Wraparound Blues: Adam Scott's Off-Season To Commence Now That The Season Has Started

Doug Ferguson reports that Masters Champion Adam Scott is shutting down his game until the Florida swing once he completes this week's Hyundai Tournament of Champions next week's Sony Open.

That means he's skipping the WGC Match Play in Tucson, as well as tendency to play at the Northern Trust Open where he has won.

Which brings us to my first post of the year pointing out the sheer lack of genius in Commissioner Blankfein's FedExCup Playoffs and the "wraparound" schedule masterminded.

Rex Hoggard summed up the mood in Hawaii as the tournament of champions reconvenes at Kapalua.

The Tour is six events into the experiment of a split-calendar season and so far the new schedule feels like a means to an end, not a meaningful attempt at change.

To recap for newer readers, I view the West Coast Swing and to a slightly lesser extent, the Florida Swing as the PGA Tour's core events. The ratings back me up on this. More eyeballs are on the PGA Tour during February and March than any other month. And with the addition of WGC events, FedExCup playoff events and the new "calendar year" schedule starting in September, something had to give in player schedules. The Commissioner's job was to spot this and protect the most important "product" he has: February and March golf.

March may always be safe because players have to prepare for the Masters, but February and January? Not looking so good when you read stories like the above about Adam Scott.

Check out what NBC's Mark Rolfing had to say about the schedule and who is going to suffer because of year-round golf during a conference call this week. And do savor Johnny's question as well:

I think with the PGA TOUR, you're going to see the events that get the good fields continue to get better and better fields, and the other events are going to have a harder and harder time, and they're going to have to find their own little niches and their own little personalities just like Houston does and like New Orleans has done.  Those two have become very effective at doing that.  I think that's what the tournaments are going to have to do that don't get the A+ fields.

JOHNNY MILLER:  Real quick, on the field at Hyundai, have we got any of the top guys playing?  Is that something you can give a synopsis on Tiger and Phil and all those guys that are not coming?  Stricker will be coming, right?

MARK ROLFING:  No, Stricker didn't qualify.  That's one of the issues with this field.  There's going to be six players that are eligible, I believe, that aren't going to end up teeing off, but again, it's a situation where there is more and more pressure for these players to play a lot in November and December, and everybody has to have some time off.  And when golf does not have an off‑season like it doesn't now, the players are going to make their own off‑season, which is becoming problematic for the January and February PGA TOUR events.

I think more and more you're going to see players make their off‑season in January and February, and I think that's kind of what has happened with a few of the guys when it comes to Kapalua.