Coming Soon to a PGA Tournament Near You (Maybe): Spirit Sponsored Tourneys

The rumor mill has it that the PGA is considering allowing liquor concerns to sponsor tournaments:

"Executives at PGA Tour headquarters are taking their most serious look yet at loosening rules that prevent spirit companies from buying tournament title sponsorships or traditional endorsements with players, said multiple sources familiar with the talks. Industry sources estimated the category could be worth up to $50 million a year in new sponsorship dollars."

If approved, the Jack Daniels Open, for example, might be on the PGA schedule or perhaps a Johnny Walker Classic here in the States. The European Tour already allows spirit company sponsorship, and you may recall that 17 year-old Danny Lee is this year's Johnny Walker Classic champion (pictured.)

No doubt that if the PGA makes a decision to allow sponsorship from those companies, it will draw the ire of neo-prohibitionists and drunk driving organizations like MADD, the Mothers Against Drunk Driving. They will surely claim something akin to 'this will cause children to drink' etc. and leverage the change into a platform for their particular viewpoint.

NASCAR made this sponsorship rule change some time ago. Kids watch car racing too, and NASCAR's new sponsorship rules haven't caused a noticeable spike in teen drinking or teen drinking and driving. It is ironic, however, to see a car festooned with Jack Daniel's logo -- is there a more direct connection between drinking and driving than a car with the familiar Jack Black logo and label?

My opinion is that this class of company makes a legal product, and that responsible use of them is an embedded part of our culture. There are many folks like me that take the better part of a year to consume a particular bottle of liquor and when it's empty they too feel no rush to replenish their supply. I also never drink and drive, because I feel that I never want my pleasures to put others in danger. I bet that's the demographic that the spirit companies are after, and in my view that's fine.

Seve Still Swinging Hard In His Fight With Brain Cancer

Even if you "hated" Seve Ballesteros, you had to love him.

Spain's Seve Ballesteros was a guy who could bring conflicted emotions, especially when one was rooting for the US side in a Ryder Cup event. Ballesteros was the killer, a gamesman, the guy who could hit it in the woods, be stymied against a tree and still figure out how to drop the ball within birdie range, and not only that, he'd be inside the approach shot of an opponent laying aside the 100-yard marker out in the middle of the fairway. Coupled with José María Olazábal , he was part the most successful duo in the history of the Ryder Cup with 11 wins and two halved matches out of 15 pairs matches.

At the same time, despite being a diehard partisan for "my" US team, I just loved Seve. It was impossible not to. Seve was a master magician in a trainwreck.

He was a gentleman and an ambassador for golf all around the world, and when he was working his magic, he drew all eyes in his direction. Seve won five majors; The Masters in 1980 and 1983, and The Open Championship in 1979, 1984 and 1988. And he won them all in style. He won on the European Tour fifty times. Not only that, he was a master at match play, he won the World Match Play Championship five times.

In Seve, I saw nearly everything I'd read about Walter Hagen -- no lead was safe when he was in the chase, no lie too bad for him not to advance his ball and put it in a good spot on the green, and like Hagen, Seve was an extroverted character who seemed to be flamboyant in everything he did, either on or off the course.

Recently though, Seve undertook his toughest match and is playing his toughest course: he's fighting brain cancer, and he's going through all of the pain and suffering that goes with fighting that dreaded disease. Still, somehow, he's still Seve, in that his outlook seems to be preternaturally upbeat and hopeful. He is a man who is who he is, and that will serve him well as he works towards regaining his health.

In an interview with Spanish sport daily Marca published Wednesday, Seve said his fight with his cancer was “the most important shot of my life” and said he was “fighting to win my sixth major.” He also outlined plans by saying “my first hope is to get back to normal. After that, a course in Santander. That has been my dream for a long time.”

If I were to walk into a Ladbroke's branch and place a bet on the outcome, I wouldn't bet against him. In fact, I'd plop down a fiver on a new Seve course in Santander being a masterpiece.

Special note: When I say "hate" I mean "sports hate" -- meaning you were a fan of the other side or the other team. Real hate, c'mon, there's too much of that already. I don't really hate the NY Yankees, for example, or their fans. I did rather disliked them beating my Atlanta Braves in the 1996 World Series, however. That's what I mean, just so we are clear.

If You Are A PGA Golfer, Never Say "Here Kitty Kitty!"

The World's #1 is officially back. Back as in he's going to take your candy, steal your girl's heart and beat you on Sunday, if you are a member of the PGA.

If Tiger can win on one leg, as he did in last year's US Open, can anyone seriously question whether he would take a long time to hoist a trophy once he was healthy and had shaken off the rust of not playing on the PGA Tour?

Tiger’s comeback in the Bay Hill Invitational was awesome, but in reality Sean O’Hair did everything he could to help him. O’Hair didn’t hit a fairway until the sixth hole or a green until the 10th, and then he settled down and made it a bit interesting until the 16th, when he sent his ball to sleep with the fishes.

Woods hurt himself on 17 with a somewhat weak iron while going for the hole (when the center of the green would have been good enough) and there we go to 18 at Bay Hill, a hole Tiger owns like no other.

You almost knew when they teed off that Tiger would birdie and O’Hair wouldn’t.

When they both landed in the fairway (it’s a three or five wood tee shot, I forget) you had to know what was coming next.

When Woods dropped his ball 15 feet closer than O’Hair and was within makeable birdie range, call the kids to watch some history, this tournament will be over in about three minutes.

That’s what makes Tiger great: when he needs a shot and especially when he needs a putt, he performs. Everyone else, Phil Mickelson included, you never know…but Tiger Woods is predictable.

The best part of that putt on 18 was the slo-mo replay that showed Tiger’s eyes when the camera flashes were going off. First they look like concentration, then wide-eyed hope and finally, with the ball about 5-6 feet away, celebration. He knew that putt was going a moment after he hit it.

If he tightens up his iron game just a little, expect him to get another Green Jacket in a couple of weekends. He’s back and his knee is close to 100%.