Question of the week [Nov. 17-23]: If you could create a made-for-television Silly Season event, what format would it be and what players would it attract?
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PGA + LPGA + Champions Tour.
Three players to a team. 24 teams.
Format: Match play, straight knock out.
Jon Woolstencroft
St. Catharines, Ontario
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I would like to see a scramble contest amongst PGA professionals and senior PGA professionals. A team would consist of two each. The teams would be matched up by ranking with an attempt to balance the teams as closely as possible. Some of the rules would be that you must use at least two of each player's drives during each round, not counting par 3s and pros tee off from their respective tee boxes.
Keith Maresca
Pinehurst, North Carolina
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Hold a four-player Skins Game. The players put up their own money — say, maybe $250,000 each. The winner gets $250k and the remaining $750k goes to charity.
The charity is chosen using an annual rotation. The No. 1 charity each year on this list is the one with the highest percentage of money gifted is used by the charities.
Forbes offers an excellent list of said charities — No. 1 now is Feeding America.
Maybe play at the original course, PGA West or play at the new Panther National course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Bring in Draft Kings and Fan Duel so we viewers can bet on the action. Use the Official World Golf Ranking for selecting players, using that order from #1 on down until you get the 4 players
and maybe 4 on the waiting list...
A few other things:
> Play on a Saturday, the day after Black Friday.
> Sell tickets, $100 per and capped at 10,000 attendee. All that money goes to the chosen charity.
> No alcohol to be sold to the attendees.
> Any rowdy crap from attendees similar to this year's embarrassing Ryder Cup gets attendees tossed out.
> Maybe hire local sheriffs to police the crowd. Lots of them.
> Offer the TV rights to the highest bidder with that money also going to the chosen charity.
Skip Raschke
Safety Harbor, Florida
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Start with a four-ball qualifier, 36 holes the weekend before (Saturday-Sunday) for 16 spots. Then 36-holes for Thursday through Sunday.
Randy DeBolt
Fargo, North Dakota
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How about a short-game contest of Phil Mickelson versus someone who is viewed as having elite short-game skills? Or have a national competition for someone (professional or amateur) to win, and then go against Mickelson.
Grant Goodwin
Charlotte, North Carolina
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Have the women on the LPGA Tour play Bikini Golf.
Ed Randolph
Plymouth, Michigan
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To try and garner viewer interest in the silly season, I would adopt the PNC format of father and son with a slight twist.
I would invite the top 20 FedEx Cup players to play a three-round tournament with their dads in an alternate shot format. I would host it in the same Florida location a month earlier than the PNC event. If any of the top 20 decline I would continue down the list until I had all of the slots filled. If their dads had passed, I would extend the invite to include their father-in-laws.
It would be a fun event that I am certain the players would love. I believe they would jump at the chance to play. It would be a sort of payback for all the support their dads had given them growing up.
The purse would be $5 million, but I do not think the low purse would be a deterrent to the players.
Paul Vicary
The Villages, Florida
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I would try a two-man team event based on the state of birth. Take the top 24 teams based on the rankings and have them play a stroke-play event on Day 1. The top four qualifiers finish with match play on Day 2.
I would also watch a 6,700-yard tournament that had LPGA players against PGA Tour Champions players.
Terry Fraser
Huntsville, Alabama
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Mixed men and women in a turn similar to the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup. Let the women play from a forward tee maybe 20 yards ahead of the men.
Donn Rutkoff
Oceanside, California
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Front: Tiger Woods and Charley Woods during the final round of the 2022 PNC Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Florida.
Photo: Scott Halleran / Golffile