A Modest Proposal

I didn't get to the Wyndham Championship (nee: GGO) this year, but the News & Record says it was a success ("Sunday's gripping final round transformed it into an artistic success"). If this is so, I have a modest proposal to improve the tournament next year: cut the purse from $5,000,000 to $1,000.000. Will fewer golfers enter? No, the field will still be full. Will the field be weaker? I don't think so. Where else are they going to play that week, a half-million dollar Nationwide Tour event? They will still enter for the chance to win a tour exemption and money on the overall prize list. And we can put $4 million back into the community!

OK, just so we won't appear selfish and short-sighted, I propose we add to the total purse if we attract a better field: say increase the total purse by$1 million if Tiger enters, add $100,000 for each entrant from 2-10 on the World Golf rankings, and maybe $20,000 more for golfers 11-50 on the world list. This year we had one top-50 golfer in the field.

I think this way we'd either have a lot stronger field at next years's event or we'd have a lot more money to do some good things around the city.