No cut at WCG Golf Tourney????

[BarnOwl]

How come - or did I hear (the Announcer wrong?)

I.e. Everyone plays 72 holes.

[deathawk]

Yes, this is correct. None of the WGC events have a cut.

Couple things to keep in mind:

1. In comparison to “normal” tour events, these are limited fields. The largest field in any of them is around 70-72 players, whereas a regular PGA event (for example) starts at 144 or so players and then the cut takes it down to 70ish. So the start size for these events is about what a normal event would cut down to.
2. These are more than somewhat artificial events. To call them “made for TV” is entirely accurate. To get this to work, they have really big purses, which means they require a lot of sponsorships. Which means they want the big names playing on the weekends when people will actually be watching, so the sponsors (and the tours) get the most bang for the bucks.
3. Keep in mind in a normal event, missing the cut means you make no money. The carrot for the players is the insane money available, and every one playing gets part of it, even if you finish last.

[BarnOwl]

@deathawk

Yes, this is correct. None of the WGC events have a cut.

Couple things to keep in mind:

1. In comparison to “normal” tour events, these are limited fields. The largest field in any of them is around 70-72 players, whereas a regular PGA event (for example) starts at 144 or so players and then the cut takes it down to 70ish. So the start size for these events is about what a normal event would cut down to.
2. These are more than somewhat artificial events. To call them “made for TV” is entirely accurate. To get this to work, they have really big purses, which means they require a lot of sponsorships. Which means they want the big names playing on the weekends when people will actually be watching, so the sponsors (and the tours) get the most bang for the bucks.
3. Keep in mind in a normal event, missing the cut means you make no money. The carrot for the players is the insane money available, and every one playing gets part of it, even if you finish last.

Thanks .

[DSYoungEsq]

@deathawk

2. These are more than somewhat artificial events. To call them “made for TV” is entirely accurate. To get this to work, they have really big purses, which means they require a lot of sponsorships. Which means they want the big names playing on the weekends when people will actually be watching, so the sponsors (and the tours) get the most bang for the bucks.

This is not entirely accurate. For example, the current tournament is simply a modern iteration of a well-established PGA tournament that had occurred for decades at the same course. But yes, one of the perks of having no cut is that no one is cut, a bonus for the sponsors.

[borschevsky]

@deathawk

3. Keep in mind in a normal event, missing the cut means you make no money. The carrot for the players is the insane money available, and every one playing gets part of it, even if you finish last.

Or even if you don’t play! Tiger got a last-place check for the Mercedes this year, because he’d qualified for it and it has no cut, and he couldn’t play due to injury.

[deathawk]

@DSYoungEsq

This is not entirely accurate. For example, the current tournament is simply a modern iteration of a well-established PGA tournament that had occurred for decades at the same course. But yes, one of the perks of having no cut is that no one is cut, a bonus for the sponsors.

To the degree that there has historically been an event at Doral, your point is well taken, in days gone by it was the start of the Florida run after the early season west coast swing. A number of players were unhappy with this being turned into a limited field event.

That said, this particular WGC event is the one they never really figured out what to do with. It was originally the AMEX event that was supposed to rotate on both sides of the Atlantic. You may remember its first incarnation on the Spanish course where most players just loved the 17th green. For some values of love. This latest solution is not an overly impressive one, stemming as it almost certainly does from the PGA’s never-to-be-satisfied-desire of making the Players into a major. This WGA was forcibly slotted into March when the PGA moved the Players to May. Which was simply an attempt to remove the “all tournaments prior to the Masters are Masters prep” stigma from the Players. There were not a lot of options course wise in Florida for this event if they did not take over Doral, so here we are.

All of which is long winded way of saying: I stand by my original characterization, it is a made for TV money grab.