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1/21/07
The 2006 sponsor for the Grand Masters did
not renew their sponsorship. The PGA has not been able to find
a replacement for 2007 or 2008. We however, will continue our
Championship. Please help us find a sponsor.
Use email to contact us.
1. We will only use all events on the champions tour played in the
US.
2. We will only use the first two rounds irregardless of the
actual number of rounds un the event.
3. We will use the actual prize money won.
We have 56 names on our list, We expect 36-40 to participate is
some events.
Lets give them a big round of applause!
Problem 10/11/06
Solutions
Chart
From the GolfHelp newsletter #339 8/23/06:
John Hawkins (golfworld.com) (Golf Digest family of magazines) pointed out last week how few viewers are watching Champions Tour events on The Golf Channel. He placed the figure at 100,000 households per round. Compare that to the LPGA's 66.3 ratings increase over last year on TGC, and you are witnessing what amounts to a massive downturn in one instance and a whopping increase in the other. Is there a turn that
can divert the Champions Tour from a path to oblivion? So far no has drawn the map.
Major golf magazines should not emphasize the negative for
sensationalism. They should take a positive approach to fix the problem.
Since no one has objected, we have decided to fight for the
Champions Tout.
Here is the map!
This Tour is very important to golf. It shows our respect for
great players of the past. No other sport does this. This a great
example for our children.
Has the Tour lost some steam? Yes!
Problem #1
It has dropped from 47
events a few tears back to the 29 we have today.
Why?
The basic problem is the purse distribution. It is atrocious. I
have a chart at the bottom of this page that shows how bad it is.
The 70th place player gets about a third of what a PGA Tour player
gets for the same purse and the purses are half the size. Who
wants to take money out of their pocket to play for a $800.00 prize.
Yes, it does pay just slightly more than the PGA Tour through the
50th place, but then it drops like a rock.
Because of this the Grand Masters who made this Tour great 10
years ago are not playing.
Problem #2.
When the great players started playing less and less , the Tour lost it's
major network foundation.
Why?
What I read and hear is that the Tour is set up to cater to the
top 50 players and makes it hard for the rest to get in.
Solution #1
Change the purse distribution so there is an incentive for the
Seniors to play. Our PGR100 would be a good choice. First place is
25%
higher for the same purse. It does take
some money from 4th through 45th (this is the range with the greatest
number of ties) and spreads it out from 46 through
100. Downside, yes, 4th through 20th take about a 25% hit.
This is an incentive to play better to get out of a tie. This
should also cure the complain on the golf forums that the players
don't seem to go for the better score when they are capable of
doing so. The spread between 1st and 4th jumps by $100,200.00 on a
$2,000,000 purse. However, it pays about the same at position 100 as the PGA purse
distribution does at 70th place.
All you do is adjust the first place position 25%
higher to maintain the same purse size.
When you look at the distribution curves you will see that this is
extremely fair.
Solution #2
There are about 150 members
of the Champions Tour. However, only about 115 are active. Let the field size grow to accommodate as many of
the members that want to, play. With a purse distributed to a 100
players, that pays a decent amount, we will bring them all back. Let them
all play the first two rounds and have a cut to 70 players on Sunday. This gives
us a chance to see all our old favorites. This would be especially beneficial to
the Grand Masters who really made the Champions Tour such a great event 10 years
ago..
Close the Tour events to members only. About 23% of the
players are non members and only account for less than 4% of
rounds played.. The exemptions could be used to pull in any past
Superstars that are no longer members. Non members are ok for the
PGA Tour and essential for the Nationwide tour, but Champions Tour players
have earned the right not to compete with non members for this
purse. This is fair because the non members have the PGA Senior
Championship and the U.S. and British Opens to play in, which is
what they do now.
Some other recommendations.
1. Parings of the first two rounds should be taken from the official
money list for Champions Tour members.
2. Make a big deal out of the Grand Masters. They should always
be paired together and start as pair number 5. I count 55 Grand
Masters, but only about 31 would be considered active, with 31 in
our top 100 players.
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