"It's too early to call it a bust, but it's not too early to be concerned about its utter lack of buzz."

Golf.com's Gary Van Sickle gets all curmudgeonly about 2007's disappointments. Two that stood out for his crisp assessments:

10. The FedEx Cup The PGA Tour has tried to force feed us the points standings. The Golf Channel keeps cramming the points list down our throats. Still, no one cares. Nothing seems to be at stake. The race to the FedEx Cup playoffs? Hardly, since 144 players qualify. Which is everybody who is anybody. And why keep track of the points since they're just going to be reset for the playoffs? There is no drama, no interest and no reason to get interested in the FedEx Cup points standings yet. It's too early to call it a bust, but it's not too early to be concerned about its utter lack of buzz.

That's just so wrong. After all, if the playoffs started today, Anders Hansen would not be in them. Gary, you can't buy tension like that!

Moving on, I think this assessment is consistent with what we've seen in the past. Namely, that time tends to put over-the-top course setups into perspective...

3. The Masters It was disappointing that what I've been writing for the last five years was proven correct, that Augusta National with firm and fast conditions and some wind is the toughest golf course in the world. For three days, conditions were so difficult and greens so firm that nobody could make many birdies. Never have so many good shots turned out not so good. As a result, the best players weren't able to separate themselves from the pack. Skill was equalized. It wasn't until Masters officials saw the light and softened the greens for Sunday's final that we began to see the familiar birdies and eagles and hear the familiar roars from Amen Corner. Former chairman Hootie Johnson was right to lengthen and tough the course but went a bit too far. It doesn't need rough — or whatever quaint term they call it — and it doesn't need all those extra trees planted on 7, 11 and 15. For the first time in recent memory, the Masters came close to being boring for three days.

Comments

[JT]

What happened to the best players getting together and competing against each other more often? Where has Ernie Els been? Finchem and this FedUp nonsense is a farce, Tiger Woods has played the least amount of events to this point on the schedule compared to all his other years.

[Wayne]

With regards to Tiger playing more, the FedEx Cup could have the opposite effect. Tiger is leading with only seven events. Why would he play more? He can't amass an unsurmountable lead since the points are reset. All he has to do is play enough to stay at or near the lead. Certainly nobody can criticize him.

Imagine a baseball team with a 10 game lead. They could take a week off and still be up by a minimum of three. And if they were still up 10 at the end of the season they could take the last week off. Tiger CAN make his own schedule so he just has to play enough to be near the top.

[cmoore]

Wayne:

You assume that Tiger is even thinking about his FedEx Cup points standing, or even cares to participate in the "playoffs." My guess is that there is no way he will play in all the "playoff" events even if he is eligible to participate.

[Jeff_City_MO]

Have you seen Tiger in all the FedExCup advertisements that are blasted on TV during all of the PGA events? Either he's getting paid a whole lotta dough for those ads (which he probably is), or he's serious about winning the $10 million for winning the FedExCup -- which is a pretty easy way to top the money list.

One more thing, this weekend, during CBS's coverage of the AT&T Classic, I happened to see an ad for next years (yeah, I'm serious) PLAYERS championship. Yeah, it's one whole year away and it's not even a major, though the Tour would like to see it as such.

[Jack]

The Feddup Cup is pure Finchem FECES. With Phil Mickelson skipping this event, an event that he has won several times, once by a mere 14 shots, where was he this past week? Changing his schedule, hanging out in Arkansas, playing the Tiger Woods Tour, minimum 15 events.......thanks a lot Tim!

[Scottyboy]

Re: the Masters.

It did a lot more than border on boring for the first three days.

Watching guys hit double-breakers from six feet for par isn't really scintilating golf.

When you're rising at 4am for the privelege, you kinda question the effort.

We can only hope the Green jackets listen up and give us a course in 2008 capable of rewarding good shots, so we have a 9-15 under winner. If one guy gets hot and posts -20, what's wrong with that?