J Schil's Blog

I’m writing a much longer piece on this topic which will be on the blog in the next couple days, but I just wanted to update everyone on what’s happening with Doug Barron. Barron, the PGA Tour journeyman who was suspended last week for testing positive for using a performance-enhancing drug, has gone to court to try and get an injunction so he can play in the PGA Tour Qualifying-School next week.

Barron, who started his career in 1995, tested positive for testosterone and propranolol, a beta-blocker that calms nerves, at the PGA’s St. Jude Classics in Memphis in June, where he was playing on a sponsor’s exemption.

Attorney Jeffrey Rosenblum, representing Barron, said his client took the drugs under the supervision of a doctor for “therapeutic use” and made no secret of it.

He said Barron began taking testosterone in 2005 because his natural level was below the level considered normal.

“It is not performance-enhancing when it is used to keep a man within the normal range,” he said.

….

Rosenblum said Barron has taken propranolol since 1987 for a racing heart. In 2008, his doctor tried to “wean him off” the drug but he was still using it in June when he was tested.

“If he had tried to wean off of it faster, he would have been medically unsafe,” Rosenblum said.

The troubling parts start here: Rosenblum went onto allege that the PGA Tour singled out Barron, an unknown journeyman, rather than better-known, more popular players players. He went onto say that as many as ten current players on the PGA Tour have taken illegal drugs but didn’t get suspended. He added that his goal was to get details released during the trial, if it goes that far.

It is important to note, however, that the PGA Tour takes recreational drugs (like marijuana) differently from performance-enhancing drugs and is not required to announce a suspension for a positive test of those.

More coming….

One of the great water cooler topics around golf for the last couple months has been if Tiger Woods would be eligible for (and maybe ultimately win) the PGA Tour Comeback Player of the Year. Well that was answered today when it was announced that for the first time in the 18 year history of the award, it won’t be given out:

The view from tour headquarters is that there is no player worthy of nomination for the award. The Players Advisory Council chose not to nominate anyone to put on the ballot, which goes out to all PGA Tour players at the conclusion of the Children’s Miracle Network Classic.

The award is typically given to a player who returns from illness or injury to play well or to a slumping player who turned his game around.

I’m a little surprised, but it’s most likely that Tiger will win Player of the Year anyway, so he’ll be getting hardware no matter what.

It is here — the final PGA Tour event of the 2009 season, the Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney World. If you finish this week in the Top 125 on the money list — you have your PGA Tour card for next year. If you’re in the Top 150, you have conditional status. If you are none of the above, or even if you fall from 126-150, you are headed to Qualifying school, or the Nationwide tour.

It’s a tense, tense, time.

TV coverage is Tomorrow through Sunday, Live, on Golf Channel, from 1-4pm ET.

Remember how we all grew up thinking that Tiger Woods had posted all of Jack Nicklaus’ records on his bedroom wall and beating all of them was his goal for all these years? Every single record? Not so fast…

MEDIA: Tiger, we read from a young age that you pinned all of Jack Nicklaus’s records up on your bedroom wall and you’ve slowly ticked them off as you have achieved his records and you’ve broken them. How many more have you got left
to break?

TIGER WOODS: Actually it’s very interesting that people have kind of exaggerated that record list. It was only probably about four or five different things. It was when he started the game of golf, when he first broke 40, when he first won his first junior golf event, his first amateur and when he turned pro, and that was it. That was the list, but obviously people have exaggerated the list a bit.

Want more Tiger? Well, you can have him all week again. He’s in Australia for this week’s 2009 JBWere Masters.

You can watch this event live in primetime on Golf Channel Wednesday and Thursday nights from 10pm-1AM ET, and Friday and Saturday from 8pm-Midnight ET.

Yes, you read that headline correctly.

In Sunday’s final round of the HSBC Champions event in Shanghai Tiger was as anti-clutch as they come, hitting 2 balls into the water, seemingly distracted every hole by something — camera, a bad swing, who knows what else — and eventually tying for 6th.

Meanwhile, Phil made the clutch putts that he needed to on 16 and 17, held off Ernie Els, and secured a huge victory. Ever since Dave Stockton and Mickelson came together and began their work on Phil’s putting stroke he’s won the Tour Championship, gone 4-0-1 in the President’s Cup, and now gotten this victory.

Tiger’s issues may be something — or may be nothing — only time will tell. But it’s clear that Phil has turned a corner…he looks and seems more confident than ever about his game, and that should lead to an exciting 2010 in the golf world.

Which leads me to these 2 articles about the HSBC and golf in general:

Golfdigest.com’s Tim Rosaforte
ESPN.com’s Jason Sobel

After next week’s Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney World, which ends the 2009 PGA Tour season, I will begin, over the coming weeks, my 2009 PGA Tour review posts, which will include the FedEx Cup. However, it appears one of those will not be my opinion of any FedEx Cup changes.

