O'Neill: PGA must adapt playoff system in 2008

For the third consecutive week, at least one of golf’s biggest draws will skip one of the PGA Tour playoffs. Imagine Derek Jeter telling the New York Yankees he’s going to stay home for the third game of the World Series.

This time, it’s Phil Mickelson, who staged a dramatic shootout with the game’s No. 1 star, Tiger Woods, just days ago. It was the kind of stuff golf fans dream of, the kind of stuff that gets big headlines and prominent play in newspapers and websites, the kind of stuff the PGA Tour envisioned when it put together this season-ending cage match.

Mickelson, haunted by Winged Foot, hampered by a wrist injury this year, had a resurrection. He traded birdies with the big, bad Woods and demonstrated why many thought he was truly a rival to the great Eldrick before his 72nd hole freeze out at the 2006 U.S. Open.

And as a result of the compelling theater in Boston over the weekend, “Mick the Stick” and Tiger were scheduled to be paired again in the first two rounds of the BMW Championship at Cog Hill in Chicago this week. We didn’t even have to hold up the Bic lighters. It was a built-in encore.

But guess what — ain’t gonna happen.

While its player was hamming it up in a corporate event just around the corner at Medinah Country Club on Tuesday, Mickelson’s management team sent out a release saying he would not be participating in the third leg of the playoffs. Another healthy scratch.

In the first week it was Woods, who was coming off back-to-back wins at the PGA and Bridgestone. In the second week, it was Ernie Els and Skip Kendall. Now in week No. 3, British Open champ Padraig Harrington and the current playoff series winner is taking a pass — No. 1 in the FedExCup standings, nowhere to be seen in your program.

“This decision was not an easy one to make, and in no way is meant as disrespectful to the tour or ‘sending a message’ to anyone,” Mickelson said in the statement. “I’ve talked for weeks about needing to find a balance between my game, my business affairs and my family, and now is the time for me to take some time off.”

There’s no reason to get all huffy and dump on Mickelson, which so many of the golfing press will be inclined to do. If Woods, if Els than why not Phil, why shouldn’t he take a week off after playing two weeks in a row?

That’s the message. He should take a week off because he can take a week off, he can afford to hop in his private plane and fly home, be with his family, watch the San Diego Chargers open the football season, even work around the house if he wants.

The press release notwithstanding, a message is being sent: you are dreaming PGA Tour if you think you are going to get the multi-millionaires in your game to come out and play four weeks in a row in some convoluted playoff series.

Tiger Woods is the Player of the Year, we all know that, no matter what the FedExCup standings produce. And sorry, but a $10 million annuity to cats who are making that and more annually is little more than a complimentary attendance prize.

This is not 1945, when Byron Nelson won all those tournaments so he could afford the down payment on a ranch. The major league of professional golf has this Catch-22 thing going in which the purses are so big and the perks so lucrative that frequent winners no longer need to “tour,” not nearly as much as the Tour needs them.

It’s called leverage. Tiger Woods has it, Phil Mickelson has it, even a corporate outing that is paying cash on the barrel head has it. The PGA Tour and its playoff series has almost none.

A championship series can not be a successful unless all of the best players in the game are playing. All of the best players in the game are not going to play several weeks in a row, certainly not for an annuity. Something has to give and it is clear the likes of Woods, Els and Mickelson will not.

The PGA Tour is going to have to go back to the drawing board on this. It’s going to have to make the rewards more enticing, make the schedule less demanding, cow tow for all its worth.

Are the superstars of the game spoiled? Please, that horse left the barn a while back. It’s the PGA Tour that has to adjust.

MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
There will be seven players in this week’s BMW Championship that have victories at Cog Hill Golf Club on their resumes. Tiger Woods has won three times (1997, 1999, 2003), while Billy Mayfair (1995), Steve Stricker (1996), Robert Allenby (2000), Jerry Kelly (2002), Jim Furyk (2005) and Trevor Immelman (2006) have all won once at the Chicago course.

MOVIN’ ON UP
Who has improved his position the most in the first two weeks of the PGA Tour playoffs? Arron Oberholser has climbed 43 spots from 72nd in the FedExCup standings to 29th.

Meanwhile, four have had top-10 finishes in each of the first two playoff events, including Steve Stricker (first and tie for ninth), Mickelson (tie for seventh and first), Geoff Ogilvy (tie for fourth and tie for sixth) and Rory Sabbatini (third and tie for sixth).

PLAYER TO WATCH
Woods has a particularly impressive record at Cog Hill. In his nine pro starts at the BMW Championship, Woods has made all nine cuts, won three times, been second twice and recorded seven top-10s. For his career, he is 99-under par at Cog Hill.

PLAYER TO WATCH NEXT YEAR
Jason Day has had a fabulous first season on the Nationwide Tour. The 19-year old Australian is third on the money list ($320,589) with a win and seven top-10s.  He’s first in the “all-around” stat category and is second in scoring average. He’s also fifth in driving distance and tied for fourth in putting.

SWEATIN’ TO THE 60S
Gil Morgan’s victory last week at the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach made the Oklahoma native the 17th player in Champions Tour history to win after his 60th birthday.