Golf Capsules: Rain in the desert? Hope Classic hopes not much

For its first 50 years, the Bob Hope Classic in the Palm Springs area was affected by rain just about as often as the tournament’s namesake might have claimed he played a respectable round of golf — maybe once in a generation.

Yet the celebrities, amateurs and PGA Tour pros gathered in the desert are bracing for the possibility of heavy rains hampering the first two days of the tour’s only five-day, four-course tournament.

A series of storms are pounding Southern California this week, and the heaviest rains are expected to hit Wednesday and Thursday, putting the tournament organizers in unfamiliar positions under slickers and umbrellas. The Hope Classic lost just two days to rain in its first 50 years, and none since 1980 — yet the tournament organizers closed Tuesday’s practice round to the public over weather concerns.

Pat Perez won last year’s Hope Classic by getting off to a blistering start, finishing the first 36 holes in a PGA tournament-record 20 under. He’s not likely to duplicate that feat amid raindrops and blustery winds — but he knows everybody will be working for the weekend, when the storms are likely to let up.

"I don’t like playing in the rain anyway," said Perez, an Arizona native. "It’s cold, and I don’t like being wet. It’s just a damper. (But) it doesn’t do anything for me as far as defending, because I’m still here, and the tournament’s still going to go on. I have a lot of great memories from last year, and it will be a good week. It would be a better week if I won again."

The Hope Classic could use a good week, given its star-free field and glaring lack of a title sponsor — not to mention all that rain.

One of the traditional hot spots on the tour’s West Coast Swing has taken hits in recent years from the economy, the high winds that spook some players, and even the Abu Dhabi Championship, which has poached many top players this week. Jerry Kelly and Donnie Hammond recently withdrew from the event, and even Anthony Kim — who spent his high school years in the Coachella Valley — skipped the Hope Classic to play in Abu Dhabi.

Although the field doesn’t contain a top-35 player, it’s still a favorite among California fans who enjoy the interplay between amateurs and pros during the first four days before the pros take over on Sunday.

"You play in plenty of pro-ams even in the amateur events growing up, so you learn how to stay patient out there and not worry about what everybody else is doing," said Sam Saunders, Arnold Palmer’s grandson and the recipient of a sponsor’s exemption. "This week is four different courses, but I was able to get out here early enough because I wasn’t playing last week, and I played all four courses now and got to really see them and feel like I know them very well.

"As far as playing with three amateurs, that’s fine with me. You’ve just got to try to do your own thing and try to be polite, talk to everybody, but focus on the golf as well."

The field also features Ryan Palmer, who won his third career title at the Sony Open in Hawaii last Sunday. He’s returning to Palm Springs after spending part of his preseason preparation time in the desert to get away from the cold, rainy Dallas weather.

"I know the Palmer Course really well, (and) I got to play the Nicklaus Course before I left," Palmer said. "So I’m very excited about the week. I always enjoyed playing here, and it couldn’t be a better time to come here and play after a great week in Hawaii after winning."

Palmer raised a champagne toast to his victory in the TaylorMade truck on Monday morning before getting back to work on maintaining the momentum from his $990,000 victory. He was disappointed to see the Hope Classic’s unimpressive field, even if it improves his chances for another strong finish.

"Obviously the more here, the better," Palmer said. "I wish they would focus on playing over here a little bit more in these early events, because this is a great tournament. It’s a great week, and I wouldn’t miss it."

Commentary: Bob Hope Classic left in the desert dust

HONOLULU — Given these tough economic times, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has asked players to pitch in by adding tournaments to their schedules. Perhaps he should have been more clear.

He meant tournaments in the United States.

Anthony Kim makes his 2010 debut this week in a tournament that includes Camilo Villegas and Geoff Ogilvy, who will be going for his second consecutive victory. They will be competing against a world-class field that features defending champion Paul Casey, Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy.

You can find them in the desert — at the Abu Dhabi Championship.

