Jacobson and Scott Lead Glorified US Open Practice Round

One round in at the Stanford St. Jude Championship and Fredrick Jacobson and Adam Scott have the first round lead at three under par. There's a few other guys at two under par, including Retief Goosen, Brian Gay, Bo Bo Tompkins and Pookie Willis.

Here's the problem with an event like the Stanford St. Jude Championship (rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it): nobody cares. All the players, the media and the fans are already thinking about next week's US Open. This week's tournament is nothing more than a glorified US Open practice round.

Sure the players would be happy to take home the first place trophy and Mont Blanc pen set, but the reason they're in Memphis is to find the swing that'll allow them to win next week. If it means working on their technique to the detriment of their chance to win this week, they'll do it.

What I'm really getting at here is the biggest weakness of professional golf: the lack of any tangible relationship between what happens in the regular tour events and what happens in the majors. Other major sports have a regular season that rewards success with entry into the postseason. This relationship means that teams have to earn their way into the playoffs. It also gives fans a reason to care about what happens in regular season contests.

I'll concede that golf is obviously a bit different than the other major sports, with four major championships sprinkled throughout the year, but does it makes sense that just about every regular tour player gets a crack in the majors? That setup means that a guy who stunk it up all year has the same chance at the beginning of a major that a four-time winner has. No credit is given to the four-time winner's performance that year, which is why we occasionally have major winners named Ben Curtis, Shawn Micheel and Todd Hamilton. It's also why regular tour events have such a hard time captivating the public.

The PGA is aware of this problem, which is one of the reasons why they've created the Fed-Ex Cup. The only thing is, the players don't care about the Fed-Ex Cup; they care about the majors.

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Jacobson and Scott Lead Glorified US Open Practice Round

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