Golf

PGA Tour now warns of fees to top players

By BOB HARIG
Published March 10, 2005

In pro golf, at least on the PGA Tour, if you don't play, you don't get paid. And if you play poorly, you can walk away with nothing. That makes the sport quite different in a world of guaranteed contracts and underperforming athletes.

Sure, the big names have big deals. They can have a bad year and still reap a huge windfall. But those deals evaporate if the level of play falls off.

That is why International Management Group's new idea to market players through corporate outings is the big buzz on the PGA Tour. Last week, Ford paid Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, Retief Goosen and Sergio Garcia - all IMG clients - a reported $150,000 each to participate in a Monday outing preceding the tournament. All then played in the Ford Championship at Doral.

The PGA Tour signed off on the deal even though appearance fees to play in tournaments are prohibited.

But the Tour has taken a different stance this week after GolfWorld reported that IMG had sent a letter to tournament directors proposing an early-week pro-am with five top players, each of whom would be paid between $50,000 and $200,000 to participate. Those players would then look "favorably upon staying for the tournament," the letter said.

Among those on the proposed list were Singh, Garcia, Goosen, Ernie Els, John Daly, Davis Love, David Duval, Jim Furyk, Mike Weir, Fred Couples and Ben Curtis.

Gerald Goodman, tournament director of the Chrysler Championship at Innisbrook, said he had yet to receive an IMG letter. But he already had a memo from the PGA Tour that said, in essence, don't do it.

"Our position on this matter is very clear," wrote Henry Hughes, the tour's senior vice president and chief of operations. "No appearance fees may be paid nor can a player or other individual acting on a player's behalf solicit an appearance fee."

The issue will be a hot topic when tournament directors meet at the Players Championship in two weeks. Goodman said he is keeping an open mind but that "there are a lot of tournaments like us that could not afford to spend that kind of money."

Love is not an IMG client and was upset his name was linked to the plan.

"If you look at tennis and the appearance money problems they had on the European Tour and the rest of the world ... the tournaments become not an important competition if you think they paid these guys to play in it," Love said Wednesday at the Honda Classic. "These are big-time, for-real golf tournaments. You don't want it to be perceived as something other than that."

Love said the players involved last week are not at fault, but that IMG was wrong in trying to secure corporate outings to ensure commitments by top players.

"Our rules are very clear and they are just going to be reinforced, restated to all of the parties," Love said.

LOOKING AHEAD: In the moments after the Ford Championship on Sunday, Phil Mickelson looked like a beaten man. He openly relished the challenge of going head-to-head with Tiger Woods, but was unable to get it done, shooting 69 to Woods' 66 during an epic final round.

As time passed, however, Mickelson seemed to come around.

"With all of the feelings I have about losing, this was probably the best thing that could have happened to me heading into the majors," he said. "I felt like I was playing better than anybody, and I just knew that I was going to win. And when I didn't, it's a great slap in the face. I'm going to go work my tail off to salvage a couple more shots, because when I come back to the Players Championship and the Masters, I'm going to be ready."

AROUND GOLF: Els' win at the Dubai Desert Classic - he goes for the Desert double this week at the Qatar Masters - was his third there. He also won it in 1994, when he went on to win the U.S. Open, and in 2002, when he went on to win the British Open. "I like that," he said. "I'm a sportsman. We're all superstitious."

LOCALLY: The Tampa Bay Futures Golf Classic is next week at East Lake Woodlands Golf Club in Oldsmar. The 54-hole tournament will have 144 players and a purse of $65,000. ... The United States Golf Association and Florida State Golf Association are conducting handicap seminars on March 18 at Bloomingdale Golfers Club and on May 3 at Hunters Green Country Club. The seminars cost $30. For information, call 813 632-3742 or visit www.fsga.org ... Calvin Hamilton, 18, a senior at King High in Tampa, has been designated a scholar of the First Tee - Class of 2005. He now has the opportunity to apply for a leadership scholarship to attend a participating school. Hamilton has been a participant in the First Tee of Tampa Bay for the past four years. The program recognizes participants for achievement in academics, leadership, character development and community involvement. For more information, visit www.thefirsttee.org

Information from other news organizations was used in this report.

[Last modified March 10, 2005, 01:15:14]