Harig: WGC's Not Working For PGA Tour

Bob Harig in the St. Petersburg Times takes a tough stance on the "success" of the WGC events:

The WGCs have been great for the 60 or so players who qualify for the no-cut tournaments that offer a guaranteed payday.

They have been great for fans who attend and watch on television, because the WGCs are all but guaranteed to bring together the best players in the world, something that rarely happens outside of major championships.

And they certainly have been great for the PGA Tour, which has a management arm under its corporate umbrella called Championship Management which runs - and profits from - these tournaments.

But are these big-money tournaments good for the rest of golf?

The answer, after seven years, is probably not.

Why? Because too many rank-and-file tournaments - the backbone of the tour - suffer from their existence.