Shotgun Start: Suggestions for spicing up the offseason

At long last, the golf season has effectively ended and Silly Season is in full force, if not farce. CBSSports.com golf writer Steve Elling and Augusta Chronicle columnist and golf writer Scott Michaux take a look at the holiday landscape, separating the candy cane from chimney soot.

The Silly Season fare is on the table, with 18-man cash grabs, two-man team shootouts, multi-tour gender blenders and a few other unofficial events tossed in as offseason filler. If you were a marketing guy with a sponsor in tow, what format would you like to see as a means of spicing up the offseason?
ELLING: It's been decades since the Skins Game reinvented the offseason calendar, and in many respects, the Thanksgiving staple remains a brilliant notion whose time simply passed. Why? Sending four players out to compete for a million bucks became stale and the landscape was too dotted with other events. I would revive the Skins after a fashion, but with an entirely different format. This time, players would be required to put up some of their own dinero, like that big-money gambling event staged in Las Vegas a few years ago. Who wants to merely watch rich guys get richer while feeding from a title sponsor's trough? When Scott and I play for a few greenbacks, it's coming out of our bank accounts. Let players shell out some of their own money to fund the purse, with the sponsor putting up a matching amount -- you could get to some big numbers in a hurry. Which players have the stones -- and wallet -- big enough to play for, say, $500,000 of their own money? Maybe we'd find out the answer is zero. Hard to say. But since nobody wants to pursue my idea for an R-rated golf event -- a coed Shirts-n-Skins Game -- maybe this would work.
MICHAUX: Funny you should ask, because I've had a pet idea brewing for years. There needs to be a Ryder Cup-style contest featuring only Americans. The idea would be to annually expose more young and talented American players to team match play at the highest level to give them experience for when it counts on the big stages of the Ryder and Presidents Cups. The playing captains would be the outgoing and incoming chiefs for the previous and upcoming international U.S. teams (i.e. Corey Pavin vs. Fred Couples this year; Couples vs. Davis Love III or whoever the next Ryder captain ends up being; and so on). Invite 22 more American players who are regulars or aspire to team competition. On the eve of the matches, the captains will actually choose sides like they do on a playground or at a draft party. Then you have three days of competition just like the real events, only everybody plays just once a day -- best ball one day, alternate shot the next and singles to finish. Only this time -- since it is the Silly Season -- there would be a purse. If it's $3 million, each player on the winning side gets $200,000 and the losers get $50,000. If it's $6 million, winners take $425,000 and losers $75,000. Not only will players care about the cash, they'll care about trying to impress the next captain who will be making his picks nine months later. Tell me you wouldn't rather watch that than the Shark Shootout.


Promising teen pro Lexi Thompson has petitioned the LPGA for more sponsor exemptions, an increase from the allowable six under current rules for underage players. Is giving her more access a good idea?
ELLING: Where have I heard that term before, "promising teen pro?" Oh, right, every single LPGA season over the past decade. You wanna know the best argument for enforcing the age-minimum requirement for players under 18? Look at Monday's results from LPGA Qualifying School Finals. The medalist was Aree Song, 24, who was given a special green light for play while still a teen after contending at several majors as an amateur. She just completed her seventh full season as an LPGA player and in fact, her Q-school win was her first victory of any kind. You want some irony? Jessica Korda, a 17-year-old who entered Q-school as an amateur, also earned her card for next year on Sunday, the same day Song, a struggling former "phenom," won the qualifier. Thompson, 15, is the most talented of the crop, it seems, and she made enough in her limited starts in 2010 to earn her LPGA card, had she been allowed membership. No question, these commissioner's-dispensation issues should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, because holding players to age restrictions when they mature at different paces seems unfair. But the pitfalls are clear. I will herewith recycle a phrase I have used many, many, many times over the years -- what's the big hurry?
MICHAUX: Girls mature faster than boys, and there has been a wealth of teen talent that has been competitive at the highest levels on the LPGA. They need to foster that and not stifle it. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that teens who are as skilled and mature as Thompson should be allowed to play up to one-third of the tour schedule -- eight events per year. That's summer vacation and it's a lot less than many of them would be traveling on the AJGA circuit. The LPGA needs to showcase dynamic new talent as much as possible, and if Thompson draws fans, then they should play that card as much as is reasonably possible. These young women understand what they are getting into. It's not an easy career path, but if they are qualified to handle it they should be allowed. In fact, someone like Thompson, who made enough to earn a card, should be granted some kind of designation such as "junior member" that gives her the ability to enter any eight tournaments she wants and not have to rely on sponsor exemptions all the time. The LPGA needs to be in a bigger hurry to get its best players onto the market as often as possible.


Six days after a player with African-American heritage became the first in 25 years to earn a PGA Tour card via the Q-school route, a female has done likewise on the LPGA. Is it a coincidence or the beginning of something big?
ELLING: It's somewhere in between, no doubt. Despite some admittedly raw nerves, Shasta Averyhardt next year will be the first black player with LPGA status in exactly one decade. That in itself is more surprising than the drought on the male side, where the global talent pool is much deeper. Simply put, it's easier for females to get a foot in the professional door. Averyhardt, 24, closed with a 79 and was absolutely aware of what she was doing and what was at stake, culturally and professionally. "It's pressure, and sometimes people succumb to pressure," she told Golfweek. "I'm playing for myself, but I'm also playing for sponsors and the African-American community." So, 15 years after Tiger Woods won his first major, there will be black players on both major U.S. tours. While it might not represent the beginning of a tidal change, at least it's a heartening start. Diversity is crucial to the game's survival, both at home and abroad. By the way, Averyhardt played at Jackson State, in the program of cultural trailblazer Eddie Payton.
MICHAUX: I don't know what to add other than congratulations. It's great to see that many of the initiatives to make the game more representative of the population as a whole might be starting to take root at the highest levels. But one person on each tour seems more of a coincidence than a trend. Only when we start seeing multiple players on both tours can we believe a sustainable movement is afoot. What I really hope is that both Averyhardt and Joseph Bramlett are able to take advantage of their opportunities and maintain their status as regular card-carrying competitors on their respective tours. It's one thing to finally get there. It's another to stay there against the best competition in the world. Best of luck to them both.

extracted from cbssports.com