Mike Bianchi Makes It Official: He's Run Out Of Column Ideas

The Orlando Sentinel columnist writes: "Why there has not been more of an outcry about the Tour's tacit approval of smoking is harder to figure out than the World Golf Rankings."

Eh, eh before you think this is an April 1 beauty, check your calendars, we're still a week away. Hit the link if you don't believe me. Or read this, where even Tim Finchem offers his own version of "have you absolutely no other ideas for a column?"

Congress has made a major issue about pro sports sending the wrong message when it comes to steroids, but what about pro golf sending the wrong message when it comes to lung cancer? Scientific fact: A relative handful of deaths have resulted from steroid abuse; hundreds of thousands die every year because of nicotine abuse.

"I don't think we have a problem with smokers," PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said at last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational. "We have some. We don't have many. . . . I don't think it's worth spending any energy on."

A few years ago, Finchem was similarly nonchalant when it came to mandatory drug-testing of golfers, but finally capitulated amid public pressure. Why there has not been more of an outcry about the Tour's tacit approval of smoking is harder to figure out than the World Golf Rankings.