"Sources within TV say they are chomping at the bit to get new, creative formats that shake up the sameness of 72-hole stroke-play events week after week."

Ron Sirak is hearing from TV types that a PGA Tour and LPGA partnership would be a good thing from their perspective.

What would the PGA Tour gain from taking on the LPGA?

Debt? Sorry, go on...

First, a product with enormous growth potential. Secondly, control of the scheduling of a tour that is, albeit it minor, competition for fans. Finally, another bargaining chip in the TV negotiations with CBS and NBC for the contracts that expire after the 2012 season.

Think TV wouldn't like to broadcast a co-ed event? Or how about a PGA Tour event and an LPGA tournament simultaneously on the same venue -- alternating threesomes of men then women playing their respective tees? Sources within TV say they are chomping at the bit to get new, creative formats that shake up the sameness of 72-hole stroke-play events week after week.

This seems like a win-win-win situation, in which the PGA Tour, LPGA and TV partners all benefit. It will be interesting to see if those casual conversations in the PGA Tour headquarters soon become more formal, and that when the tuxedos and ball gowns are broken out, if LPGA officials are invited into the room for discussions about what could potentially be the best thing to happen to professional golf since the invention of relationship-to-par scoring. Stay tuned.

Seems to me the PGA Tour should tell the Golf Channel to tell their partners to finish on some different days if they want attention and keep their hands clean of taking on what could be a headache. Thoughts?