Halfway around the world in the California desert, the Bob Hope Classic begins Wednesday. It is the first PGA Tour event on the mainland, is desperate to find a title sponsor and does not have a single player among the top 35 in the world ranking. Once a premier event on the West Coast Swing, last year it had the second-weakest field among regular PGA Tour events.

"It’s not something we like to see," said John Foster, president of the Bob Hope Classic. "We’ve always had to deal with it in some shape or form. It behooves us to make this tournament as attractive as we can. We still have a good field off last year’s money list. We have no top 10s, and we’re disappointed in that. We still have some great players. It is what it is."

PGA Tour members require a "conflicting event release" to compete overseas. The guidelines allow for three releases a year, with additional releases for international players who want to play on their home circuits.

It is rare for the tour to grant so many releases — nine in this case — to one tournament. Alarms are sounded when that tournament is the same week as a U.S. event that once had tradition and now has no title sponsor. One guideline says the commissioner can deny a request if it would "otherwise significantly and unreasonably harm" the tour and its sponsors.

But let’s be practical about this.

All nine releases were granted to players who are European Tour members. Six of those players are Europeans, all of whom began their careers on the other side of the Atlantic.

"Remember, guys like Sergio and Paul Casey, they chose to come over here and play," British Open champion Stewart Cink said. "If they chose to stay in Europe, we wouldn’t even be having a conversation like that."

Ogilvy has not played the Hope in five years. Villegas has never played it at all.

What brings the Hope’s field so much attention is the absence of Kim, who spent his high school years in the Coachella Valley and was given a sponsor’s exemption to play when he was a rookie with limited opportunities. Kim is trying to manage a worldwide schedule. Skipping what amounts to a hometown tournament is not going to win him additional fans.

Rick George, the tour’s chief of operations, said nine releases were given opposite the Hope last year. He also noted the number of players who stayed two weeks in Hawaii, which made the Sony Open stronger. Others are adding Pebble Beach to the schedule this year with the U.S. Open coming in June.

"I’d like to think it’s just an anomaly," George said. "But that doesn’t make it any better for the Bob Hope Classic."

Appearance money is an issue, too, but that’s been around forever and is a convenient excuse.

"When you give ‘show-up’ fees in Europe, that poses a problem," Foster said. "That’s an issue for the West Coast. I wish the European Tour wouldn’t do that. But that’s how they try to attract players."

Kenny Perry, a past Bob Hope champion who is skipping this year, received an offer to play the Qatar Masters next week.

The issue takes on heightened awareness because of the economy. Consider the San Diego Open, which didn’t find a title sponsor until a week before its tournament, which is the first on network TV and usually gets Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

How much tougher is it for a tournament to attract a sponsor when it can’t get anyone in the top 30?

Joe Ogilvie, a former policy board member who received an exemption to the Hope this year, believes the PGA Tour nonetheless should put its foot down on conflicting event releases on certain weeks.

"I would take an extremely hard line," Ogilvie said. "As a commissioner, you’ve got to say, ‘No.’ What are they going to say? ‘I’m going to play Europe (full-time)?’ But for whatever reason, he doesn’t do it."

Ogilvie said the tour could make it up to the player by building a TV campaign around him, exposure that would be appealing for endorsements and could pay off more than whatever appearance money is being offered.

Cink, another former board member, leans the other way.

"I don’t fault the players for going over to play somewhere that may pay them appearance money," Cink said. "We don’t get appearance money very often. Kenny Perry is a good example. He’s going to Qatar. You have a situation where a guy has played out here his whole life and probably hasn’t gotten a whole lot of appearance money. To go and collect a little bit, can you really say, ‘Don’t do that?’

"I understand that it’s difficult to find sponsors right now," Cink said. "There’s no real solution."

There’s only a harsh reality for the Hope.

It used to be rookies never played the Bob Hope Classic because so many spots were taken by top players. This year, the tournament went 32 deep into the Nationwide/Q-school category to fill its field.

Doug Ferguson covers golf for The Associated Press

Notebook: Bart Bryant facing yet another surgery

HONOLULU — In his 25-year career in golf, Bart Bryant knows what it’s like to play in pain. He has had elbow surgery three times, along with surgery on his knee and his left rotator cuff.

