FedEx Cup stinks - bring back the Western Open!

[Kalen Braley]

I'm with you Bob,

I highly doubt it will be funded in a lump sum at the end of the tourney.  

I beleive it works like this:

The Fed Ex Cup winner will receive a total payout of $10 million to be paid in equal installments ($500,000 per year) for the next 20 years.

Assuming a 10% interest rate, I believe that equates to a present value of $4,225,000.

[Rich Goodale]

....or, I could be wrong, based on Sean "Bean Counter" Arble's latest post......

[Cabell Ackerly]

The other question I had regarding the annuity (and maybe this will simply show my ignorance of annuities in general) is: Is the $10 million in present dollars or the retirement amount?

present day dollars...$10 million dollars is deposited into an account

Cabell,

Are you sure about that?

Bob

pretty sure... these are Finchem's words from a press conference yesterday...

"If you win the Cup you have $10 million in your account. It's not an annuity that you buy something for a certain amount of money and it grows and you get $10 million a number of years from now. That's not what happens. It's $10 million that's earning interest tax-free.

When I hear a player say, well, the problem I have with the deferral is I don't see the money for 20 years. That's not the case. You earn the money and get the money right away in your account. You can spend it starting at 45 or when you retire, whichever is later....

I think it's important to recognize on this question of deferred money, there's no benefit to the TOUR whichever way it goes. The money is either going into an account for a player and the interest is deferred, or it's going into his bank account and he goes and spends it now. That's the only difference. There is no benefit to the TOUR. There is no agenda as to why it's in the interest of the TOUR."

link to full transcript
http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=45358

[Jim Nugent]

With all the projections the tour guys are making, they must deposit $10 million now, and let it grow tax-free.  Using the magic of compound interest, that $10 million becomes $30 or $50 million in short order.  At least those are the kinds of numbers they are throwing around.  

Never mind that the interest rates they assume will be almost impossible to achieve.  Unless, that is, the dollar falls so much, the numbers get pretty meaningless anyway.  

[Paul Richards]

>As for its only being in Chicago every 3 years, the Western moved around for years.  The claim of being a traditionalist and then decrying the movement of the event seems to be somewhat incongruous to me.

John

At least in my lifetime, 1964-on, the Western has been held every year in Chicago - in fact, it came here permanently in the early 1960's.

So, it is, in fact, a Chicago tradition for 40-plus years.

[Dan Kelly]

So, it is, in fact, a Chicago tradition for 40-plus years.

And the people of St. Paul are *still* annoyed about that!

(Actually, no, they're not.)

[Sean_A]

The other question I had regarding the annuity (and maybe this will simply show my ignorance of annuities in general) is: Is the $10 million in present dollars or the retirement amount?

present day dollars...$10 million dollars is deposited into an account

Cabell,

Are you sure about that?

Bob

pretty sure... these are Finchem's words from a press conference yesterday...

"If you win the Cup you have $10 million in your account. It's not an annuity that you buy something for a certain amount of money and it grows and you get $10 million a number of years from now. That's not what happens. It's $10 million that's earning interest tax-free.

When I hear a player say, well, the problem I have with the deferral is I don't see the money for 20 years. That's not the case. You earn the money and get the money right away in your account. You can spend it starting at 45 or when you retire, whichever is later....

I think it's important to recognize on this question of deferred money, there's no benefit to the TOUR whichever way it goes. The money is either going into an account for a player and the interest is deferred, or it's going into his bank account and he goes and spends it now. That's the only difference. There is no benefit to the TOUR. There is no agenda as to why it's in the interest of the TOUR."

link to full transcript
http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=45358

Cabell

I just read this as well.  What I don't understand is how a guy can get $10 million deposited in his account, but he can't spend it.  How is this possible to control?  I think the money must be going into some sort of individual player retirement account.  Its not an annuity (at least in the traditional sense), but its not exactly in your "account" either.  The bottom line is this cash is really part of a retirement package.  Thats not what most people I know would call an "account", but who knows, there is always some new spin going on these days.

Ciao

Sean B C Arble

[John_Cullum]

Since some of the money is coming from the PGA Tour pension/retirement funds, I guess it has to be done this way.

The interesting thing that nobody has explained yet is how they split it up 150 ways among 140 guys

[Steve Kline]

Did you know that the Tour's retirement fund does not have individual player accounts (I guess it's set u like Social Security)? They had to do this to get the special arrangement they have with the government. This means that should the Tour get sued that someone could go after the money in te retirement fund. Of course, the Tour says they have enough insurance to protect the retirement funds from any lawsuit. But as a player I wouldn't like the fact that I don't have MY own account with MY money in it that can't be touched in a lawsuit.

