The New Look PGA Tour for 2007
With the 2007 PGA Tour season in full swing, there are a few trends that we are seeing that could particularly affect the young players.
The qualifying class from the fall was a large class of players, but it may be tough for all of them to play much this year. You also have the top twenty players from the Nationwide Tour that graduated to the big show.
Here are some of the “challenges” I see for the young guys:
- With the new FedEx Cup, you will see players entering more events than normal so they can figure out the new atmosphere. This will tighten the fields, and in some cases the fields are smaller than in years past, limiting the opportunities for the new guys.
- The old guys are playing longer. Scott Hoch and Fred Funk come to mind. We are seeing older players play into the late 40‘s to stay in shape for the Champions Tour, and because they are still competitive.
- There’s more money at stake. With the dollars getting bigger, you are seeing many of the young players that are exempt playing quite often, trying to make their mark. The young guys may need to make their mark in the fall.
Look for Tiger Woods to possibly not defend at the British Open this summer as his wife will be expecting a child around that time. I guess his agent did not have much input into the date of birth. I guess Tiger is only human.
So, the professional golfer’s job has become tougher to get, and tougher to keep. That is even more dramatic for the Champions Tour, as new rules have limited the number of new exemptions. Unless a player finished at a high level in the tour qualifying, they are more restricted from trying the Monday qualifying route to get into an event.
Phil Mickelson asked the club makers at Callaway to make a club that he will not hit way-left like he did in the U.S.Open. Has Phil been sniffing pixie dust? Phil…you can’t buy a game. Make a bad swing under pressure... you get bad results. You need some couch time.
Speaking of clubs, the latest rage/fad is the square driver, mainly from Callaway and Nike. K.J. Choi won with the square driver by Nike recently and Nike made a big deal of it. But when you look closely at his stats, his fairways hit were worse than the club he had been using previously!
When you go to your local golf shop soon you’ll see a lot of new stuff. Be sure to ask your PGA Professional to show you around, so you can be up to date on all these new “opportunities.”