The bad news for the 47-year-old Bryant is that a sixth surgery is on the way.

Bryant, whose three PGA Tour titles include a six-shot victory over Tiger Woods at the 2005 Tour Championship, is preparing for surgery on his left wrist that most likely will keep him out the entire year.

"The only chance I have is to get surgery," Bryant said.

He felt pain in the wrist toward the end of 2008, tried to play through the injury most of last year and finally shut it down after the John Deere Classic in July.

"I didn’t know how bad it was until I had an MRI," Bryant said from his home in Florida. "I tried to rest it extensively, I had it in a cast for a while and had no success at all."

He spent last weekend in New York meeting with Andrew Weiland, the same doctor who treated the wrist injuries of Jim Furyk, Trevor Immelman and Luke Donald. Bryant said he has extensive loss of cartilage in his left wrist, causing the bones to shift. He said doctors planned to fuse the bones.

Bryant had rotator cuff surgery in 1992, the first of three elbow surgeries in 2000, and knee surgery in 2006. The son of a Baptist minister, he studied sociology at New Mexico State and never dreamed he would ever learn so much about anatomy.

"I know a lot about knees, shoulders, elbows, and I’m getting an education on wrists," he said. "I think I could pass a pretty good test on bones. No brain surgery yet. Luckily, I’ve stayed away from that."

SPONSOR HELP

The PGA Tour embarked on its "Sponsor Value Program" last week at the Sony Open, when 15 players not eligible for the pro-am met with sponsors and clients at breakfast, for clinics, just about anywhere.

Even a local driving range. That’s where Mark Calcavecchia wound up.

"The Ala Wai driving range at the most played course in the world," Calcavecchia said.

Calcavecchia thinks the program is a good idea, although it apparently wasn’t the smoothest of starts. For one thing, he didn’t see any sponsors on the public course. He did meet a man with tattoos on every inch of his bodies, and three other "clients" in tank tops and sandals.

"What am I going to tell him? Get some cleats for your flip flops?" he said.

Calcavecchia, Justin Rose, Ben Curtis and a host of others will find themselves doing that a lot this year. They are in that group low enough on the money list that they won’t always be eligible for pro-ams. That leaves out those at the bottom of the money list — Rich Beem, who is supremely gifted at sponsor functions, and even some of the rookies who could learn early the importance of sponsors.

"I think it’s a much-needed thing right now," Rose said. "What I don’t 100 percent agree with is that if you fall into that category where you’re just missing the pro-am, you’re going to get hit up every week. But listen, even if that’s the case, I’m still happy to do it."

His recommendation was to establish a rotation of players not in the pro-am.

"We knew going in we would have a learning process the first part of the year," said Rick George, the tour’s chief of operations. "There’s real positive things, and things that are not so positive. We’ll get it worked out."

PLAYER ADVISORY COUNCIL

Steve Stricker is among 16 players named to the Player Advisory Council, which serves as a liaison between players and the policy board on competition matters.

He also is in the running to be a co-chair, which eventually would put him on the policy board. The election ends at Pebble Beach.

"I’ve never been on any board," Stricker said. "What would I bring? A level head. I’m not very extreme. I think I get along with everybody, and guys would feel comfortable discussing whatever issue they have."

Other PAC members are Rich Beem, Jonathan Byrd, Steve Flesch, Harrison Frazar, Jim Furyk, Jeff Gove, Paul Goydos, Jerry Kelly, Scott McCarron, Joe Ogilvie (former board member), Sean O’Hair, Brett Quigley, Kevin Streelman, Mike Weir and Mark Wilson.

LONGEST DRIVE

PGA Tour rookie Troy Merritt deserves credit for the longest drive of the year — not off the tee, but on the way to the golf course at the Sony Open.

Going with familiarity, Merritt decided to stay with his fiancee at Turtle Bay Resort, where he played a college tournament while at Boise State. He had a deluxe room on the top floor at a reasonable rate.

