Plainfield CC

[Patrick_Mucci]

Matt Ward,

Hale Irwin has won THREE USOPENS, and numerous other tournaments.  Hardly a yawner.

He is one of the GREATEST PLAYERS ever, unless his record doesn't count.

[Matt_Ward]

Pat:

Just check out the ratings for Senior Golf since Nicklaus, Trevino, Player and Palmer started to disappear from being really competitive.

Hale Irwin has demonstrated a most impressive record (his dominance on the Senior Tour is clearly evident as well) and I hear what you are saying about his three Open wins. But on the personality chart and in generating FAN INTEREST Irwin doesn't cut it. Pat, no one wakes up in the morning and says I'm going to pay and see Irwin play! They did with the heavyweight names I mentioned above.

The point I made is simple -- the Senior Tour is really the minor leagues of golf. It can thrive, however, only in certain markets where it doesn't have to compete for the attention of sports fans who have other opportunities.

Plainfield made the correct call in declining the "07 Senior Open. In the metro NY / NJ area it's a money loser and it becomes at best the lead item on page #8 of the sports pages instead of page #1 when held in Des Moines or other similar type cities.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Matt Ward,

Nicklaus was not known as having an effervescent personality,
Trevino, Palmer, Rodriquez and others were far more personable, flamboyant and gallery friendly.  I would agree that those personality types are not dominating the senior tour.

Hogan certainly wasn't a laugh a minute, and Snead could be distant.  Yet, Tommy Bolt and others were colorful.

When the Senior tour began, it served as an extension of the regular tour, allowing us to continue to follow familiar names into the sunset.

I think the Senior tour transitioned from a personality parade to a player performance event.

[Matt_Ward]

Pat:

The whole notion of the Senior Tour is based upon one thing: reliving glory days from years past with super stars who could still play. It meant having the opportunity to get really close to the gentlemen who grew golf in the 60's and 70's.

The general sports fan, not the diehard hard core golf fan, is not really interested in how well Bob Gilder or Allen Doyle or Bruce Fleischer is playing. For the average fan, Allen Doyle is just a person who plays golf well -- he is not a personality of the highest level as I mentioned with the other names and you correctly added Chi Chi as well.

The Senior Tour is going to facing some serious retrenchment in the years ahead -- even the big tour is facing issues of sponsorship, and, from what I understand, will only marginally increase purses for next year. Clearly, the senior tour brand still has currency, but it's time for the brass in Ponte Vedra to start to visit mid-size locations that will truly EMBRACE the events. I see little time left with the two Senior events in the Garden State because the sports fan in this area of the country has other options for their time and $$.