[Tim_Cronin]

Kaley - When you said best field ever, I looked things up. So I went back to 1899. Maybe if there were all-time Sagarin ratings for golf we'd know for sure.
Dan Kelly - We're happy at the Daily Southtown for the pub here. Posting now means linking later, so that's fine.
Guys - The dough goes in Monday morning in full into the player's piggy bank (deferred incomed tax-free rather than an annuity), then he can invest in various options, as we can with a 401k, etc.
And today, after only 10,000 people (tops) came out Thursday (WGA said 20,000, which is fantasy), there was a huge rainstorm. Play was suspended at 9:11 a.m. and is expected to resume at noon CT. We'll see if there's a gallery in the afternoon.

[Pete_Pittock]

Next Saturday we should all watch the Michigan-Notre Dame game on ABC to protest  

I read that a person would be considered retired by the PGA if he plays less than the fifteen required PGA Tour/Champions Tour events

Has Finchem factored the chance of a furriner winning?

[Paul Richards]

I wish the announcers would NOT refer to the 'history' of this tournament

This is the first time the BMW Championship is being played

The Western Open is no more so please don't try to sell us on the 'tournament history' and then show us Western Open records

 

[PThomas]

I wish the announcers would NOT refer to the 'history' of this tournament

This is the first time the BMW Championship is being played

The Western Open is no more so please don't try to sell us on the 'tournament history' and then show us Western Open records

 

Paul, if you keep letting facts get in the way of the Tour's PR machine you will never be on Finchem's good side.....

[tlavin]

Remember that the Evans Scholars Foundation is not only still receiving funds from this tournament, the contribution is expected to double.  Add to that the fact that the foundation will likely grow in Indy and St. Louis when the tournament is played there, and you can see why the WGA has been relatively quiet about the loss of the name, Western Open.  Is it a bummer for us Chicago folks, especially those of us who belong to clubs that used to host the tournament back in the day?  Sure, but the kids are still being helped greatly by this event.  Finchem is probably not going to prevail in this whole playoff experiment, but the Evans Scholars Foundation will continue to prosper quite nicely, thank you.

[Tim_Cronin]

I wish the announcers would NOT refer to the 'history' of this tournament

This is the first time the BMW Championship is being played

The Western Open is no more so please don't try to sell us on the 'tournament history' and then show us Western Open records

 

I think the name change is lousy and have written as much, but the name will eventually change again. So it's the Western Open, carjacked (and you can bet BMW and my WGA pals didn't like that when I wrote it) and under another name, with different qualifying standards, which have changed often over the years.
The TV foofs, of course, follow the PGA Tour and go the extra step, calling every old Western the BMW. Even, say, the four Willie Anderson won a century ago, before BMW (the company) was around. I hammer them on that as much as I can. And, for that matter, except for one reference per story, I keep calling this the Western Open. We've had good fun with that at the Daily Southtown this week.
I look forward to the WGA/ESF annual report to see if the tournament's contribution went up compared to the previous several years. The tournament director said it could eventually double, but wasn't speaking of 2007 in that regard.

[Paul Richards]

Terry and Tim

As the Evans Scholars are the recipients, I can live with this.

However, the Western Open being the second-oldest  event on Tour - couldn't they have at least called it the BMW Western or something?

Then maybe it would be ok to make reference to it's long and rich history .....

[Tim_Cronin]

As I understand it, the WGA fought BMW long and hard on the name, and lost. Curiously, the other BMW-branded golf tournaments have regional names: BMW Asian Open, BMW European Open, etc. But BMW liked the idea of the underlying records, maybe because its North American exec, Tom Purves, is a North Berwick lad, believe it or not. Big Willie Anderson fan. So we get a break there, and I don't have to try to keep track of two sets of records.

[Dan Kelly]

... except for one reference per story, I keep calling this the Western Open. We've had good fun with that at the Daily Southtown this week.

Next year, I suggest that you take a lesson from Prince (The Artist Formerly Known As the Artist Formerly Known As Prince):

Call it "the tournament formerly known as the Western Open."

(Though, of course, it's "open" no longer.)

[Tim_Cronin]

Dan,
That's pretty much what we do. We have an entry in our stylebook about title-sponsored sports events, and it specifically references calling the Western Open just that. So we go "BMW Championship, a.k.a. the Western Open," or, "the Western Open, currently retitled the BMW Championship," and so on.
In respect to previous editions, records and so on, it's always Western Open. Thus, Tiger Woods has now won four Western Opens.
Not all writers are in this camp. One in town goes completely in the other direction, saying Woods won three Westerns and now has one BMW, and that one doesn't have to do with the other at all. What he'll do when everything changes again, I don't know.

[Lloyd_Cole]

Well at least is it over now. TW is 5 ahead of all others who could win after 15 holes of Round 1.

[Rich Goodale]

I can't believe that Tiger already had 112,733 points coming into the last round.  In all the times I've played this format (admittedly against lesser opposition) the best I've ever had at this stage was 109,729.  Tiger must be REALLY good!

[Jerry Kluger]

Calc has gone into the lead at the Tour Championship - could you imagine Tiger and Calc as the final group on Sunday - Calc's comments would be priceless.

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