Some thoughts on the first wraparound PGA Tour season
Is it over yet? Can I breathe again?
Oh yeah, I can for the next 16 days (!) until the 2014-15 season begins.
Golf is what baseball would be like if you added four months to the schedule and had a month-long All-Star break.
Nobody wants that -- and I don't think anybody wants year-round golf either. Yet, here we are just days away from a new season.
Here are my thoughts on the first wraparound PGA Tour season.
It felt like it lasted 10 years: Okay, not 10 years, but let's just say I was seeing this in my dreams by the third playoff event:
Rory McIlroy wasn't very discreet about his thoughts when comparing the PGA Tour to the NFL.
"I think the great thing about football is how short the season is. So it's always in demand. People want it," McIlroy said. "Once the Super Bowl finishes, they can't wait for football season to start up again. I think that's the great thing about it."
There's no offseason fodder: In that same vein, one of the fun things about the NFL, NBA and even MLB is all the stuff that happens off the field and off the court.
Heck, Bryan Curtis of Grantland made the argument earlier this year that the NBA offseason is more entertaining and a bigger attraction than its actual season.
All of that buildup for games makes for a tremendous season -- even if I think all sports seasons are far too long.
One problem is, of course, that there's no free agency, trading, etc. to entertain golf fans. The other problem is that even if there was one, it would all happen in a two-week period.
The intention of putting more prestige on fall events actually worked: Did you see who won tournaments last fall? Jimmy Walker, Webb Simpson, Ryan Moore, Dustin Johnson, Chris Kirk and Harris English.
That's like the '27 Yankees compared to 2012's lineup of Moore, Jonas Blixt, Tommy Gainey, Ian Poulter and Charlie Beljan.
Exactly.
It's still ridiculous to end as the NFL is starting: I never won't think this.
I don't care what you have to do but get the Tour Championship out of the NFL season. Tiger Woods could be playing Elin Nordegren and Amy Mickelson in the final round of the Tour Championship and America would be like: "BENGALS-STEELERS? BRING IT ON!"
Also, I'm in favor of a global schedule. I even wrote up what it might look like here. The proposal was eight months -- which is still probably too long -- but it's better than what is currently in place.
And there's an offseason! A real, live offseason!
If you care about the FedEx Cup, it wasn't too affected: One worry (if you can call it that) is that guys in the fall would jump out to a huge lead in FedEx Cup points and golfers playing only the spring events would press too much.
I don't really think this happened as Rory McIlroy, Jim Furyk and Rickie Fowler -- all guys who mostly eschew the fall -- were all in contention until the last round of the Tour Championship.
In the end, folks are going to complain no matter how the schedule is formatted. Golf is exciting right now -- it has great stars, Tiger is still hanging around and most of the tournaments are top notch.
But sometimes less is more. The NFL has discussed going to an 18-game schedule and you know the owners of its 32 teams would be fatter in the pocketbook for it.
But as McIlroy said, the great thing about that sport is that it only lasts five months, you know what you're getting and you always want more of it.
Golf should take note.
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