Proposed New Tour Sets June Deadline

The Major Champions Tour has set an early June deadline for players to give up their PGA Tour cards and commit to the proposed new tour.

It is believed that as many as two-thirds of the 35 eligible players must commit to the new tour to satisfy Fox’s requirements to go forward with a multi-year TV deal--and without it, there is no tour.

If the numbers are right, then it appears that Fox is ready to put together a deal to televise at least six events on the new tour designed for pros between 37 and 55 who have won at least one major championship, sources say.

Fox is the only network that has entertained the proposal from independent television heavyweight Terry Jastrow and is also the only network with airtime available on Saturday and Sunday, when golf would follow the network’s highly rated NASCAR telecasts.

According to insiders, while Fox is prepared to make a run with the proposed tour that would begin in 2003, it is not going to repeat its mistake from the so-called World Tour in 1994, when it announced its involvement even though no players had committed toit.

“They feel they got a black eye before,” said one source. “It’s going to come down to the players committing.”

Greg Norman, the leader on that failed tour proposal, is now one of the headliners who would be invited to play on the planned tour. The list of eligible players also includes Nick Faldo, Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer, Mark O’Meara, Nick Price, Paul Azinger, Curtis Strange, Mark Calcavecchia, Steve Elkington and Tom Lehman.

So far, none of the players in the group of 35 has signed a document giving up their PGA Tour card. Players will soon receive letters notifying them that they must drop their PGA Tour cards if they want to participate in the new tour. They must respond before the U.S. Open in June.

However, sources say that other players, including Hal Sutton, Davis Love III and Fuzzy Zoeller are not interested. Sutton recently agreed to serve a new term on the PGA Tour Policy Board and Zoeller apparently believes his fortune can be found playing the Senior PGA Tour. Both Norman and Faldo gave up their PGA Tour cards this year, so their decision to join the new tour presumably would not be based on factors other than what benefit it would be to remain on the PGA Tour. Couples, who turns 43 in October, has been the most outspoken proponent of the new tour and believes it will happen.

“There are a couple of little snags, sure, and we see them, but we’ll see,” he said.

The PGA Tour’s response has consisted of a one-page statement from Commissioner Tim Finchem, who seemed to point to the failed World Tour as a reason for players to reject this new planned tour.

“We agree with those players who have rejected these type of proposals in favor of the long-term health of professional golf,” Finchem said in the statement.

Couples disagrees. “There are enticements,” he said.

The proposed tour calls for each 72-hole event to have a minimum purse of $2 million with a winner’s share of $600,000. After the cut to the low 20 and ties, 20th place would be worth $50,000. Sources say that the proposed tour has scheduled meetings with representatives from Pinehurst, Merion and East Lake Golf Club.