The Tour Championship

Whew!
Date Written: September 28, 2009

I'm exhausted! The long, 2009 golf pool season has finally come to an end. Congrats to rookie winner, Charlie Tuna, who despite having two "No-Shows" over the last two tournaments managed to hang on and capture the first prize of $1,400. A few weeks ago he expressed an interest in selling his position for a small percentage of it's potential value. I talked him out of it. He's obviously glad he hung-in.

Doug B. and The Donald had the good fortune to pick Lefty "Mick" to win The Tour Championship, our final event for the pool standings. It was enough to vault Dougie past five players into second place and reward him with $700.00. It was nip and tuck for third, with Glenn Marzion holding off Bill Sundali by an eyelash to win $300.00. Both Glenn and Bill were stymied by No-Shows too. Checks to the three winners will go out in the mail tomorrow. It was the closest pool finish EVER!

Final thought on the Fed-Ex prize of $10,000,000...beyond the complicated format that even the players do not understand, IT IS AN OBSCENE AMOUNT OF MONEY. The powers that be would probably argue that the TV ratings doubled this year. Methinks that's because Tiger was in the field, whereas last year, he was on the sidelines recovering from knee surgery. Personally, I would like to meet someone...anyone...outside the commissioner's office, who understands the bloody format.

For you golfing purists who can't get enough competition, we now segue to the 5-tournament, Fall Season, which reminds me of a different kind of Q-School. The "also-ran's" try to find a late-season swing to go along with a new-found putting stroke in an attempt to get inside the exclusive, top 125 money list. In a devilish way, it's more fun to watch this part of the season than the regular weekly tour stops because there's so much on the line for the boys. They won't see the bigger names in most of the fields so they've got to think their chances are better. From Ryan Smithson of PGATOUR.COM:

"Making the top 125 on the money list grows more difficult with each passing year, and the ramifications for missing the magic number are great.Steve Allen and Rich Beem are good examples. Allen and Beem each fell $100,000 short of retaining their cards for 2009, and, as a result, they were forced to sit back and hope for playing opportunities. It's a process of writing letters to tournaments, asking for sponsor exemptions and waiting for players to withdraw. It brings a whole new meaning to the term "vicious cycle."

Thank god our season is over. I think I've run out of things to say. It ain't easy at this end trying to be clever and meet a writing deadline each week. That said, what will I do with all this extra time from October to the start of 2010? Yesterday, the weather lady alliterively suggested that it's time to trade my flip-flops for fleece. Clever, huh? The high on Wednesday will be the low tonight. Figure that out. This means that the last of my real joints will begin to talk back to me in louder tones. I'm obviously too old to reinvent myself as a capable person. What in the world am I going to do? Got any suggestions? Maybe it's time to move to warmer climes.I don't want to hurt myself in the off-season doing anything more strenuous than practice my new, 80% golf swing. Maybe I'll move to fire-ravaged, hoodlum infested, traffic-clogged, vanity-driven L.A. and teach the prodigal grandson a swing. Or maybe I'll just hunker down here for another "Winter of Wishful Thinking." I'll keep you posted. This might be my last stint as editor of the weekly blog. Anybody want to pick up the baton/pen? I might confine my writing efforts to making some money.

For now, I'm going to find a very quiet, remote spot by the Wood River and watch the colored leaves do their final dance into the water. That image is my homage to someone who can actually write, poetess, Mary Oliver.