Time for La Costa to Cash In Chips

Welcome, once again, Accenture Match Play Championship. Now, get out of here.

All right, that’s sort of harsh, because it’s only a golf tournament, even though it seems as if the only reason it’s around is to pass out prize money of $7.5 million to 64 players.

But couldn’t they do it somewhere else?

If this is such a big deal, why doesn’t Ernie Els figure out a way to work it into his schedule?

The No. 3 player would rather traipse all over the world and play almost anywhere other than at La Costa, which is understandable when you realize how much he loathes the course. And, clearly, he doesn’t need the cash.

Still, the money is great. Just show up, lose and you get $35,000 for a day’s work. Get to the second round, lose, and you’re guaranteed $85,000 for two days’ work.

So the pay is good. Els, though, would rather keep circling the world in private planes, playing in far-flung places, than show up at La Costa, play a course he’d rather plow under, risk losing in the first round and putting himself in a really bad mood.

Besides, he’s playing in Dubai next week, and the word is out that the commute really stinks.

Back here, Els lost in the first round in 1999, the second round in 2000, the second round in 2002 and the first round in 2003, which was the last time he played the tournament. Unless they move it to his backyard in George, South Africa, he probably won’t play it again.

That’s not a likely destination, but somebody really should give this tournament a face-lift, making it better in ways different from the usual tactic of throwing bundles of money around the locker room.

If this is indeed one of the World Golf Championship events, how come it has been played every year but one since 1999 in Southern California?

The lone exception was in 2001, when it was in Australia and virtually none of the top U.S. players showed up -- no Tiger Woods, no Phil Mickelson. Hal Sutton was the top-seeded U.S. player, and he lost in the first round.

This tournament needs some wheels. Even Woods acknowledged that and said he’d heard there has been talk of moving it to Florida or Arizona.

Just get it out of here, please.

Honestly, this tournament has the look and the feel of just another PGA Tour event. It’s another stop on the tour schedule, fitting neatly between the Nissan Open and Doral.

Woods figures the World Golf Championship tournaments are supposed to stand out, not only because of their formats, but because the best players play them. The American Express Championship, another World Golf event, has been played in Ireland, Georgia, Missouri and Spain in its brief existence.

Except for that one trip to Australia four years ago, the match-play event has been an immovable object.

That needs to change, but there are more alterations in order as well. There’s no buzz here, and that is deadly for a golf tournament.

The fans in this area are not exactly starved for golf, having seen big-time golf at Torrey Pines only five weeks ago. Another location at another time might open things for world-class players who don’t happen to be playing the PGA Tour.

That the match play doesn’t budge, that it feels like another tour stop, that it caters mainly to the U.S. pros can only indicate that the PGA Tour is running this show.

The mission of the PGA Tour is to satisfy the players. In other words, the duty of the PGA Tour is to make sure the players get paid.

The players are independent contractors and deserve exactly what the market says they should get, but at the same time, the manner in which that dough is handed out, and how that mechanism fits into the public’s mind, the landscape of professional golf and everybody’s busy schedule is the big question mark about this tournament. Then there are the generally lousy weather and a golf course that’s in nobody’s top 100.

The match-play tournament has been fortunate the last two years to have a champion such as Woods, because he moves the needle more than anybody else in the sport. Maybe he can do it again in this week’s tournament.

But after that, can’t he do it somewhere else, please?