Saturday at the Turning Stone Resort Championship

Opinions and Unanswered Questions

By Timothy S. Wyld

VERNON – What a beautiful day at The Turning Stone Resort Championship! How beautiful? Beautiful enough for the course record to be tied by two men, Charles Warren and Chris Couch. They both shot 63.

There were blue skies, no humidity, and a high of 80 forecast, with some wind gusts. It was much nicer than Friday for the players, and for Upstate NY residents much nicer than the entire hot and humid summer.

For this cub reporter there were lots of questions left unanswered, though. What is the future of the Turning Stone event? This year it shared the PGA Tour schedule with a World Golf Championship Event at Firestone CC in Akron, Ohio. That took many of the game’s marquee players west down I-90. Only one 2010 winner was at Turning Stone, Reno-Tahoe Open champ Matt Bettencourt, who was tied for 50th at 5-under par after three rounds of play. That was 10 strokes behind the leader Alex Cejka who finished at 15-under par.

The Word Golf Championship event at Firestone, the Bridgestone Invitational, has a purse of $8.5 million. Turning Stone’s purse is $4 million. Can the folks organizing the TSRC convince the PGA Tour to give them their own weekend? Can they find enough sponsors to meet the PGA’s ever increasing demands for large purses?

What about FedEx Cup points? The winner in Akron receives 550-points, the winner here will only receive 250-points. If qualifying for the FedEx Cup Playoffs was your goal, where would you rather play?

And finally, when will PGA Tour players realize that without fan support the tour could eventually crumble? These guys are harder to find after a round of golf than one of my oft-wayward tee shots! Even with a press pass, I couldn’t find anyone other than the leaders. The Media Center at these events is like a ghost town. In fact, as a volunteer WITHOUT a press pass, I had more conversations with female players at the Women’s U.S. Open!

The best players in the world need to make the PGA Tour a little warmer and congenial for the fans and reporters. But being a new kid on the block, I didn’t quite know where or how to find them, probably my inexperience showing through.

Sitting at the first tee grandstand in the front row, I watched the last eight groups of two tee-off and begin their serious day jobs.
Most of the players introduced themselves to the standard bearers, score keepers, volunteers, competitors and officials who would be with them in the “office inside the ropes.” But not one player turned to the grandstand to acknowledge the fans that came to see them. How hard would it be to use some of the eight-minute wait-time to say, “Good morning and thanks for coming.”

What happened to the examples set by Arnold Palmer, “The King,” and a fan favorite? Lee Trevino the “Mighty Mex”? Chi Chi Rodriguez the “bull fighting tale teller”? Alas, the PGA Tour is too much about purses and paying million dollar mortgages and not enough about producing a telecast and an event that draw people from varying walks of life.

For spectator Justin Mathews, the day was highlighted by a 3-wood approach shot hit by Brett Wetterich toward the 12th green. None of us saw the flight of the ball until it struck Justin in the solar plexus on the fly behind the ropes. Brett apologized with a, “Sorry dude,”
and managed to par the hole. Had Justin ducked instead of being struck in the chest, Wetterwich’s ball was bound for the blacktopped cart path and a much worse fate. I know Brett truly felt some remorse but I hope in the end Justin received something more from him than a large bruise and a, “Sorry dude.”

This is just one reporter’s opinions about “a day in the office on the PGA Tour.” Life as a professional golfer is ruled by the old maxim, “the strong survive, and the weak shall perish.” I know it isn’t an easy way to make a living and I know that these are the best players in the world. Somewhere however, I hope there is a prodigy that someday will transform this game by communing with those that make his life possible – the fans.

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