"Hello World" Again?

We're five weeks into a new golf season that is creating as much buzz as a Wilmer Valderrama film at Sundance.

Ever since Tiger Woods drove his SUV into a fire hydrant 50 feet from his driveway, golf attention and news has shifted from the tee box to the tabloids. In the two and-a-half months since that night, we've heard Tiger was in Sweden, Arizona, Long Island and finally in Mississippi where he was allegedly released from sex rehab last week.

Meanwhile, on the PGA Tour, Ryan Palmer, Bill Haas and Ben Crane were winning golf tournaments. Paint also dried.

Steve Stricker and Geoff Ogilvy, both top ten players, also won tournaments but neither provided the necessary star power to bring the buzz back to the course. Instead, we continue to wonder where Tiger is and when he's coming back? And most importantly, an 'indefinite break' ends before the Masters, right?

The initial reaction to the Tiger story from the golf community was, unsurprisingly, silence. Tiger has always been notoriously private and reportedly aloof with his peers. The deal between them was fairly straight forward: he made them all obscenely rich and they stayed out of his way. Amongst tour players Tiger's private life, at least on the record, was 'Fight Club' and we all know the first rule of 'Fight Club'.

Shortly after the scandal broke Jesper Parnevik criticized Woods but that was expected and understandable, as Jesper employed Tiger's wife Elin as a babysitter and played a role in introducing the couple.

Then in late December Sergio spoke out. And then Geoff Ogilvy did too. Both did the previously unthinkable and actually discussed the personal life of Tiger Woods, with Ogilvy going as far as trying to suggest Tiger owed it to the tour to hold a press conference away from the course before he comes back. (In what must have been rock-bottom for Woods, John Daly even offered some advice.)

The comments from Sergio, Ogilvy and more recently Tom Watson all made me raise an eyebrow. Why would they risk ticking Tiger off? Do they really want him extra motivated when he comes back? Are they trying to see if he can win a tournament by 20 shots?

It just didn't make sense. Tiger is the best. By a mile. If the players encouraged a rapid comeback or goaded him into returning, their earnings would take a monumental hit. Their chances of winning would significantly decrease. Why wouldn't they take advantage of the moment and let a sleeping Tiger lye? Why would they disobey 'The Code'?

All good questions that only lead to one answer: they, like us, are scared Tiger may not be back for a while. And while that may be positive for their personal bank accounts in the short-term, in the long-run, with a new television deal on the horizon and several title-sponsorships in question, it could be disastrous.

It was in 1996 that a 20 year-old Tiger burst onto the scene and announced his arrival with the words "Hello, world". For professional golf to snap out of its current funk, Tiger will need to have a rebirth. Soon.

The Ugly Canadian (Open)

It's been a quick and tragic descent toward mediocrity (or worse) for the Canadian Open. The tournament that was once considered the 5th major has become a mere footnote on the PGA Tour.

Whether you blame Tiger (for removing us from his schedule) or the Tour itself (for sticking us with a horrific date directly following the British Open), it's clear our National Championship has lost much of its considerable luster.

With a list of past champions that includes many of the game's biggest names (Walter Hagen, Tommy Armour, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Greg Norman and Tiger Woods) and as owners of a 104 year-old tournament (3rd longest in golf), how did we (read: the RCGA) let this happen? Ok, that was a lot of brackets, but I needed them.

Instead of the best golfers on the planet competing to be our champion, we now attract a couple of great players, a lot of good ones, and more than a few who should be selling us equipment at Golf Town. When only 6 of the top 50 ranked players in the world show up, it's tough to take an event seriously, especially if it's a national championship. Which is why something, anything, needs to change.

And the Nationwide Tour has already provided the blueprint: attach Wayne Gretzky to the tournament. Make it the RBC Canadian Open hosted by Wayne Gretzky. Invite Canadian celebrities (athletes, actors, entertainers, etc.) to play in a two day pro-am that wraps up Friday and leaves the weekend to the pros.

That preserves the integrity of our national championship and hopefully calms the traditionalists, but also gives the event a much needed facelift. It could be a celebration of Canadian talent and achievement (as long as Pamela Anderson isn't involved), two days to honour our own and raise the tournament's profile.

Some might argue that with two celebrity pro-am tournaments already on Tour, there isn't any need for a third. However, both the Bob Hope and Pebble Beach are amongst the first events of the season, so staging another more than five months later shouldn't be an issue.

Imagine the media attention people like Sydney Crosby, Steve Nash, Ryan Gosling, Jack Bauer and a host of others would command? Couldn't it be sold to the players as a nice change of pace after a major championship week? Or as a chance to meet some of our country's most recognizable faces? Surely it would provide more entertainment value and publicity than four days of grinding golf by players most people have never heard of.

The last time the Canadian Open generated any real buzz was four long years ago when Mike Weir snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and handed Vijay Singh the trophy. Since then the event has been met with less and less enthusiasm, and yet organizers continue to do nothing to change the trend.

If the top players aren't going to show up regardless of what we do, we're pretty much reduced to one single storyline: can a Canadian win or contend? It's like Groundhog Day.

In that case, I say we go all the way and make Bill Murray a part of it.