Trouble is, Turtle Bay is on the other side and other end of Oahu from Waialae.

Merritt said it took him 1 hour, 40 minutes to drive to the course for his opening round at the Sony Open. The good news? It was a beautiful drive on a two-lane coastal road. And he opened with 65.

Merritt couldn’t help but consider the Sony Open as coming full circle. He remembers telling his mother after the college tournament, "The next time I’m over here will be for the Sony Open."

"Kind of funny that’s how it worked out," he said.

SLOW START

Going into the third week of the PGA Tour, only five players have perfect attendance. Brian Gay, Jerry Kelly, Matt Kuchar, Bo Van Pelt and Pat Perez played both Hawaii tournaments, and they are entered in the Bob Hope Classic.

DIVOTS

Dave Kindred, who has spent nearly 50 years writing about sports and has covered 75 majors, has been selected for the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism. He will be honored April 7 in Augusta, Ga., at the Golf Writers Association of America annual awards dinner. ... Joe Steranka, the PGA of America chief executive, begins his one-year stint as chairman of the World Golf Foundation. Previous chairmen were Royal & Ancient chief Peter Dawson, and USGA executive director David Fay. ... Jessica Korda, the 16-year-old daughter of former Australian Open tennis champion Peter Korda, broke the scoring record at the 84th Sally Championship with a 13-under 275. She set another record with a 62 in the third round.

STAT OF THE WEEK

Five players competing in their first PGA Tour event at the Sony Open all made the cut — Troy Merritt, Brian Stuard, Blake Adams, Jerod Turner and Aaron Goldberg, who is not a PGA Tour rookie but made it through Monday qualifying.

FINAL WORD

"It’s like you misspelling your first word of the year." — Justin Leonard, on missing the cut in the Sony Open.

— Doug Ferguson

Garcia: Woods will be back earlier than expected

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Sergio Garcia thinks it won’t be long before Tiger Woods returns to tournament play.

Woods is taking an indefinite break from golf since his Nov. 27 car accident in Florida and subsequent revelations of extra marital affairs.

Woods has not been seen in public since the crash, and there has been no word on a date for his return.

"The best thing for Tiger at the moment is to get on the course and do what he knows best," said Garcia, who had a personal rivalry on the PGA Tour with Woods over the past 10 years. "Only he knows when he is going to come back. I have got the feeling that it’s going to be earlier that what everybody thinks."

The Spaniard spoke Tuesday before the Abu Dhabi Championship, where he will return to action Thursday after a seven-week layoff for treatment of a tendon problem in his right wrist.

"I think he (Woods) is very strong mentally and it’s not like the break he had for injury a couple of years back when he had the knee problem," Garcia said. "If you can’t walk you can’t swing. It’s different."

While Woods’ continued absence might make it easier for Garcia to end his elusive 11-year search for a victory in one of golf’s four majors, he would prefer to achieve that feat playing against the world’s best player.

"There’s nothing better than playing against the best," Garcia said. "But there is always an upside and a downside. The downside when he is playing is that you know your chances of winning are a little lower.

"The upside is that when you know you are playing against him and you manage to beat him, it’s always that much sweeter to have beaten the best. So for the game, it is not good that Tiger is out. We hope he gets back as soon as possible."

-- Graham Ottway

PGA Tour adds Fall Series event at Sea Island

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — The PGA Tour is adding a Fall Series tournament at Sea Island, with RSM McGladrey agreeing to a three-year deal to become the title sponsor.

The McGladrey Classic will be played Oct. 7-10 on the Seaside Course at Sea Island, Ga.

Davis Love III, a 20-time winner on the PGA Tour and longtime resident at Sea Island, will serve as tournament chairman. Former Masters champion Zach Johnson, who has an endorsement contract with the tax and business consulting firm McGladrey, will be on the tournament board.

The purse will be $4 million. The announcement Tuesday gives the PGA Tour five tournaments in the Fall Series, which is played after the FedEx Cup portion of the schedule.