Bunker mentality

 Tiger Woods rallied the troops yesterday in Delaware, flying up from Florida to meet with a bunch of other PGA heavyweights as the Saudi Butchers Tour continued to raid the beleaguered PGA with impunity.

The Blob's completely irreverent response: "Well, isn't that special."

Because, listen, the PGA is losing this fight, and it has no one but itself to blame. It made a bunch of guys stupid rich because they're good at swinging golf clubs, and now some of the stupid rich guys are doing what stupid rich guys always do, which is say "Why can't we be even MORE stupid rich?"

In other words, they've gotten greedy, which is not so much an affliction as a way of life for the stupid rich. They've got it all, but all isn't enough. They want whatever is out there beyond "all."

Enter the Saudis, mutilators of journalists and murderers of women and children. They dangled more-than-all in front of the stupid rich guys, and a bunch of them jumped at it, not being able to help themselves. Now a pile of former PGA stars are on the Butchers Tour, and Tiger and the PGA loyalists are groping for a defense.

Call it a bunker mentality for those who do battle with bunkers, if you will. And when you get to that point, history says you've already lost.

Just recently the PGA lost the British Open champion, Cameron Smith, and Bubba Watson to the Butchers Tour, and they surely won't be the last. Meanwhile, the PGA's hard-ass response -- banning those who jump ship -- looks more and more foolish, because it hasn't stopped anyone from defecting and has given the defectors ammunition for legal grievance. 

No one loves playing the martyr like the over-privileged, after all. And the PGA  has opened the door for them to do so.

So what's the solution?

The Blob makes no claim to second sight, but it seems to me what's eventually going to happen is the PGA  will realize the Butchers Tour is not really a competitor. That’s because the PGA is tournament golf, and the Butchers Tour isn’t. It's merely a series of 54-hole, no-cut exhibitions in which the participants get guaranteed money and play for enormous purses.

And so the way out of this is for the PGA to recognize that the Butchers Tour is just supplemental income for all those poor impoverished PGA golfers, and not an existential threat. All that needs to happen is for the two entities to coordinate their schedules, and they can peacefully co-exist.

I suppose that's too simple, though. But it's a way out of the bunker, and the PGA needs to start looking for one.