"In the seventh-, eighth-, ninth-largest market in the country, we weren't comfortable with that."

Tarik El-Bashir and Marc Carig file a lengthy Washington Post story on the evolution of Tiger's new D.C. event. Thanks to reader Sean for this, which includes one nice ironic bit.

Finchem said last week that he kept Booz Allen in the dark to avoid a leak of the Tour's planned schedule changes. But he also was less than generous in his assessment of the tournament's performance.

"All of this happened in the backdrop, candidly, of recognizing that the event in Washington had not performed over the years at the level we want to see a PGA Tour event perform generally, but particularly an event that we want to see perform in the nation's capital," he said. "In the seventh-, eighth-, ninth-largest market in the country, we weren't comfortable with that."

Asked for his response to Finchem's comment, Shrader said: "I felt we tried hard to earn a world-class event here in Washington. I feel that the event we had at Congressional in 2005 was a world-class event that demonstrated given a golf course and a date, we could have a world-class event here in Washington, one that the city and the people deserve. I'm happy Tiger and AT&T have come and I look forward to it being a big success."

Somehow I'm having a hard time believe Booz Allen was the problem here. It can't be all technology driving the $20 million being put into TPC Avenel.  

Comments

[Steven T.]

And, of course, Philadelphia, a larger market, gets stiffed by Ponte Vedra.

[Hawkeye]

Just another example of Finchem not knowing what makes Tour pros tick. Congressional=Success. Avenel=Fiasco. Ah, it's Booz Allen's fault! On the other hand,giving Tiger a tournament practically ensures his loyalty to the Tour for the remainder of his career, and that's probably Finchy's prioriy numero uno.

[Four-putt]

Hawk, please consider: The Timothy's No. 1 priority for having an event guaranteeing Tiger's presence annually in DC is to help entertain the muckity-mucks that -- strictly by coincidence, mind you -- could aid PGAT in maintaining its non-profit status and keep it protected from antitrust lawsuits, as has happened so far in Casey Martin v. The PGA Tour, Toscano v. The PGA Tour, Morris Communications v. The PGA Tour... capische?

[Hawkeye]

OK. I suppose the Nasdaq and Dow Jones indexes go up when Tiger plays in New York too?