Tour Confidential Q&A

The Sports Illustrated lads take on some topical controversies, so let's see how they acquit themselves:

1. The NBA took a strong stance against racism when it banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life after TMZ published recordings of Sterling saying he didn't want his girlfriend to bring African Americans to Clippers games. The PGA Tour has had many chances to make a strong statement against racially insensitive comments -- Sergio Garcia's racial joke about Tiger Woods after last year's Players Championship, Steve Williams' comments about Woods at the 2011 HSBC Champions, Steve Elkington's tweets -- but Tour officials have chosen not to make their censure, if any, public. Why not?

Michael Bamberger: The Tour is politically spineless. It is without a soul. It bows to money above all and takes a stand on nothing.

Eamon Lynch: The culture of transparency at PGA Tour HQ is on a level with Putin's Kremlin.

Gary Van Sickle: Discussing the penalty requires talking about the original offense and therefore additional blows to the image. 

Jeff Ritter: Who knows? Best guess is that the PGA Tour believes a cloak of secrecy protects their brand, but in reality, as other leagues become more open with violations and punishments, the Tour steadily appears weaker and behind the times. Not a great image for a game that's steadily shrinking.

Alan Shipnuck: The Tour is obsessed with the notion that its players are nothing but swell fellows; therefore all discipline must be kept in house to maintain the illusion. But in the absence of public censure the players are emboldened to say insensitive things. It's a broken policy.

My Take: The guys do pretty well with this, (except for Joe Passov, who basically asks for another question), and their full answers include some good background on the Tour's hypocrisy.  But at the same time, these are many of the best golf writers in the country, and haven't they been remiss in not actively exposing said hypocrisy in their prior work?

2. J.B. Holmes won the Wells Fargo Championship, his first win since his 2011 brain surgery. Holmes is another intriguing potential U.S. Ryder Cupper with his length and his winning experience at Valhalla in 2008. Right now, these nine players would qualify for the U.S. team: Bubba Watson, Jimmy Walker, Matt Kuchar, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Harris English, Jason Dufner and Phil Mickelson. If you’re Tom Watson, who would be your three captain’s picks.

VAN SICKLE: I'm going to assume Tiger won't be ready to play. I'll go with the next three guys on points list, Zach Johnson, Chris Kirk and Webb Simpson, but I'd keep an eye on Holmes and a few others. The points list is going to change drastically because the next three majors are worth double.

JOE PASSOV: Tiger Woods remains at the top of the list. He's still number one in the world, and he's still the MAN until someone takes it away from him. Zach Johnson is next. I like his killer instinct, his experience, his ability to close, and his ability to make putts. Third, I'll go with Jim Furyk. The guy just keeps playing well.

SHIPNUCK: Zach, Keegan, Willie Mac.

BAMBERGER: If he's healthy, Snedeker. Ryder Cup captains should always pick putters. Zach Johnson, too. And along those same lines, Jim Furyk.

JOSH SENS: Zach Johnson because he's nails in match play. Keegan Bradley and Rickie Fowler because I like the tweaks they've made in their games of late, and because they both seem really fired up about the event.

My Take: As Van Cynical noted, it's awfully early for this game.  Not only because of the obvious changes to come in the points list, but also because of what play will tell us about form (and a resolution of the obvious Tiger issue).  But I would like to warn folks off the Jim Furyk pick, as I thought he was a horrible pick in 2012.  He's coming off a good week no doubt, thanks to a great final round when he was two hours in front of the leaders.  But he's a gritty vet who can seemingly no longer close, and what good does that do you?  Anyone who wants to take Furyk should be forced to sit through the entire tape of the final day from Medinah as penance.

3. With improved greens from a year ago and some well-received design tweaks, did Quail Hollow prove itself major-worthy this week -- considering it will host the 2017 PGA Championship?

PASSOV: The players love this place, as well they should. It's got that great Golden Age feel (even though it only dates back to 1961), with wide, rolling fairways lined with mature hardwoods, yet it also possesses that modern, pulse-quickening drama in its finishing stretch. Interestingly, our Top 100 course-ranking panelists like Quail Hollow, but aren't enamored with it. Give the greens another year of seasoning and Quail Hollow is definitely major-worthy.

VAN SICKLE: Quail Hollow is way better than Kiawah Island's Ocean Course and a few other poor PGA Championship choices that I won't bother to name. A bigger question is, How will the course play in the midsummer August heat?

LYNCH: As long as Torrey Pines is hosting majors, the answer to this question is always yes, no matter what course is being discussed.

SHIPNUCK: This tourney used to be the fifth major. Maybe it will be again next year as more big names return to see the revamped course, which is certainly worthy of hosting a PGA.

RITTER: It was major-worthy before the makeover, but the revamped 16th and 17th are now even tougher and, perhaps most importantly, look awesome on TV.

My Take: Hey Shipnuck, it's settled law that the Players Championship is the Fifth of Four Majors™, and I don't want to have to have this conversation again.  

