Death of the International?

It seems like some of the tournament bickering that happened out in public with the LPGA Tour last season is beginning to take place at the PGA Tour level this season. Woody Paige at the Denver Post opines about the rumblings he hears from INTERNATIONAL founder Jack Vickers about the Tour's demands for more sponsor money, changing tournament dates, and other requests that are expected of the tournament to keep its Tour slot.

I objected to these kinds of demands by the LPGA Tour last year, but could at least understand the rationale of doing so because the end goals of more money would result in real pension and health coverage for Tour players. Also, the LPGA Tour is currently in a position to grow monetarily and in terms of numbers of fans. The PGA Tour is not currently in that position, though. Ratings are down and generally struggling. They will continue to struggle until the Golf Channel gets its footing as a golf broadcaster for the PGA Tour. Corporate interest is down because purses are so large that the best players can scale back their playing schedules - a very interesting side effect of the Tigermania 2000 TV contract.

On top of that, I love the INTERNATIONAL. It is different, innovative, and has lots of fan support in Denver. To try to bully this event around (at least in the eyes of Mr. Vickers) seems to be inappropriate. There need to be more events on the schedule like this one. Not less.