"How about we decide that if appearance fees are paid, there are no more World Ranking points?"

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Loads of interesting tidbits in John Strege's Golf World game story from the beleaguered Hope, starting with this from Paul Goydos on the issue of conflicting-event releases.

"Tim [Finchem] has a relationship with everybody involved, and right now it doesn't seem like he's doing a good job keeping the players and helping our sponsors," Paul Goydos said. "I think Tim needs to do a better job at that."

Strege then quotes the Commish:

Later pressed on the matter in an interview with Golf World, Finchem replied, "We believe, in general, that the conflicting-events guidelines are working fine. We will not overhaul the conflicting-event guidelines just because of one week."

Granted, it's a week without a sponsor and in Ponte Vedra-speak, was a longtime platform anchor that did more than any single tournament to activate the tour's brand as a charitable beneficiary while cross-pollinating golf's unique status as a sport of presidents and celebrities, but why help it in this time of need?

I know, I know, market forces trump loyalty and in this case, common sense.

Strege goes on to remind us of Finchem's December, 2008 kidnapping video along with Anthony Kim's ties to the Hope that included a sponsor's invite in 2007. But I was most intrigued by this suggestion from Goydos:

"You think any of those guys would be over there playing if [event organizers] weren't paying an appearance fee? How about we decide that if appearance fees are paid, there are no more World Ranking points?"