According to the Associated Press:

Rick George, chief of operations for the PGA Tour, said any adjustment to the points system was not on the agenda and not discussed at a policy board meeting earlier this week.

“We think the FedEx Cup did a lot of positive things and met the objectives we set for it,” George said Tuesday. “We don’t anticipate it changing.”

And overall, I agree. It worked, let us see it for another year.

Yep, primetime Tiger. He returns tomorrow night for the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. The newly coined World Golf Championship event has an insanely strong field, including Tiger and Phil Mickelson, and 15 of the top 20 players in the world.

TV Coverage is tomorrow night-Saturday, Live, on Golf Channel from 11pm-3am ET, and on tape Thursday-Sunday from 11am-3pm ET.

The 2010 PGA Tour schedule was released today. The main highlights besides the reordering of some of the West Coast events are that the Turning Stone Resort Championship moves from the Fall Series to a FedEx Cup event opposite the Bridgestone Championship, and the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open moves to opposite the British Open. I’ll write more on it in the coming days but here it is:

Date Tournament Location
Jan. 4-10 SBS Championship Kapalua, Hawaii
Jan. 11-17 Sony Open in Hawaii Honolulu, Hawaii
Jan. 18-24 Bob Hope Classic La Quinta, Calif.
Jan. 25-31 Century Club of San Diego Invitational La Jolla, Calif.
Feb. 1-7 Northern Trust Open Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Feb. 8-14 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Pebble Beach, Calif.
Feb. 15-21 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Champ. Marana, Ariz.
Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Feb. 22-28 FBR Open Scottsdale, Ariz.
March 1-7 The Honda Classic Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
March 8-14 World Golf Championships-CA Championship Doral, Fla.
Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular Rio Grande, Puerto Rico
March 15-21 Transitions Championship Palm Harbor, Fla.
March 22-28 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard Orlando, Fla.
March 29-April 4 Shell Houston Open Humble, Texas
April 5-11 The Masters Augusta, Ga.
April 12-18 Verizon Heritage Hilton Head Island, S.C.
April 19-25 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Avondale, La.
April 26-May 2 Quail Hollow Championship Charlotte, N.C.
May 3-9 THE PLAYERS Championship Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
May 10-16 Valero Texas Open San Antonio, Texas
May 17-23 HP Byron Nelson Championship Irving, Texas
May 24-30 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial Fort Worth, Texas
May 31-June 6 the Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley Dublin, Ohio
June 7-13 St. Jude Classic Memphis, Tenn.
June 14-20 U.S. Open Pebble Beach, Calif.
June 21-27 Travelers Championship Cromwell, Conn.
June 28-July 4 AT&T National Newton Square, Pa.
July 5-11 John Deere Classic Silvis, Ill.
July 12-18 The Open Championship St. Andrews, Scotland
Legends Reno-Tahoe Open Reno, Nev.
July 19-25 RBC Canadian Open Etobicoke, Ontario
July 26-Aug. 1 The Greenbrier Classic White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.
Aug. 2-8 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational Verona, N.Y.
Turning Stone Resort Championship Akron, Ohio
Aug. 9-15 PGA Championship Kohler, Wis.
Aug. 16-22 Wyndham Championship Greensboro, N.C.
Aug. 23-29 The Barclays Paramus, N.J.
Aug. 30-Sept. 6 Deutsche Bank Championship Norton, Mass.
Sept. 6-12 BMW Championship Lemont, Ill.
Sept. 20-26 THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola Atlanta, Ga.

ESPN.com’s Jason Sobel and Bob Harig debate it here.

The first post I made on this traffic has gotten a lot of hits, so let me expand that by posting what the Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard understands as the tentative 2010 schedule as of now:

Draft 2010 schedule
Jan. 4-10 – SBS Championship
Jan. 11-17 – Sony Open
Jan. 18-24 – Bob Hope Classic
Jan. 25-31 – Buick Invitational
Feb. 1-7 – Northern Trust Open
Feb. 8-14 – AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
Feb. 15-21 – WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
Feb. 22-28 – FBR Open
March 1-7 – Honda Classic
March 8-14 – WGC-CA Championship/Puerto Rico Open
March 15-21 – Transitions Championship
March 22-28 – Arnold Palmer Invitational
March 29-April 4 – Shell Houston Open
April 5-11 – The Masters
April 12-18 – Verizon Heritage
April 19-25 – Zurich Classic of New Orleans
April 26-May 2 – Quail Hollow Championship
May 3-9 – Players Championship
May 10-16 – Valero Texas Open
May 17-23 – HP Byron Nelson Championship
May 24-30 – Crown Plaza Invitational
May 31-June 6 – Memorial
June 7-13 – St. Jude Classic
June 14-20 – U.S. Open

Second half of season TBD