Charity Isn't Always The Heart Of The PGA Tour

The leaders have a few holes left Monday and no one cares about the Waste Management Open's outcome other than immediate family, friends and some folks who were going to play a Monday pro-am at TPC Scottsdale.

Tournament promoters are expecting maybe 1000 fans to show up (that means 500 in Phoenix Open counting metrics), but they have to plan for as many as 20,000 just in case. Admission is free and the costs associated with coming back tomorrow will cut into a bottom line already impacted by a rough week. (Even worse, some player, caddie or CBS announce team moocher might be missing a Cypress Point tee time tomorrow!)

Gary Van Sickle summed up the situation in the SI roundtable:

Van Sickle: A 54-hole tourney that ended Sunday before the game, or a 72-hole tourney that ended with 18 on Monday, allowing play on Sunday to end before the game, would have been the choice of almost all the players, fans and media. I bet Jim Nantz was thrilled to be commentating on golf while the Super Bowl's first half was in progress.

The Thunderbirds will eat into their charitable contributions because of the Monday finish forced on them by frost and the apparent connections to earth-sun rotational stability when playing 72 holes instead of 54 to decide a PGA Tour event.

So let's just be clear: charity isn't always "the heart of the PGA Tour." Neither is common sense.