponsored by SBC.

“I was coming out here anyway, and it’s a long trip to come out here for one tournament from where I live,” Floyd said. “Plus, I can’t compete with those boys anymore.”

STAT CRUNCH

The PGA Tour’s ShotLink system, a suddenly controversial computerized scoring system designed to provide detailed information about every shot by every player during PGA Tour events, will debut in a scaled-down version this week during the Genuity Championships at Doral.

The key missing element will be club selection on each shot, something tour players and caddies have had issues with.

Tiger Woods voiced concerns during the Nissan Open that the system provides too much information and, in turn, flirts with a rules violations because the information would be available on the Internet.

“I don’t think it’s a very good idea at all,” Woods said.

He described a scenario where a player could have a friend in the audience with a hand-held computer that could track which clubs each player has hit on certain shots, then flash the player a sign.

“And there you go, you have the number,” Woods said.

Caddies expressed concern that they will be counted on to provide the information to a walking scorer carrying a hand-held computer. They said the process would not only be disruptive, they would not be compensated for the added duties.

Henry Hughes, the PGA Tour chief of operations, said concerns such as those voiced by Woods are among the reasons the system will be implemented in phases.

“The number one concern is not to disrupt the players or caddies,” Hughes said. “The scorer might ask for the information at an inopportune time, and caddies are concerned for their players.”

Hughes said the compensation issue is also being reviewed.

“We’re working to better educate the caddies on what we need,” Hughes said. “We’re putting together a package of additional benefits that may or may not include direct compensation.”

THREE FOR THE SHOW

The golf trade show business in Southern California suddenly got a little more competitive with the addition of the Southern California Golf Expo in Long Beach later this month.

Golf Expo 2001 will be held this weekend in Pomona and Golf Fest took place two weeks ago in San Diego.

Confused? You should be.

Each offers myriad club products, demonstrations and instruction as well as giveaways, yet each claims to be different form the others.

The consumer benefits because the competition has resulted in more valuable giveaways.

For example, this weekend in Pomona everyone attending will get a free on-site lesson, a free sleeve of balls and a chance to play an indoor par-three hole for prizes.

PGA Tour player Bob May, who dueled Woods in the PGA Championship last year, will appear at the show, and organizers will give away thousands of free rounds of golf.

Southern California PGA spokesman Greg Flores says the difference is that Golf Expo is not done as a money maker.

“We’re doing it to promote the game of golf,” Flores said. “We have PGA professionals and we are trying to promote them. [The Long Beach show] is in it to make money.”

Southern California Golf Expo, the Long Beach show making its debut March 23-25, is run by Vision Entertainment, a professional trade show company that also runs car, snow and skate shows and beachfest.

They, too, are giving away rounds of golf, lessons and clubs, but intend to spice up the arena with beverage cart girls and a room where college basketball fans can watch the NCAA tournament.

“We don’t see [the SCPGA show] as direct competition,” said John Russell, marketing director for Vision Entertainment. “It didn’t seem they were meeting the demands of today’s golfer. We went to theirs and didn’t leave it excited about playing golf.”

He didn’t reject turning a profit as a motive.

“Our goal with any show is to figure how to grow the overall industry,” Russell said. “By doing that we’ll make money on the shows.”

The Pomona show at Fairplex runs Friday 2-8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. May will be there Saturday at 2 p.m.

The Long Beach Show, at the Convention Center, is March 23 from 2-8 p.m, March 24 from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and March 25 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

BYE-BYE DOT COM

Buy.com, the struggling Internet superstore that sponsors golf’s minor league tour, filed suit Wednesday against the PGA Tour for breach of contract.

Buy.com alleges that the tour violated a contract when it announced an e-commerce relationship with USA Networks Inc.

CROUCHING TIGER

Still think Tiger Woods isn’t in a slump? In 2000 he finished the season No. 1 in six statistical categories. This year, he’s in the top 10 in only two--he’s No. 6 in scoring average (69.69) and No. 9 in driving distance (287.4).

NO DOUBLE-DIPPING

In eight West Coast swing events on the PGA Tour, there were eight winners. That’s the first time since 1994 that nobody left the West Coast with multiple victories.