Quail Hollow is a fine golf course, and I put quite a bit of stock in the players' appreciation of the course.  That said, I'm not a fan of taking majors to regular Tour venues and I simply can't fathom the PGA's seeming love of Southern venues for an event help in August (if you've seen Carl Petterson in a sweat-soaked golf shirt you'll understand why).  To me, no major should ever be played on Bermuda, full stop.

4. Donald Trump will host the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminister in New Jersey, giving him his long-desired men’s major championship. He also bought Turnberry last week so he’ll almost surely host an Open Championship there, and he already hosts one of the Tour’s most high-profile events at Doral. Is all this Trump good for golf or is there a downside to the Donald?

BAMBERGER: Whenever you have too much power in the hands of one person, there's reason to worry, but so far it's all good. The Bedminster course is a very handsome, big sprawling modern golf course. It's not the kind of thing I love, but it is good for tournament golf. He looks to be improving Doral in every way. As for Turnberry, it's one of the best in the world, the hotel and the courses both. Golf needs Trump right now more than Trump needs golf.

SENS: I wouldn't want to be on the other end of a business deal with Trump, and I'd certainly never hire him as my interior designer, since I'm not into gargoyles, or as my hair stylist, because I'm not crazy about the Chia Pet-in a-windstorm-look.

SHIPNUCK: Well, *someone* has to invest in golf these days. Trump can certainly grate but he loves golf and he brings extra buzz, so it's time to embrace him and recognize his new importance to the game.

VAN SICKLE: Golf needs every ounce and every dollar of promotion it can get. That makes Trump the right man at the right time. Spend, Don, spend!

PASSOV: Trump loves golf, is a strong player, and his every move keeps golf in the news. Late last year, he was on Letterman and mentioned both his Doral project and his new Ferry Point in the Bronx, a public course scheduled to open in late 2014 or early 2015. Golf can't buy positive publicity like that, especially these days. OK, he's used to getting things to go his way, so there's always a potential downside, once he starts butting heads with folks, but I think he's got a healthy respect for golf, and what it's meant to him in his life. I'm seeing nothing except upside to The Donald as Golf Czar.

My Take: C'mon Josh, how can you not love this?

The guys do a decent job of laying out the issues, as who else is buying golf resorts these days?  And as much as we love having fun with the buffoon, he's built and/or renovated some quite good golf courses, it just takes the gross national product of a Central American country to play them.  But Joe will no doubt eat his "nothing but upside" closer.  

5. While the PGA Tour’s biggest stars have been mostly MIA this season – except for Bubba -- the LPGA had another big name win this week: Stacy Lewis at the North Texas Shootout. Has the LPGA become more entertaining than the PGA Tour?

BAMBERGER: Not more entertaining, but more exciting -- everything seems new and fresh. I can't remember the last time it was this good to be the LPGA.

RITTER: It's been a great year for the LPGA and Lewis is another fantastic winner. If you love watching golf on all tours, you'd probably say advantage LPGA so far this season.

SENS: Easier to root for, with more likeable and approachable players whose games we can more easily relate to. But that's not the same as being more entertaining.

SHIPNUCK: Your question is misguided and ill-informed -- the LPGA has been more interesting for years and years.

My Take: It's been a great year for the gals, but comparisons the the big-boys' tour is always going to be problematic for them.  The tragedy of the Carolyn Bivens era, from which they're still digging out, is that she lost sight of that and alienated so many core supporters.  For instance, she hated the Toledo event, but that's exactly the type of market where they can succeed.  

Also, thank God that they finally shot a new batch of "It's Different Out Here" commercials, as the constant references to Yani Tseng's trophy haul were grating when the only place Yani has been seen lately is on a milk carton.

6. The fifth major is almost upon us! Give us your Players Championship pick and reason why.

VAN SICKLE: There is no fifth major. However, I'll pick Matt Kuchar at the Players. He's played the most consistent golf of anyone this year and he's got good memories and a good feel for that course.

SENS: Rory McIlory, because I keep picking him to win another big event and one of these days he's going to prove me right.

BAMBERGER: Furyk. Home game. He's trending. He's due. He's a shotmaker and a smart player.

PASSOV: Phil Mickelson is getting closer and closer, despite a final-round flameout at the Wells Fargo. Still, it's time for Jordan Spieth to shine with a great win, not just with a great showing. Much of the pressure is actually off Spieth, because he's proved that he is already among the elite in the game. Now he just has to let the victories start happening. He will start at the Players.

RITTER: I'll take Kuchar, who's won it before and seems to either win or come close to winning every week.

SHIPNUCK: Luke Donald. It's a finesse course now and he's long overdue for a win.

LYNCH: Johnny Miller. He's the only guy at Sawgrass I'm confident is assured a good week. All else is fate and folly.

My Take: Oy Josh, horses for courses.  I'd no more take Rory than Bubba on this track.  Kooch has been off for a while and I'd sooner study at the Boko Haram finishing school than ever pick Luke Donald for anything again.  Been there, done that.  I just did my Golfweek fantasy roster and picked Justin Rose.  Seems to be a week to pick great ballstrikers, though length is not rewarded.  And if nobody can putt the damage greens that oughta keep JR in the hunt.  Or not.