Showdown Should Appeal to Golf Purists - With a Few Changes

By Shane Sharp, Rockiesgolf.com Staff Writer

An excellent take on the Showdown at Sherwood by Mr. Lewis. As a professed golf purist, I have no real rebuttal to this refreshing (or was it comedic) perspective.

Me and six of my closest Red Hook friends watched every last minute of the damn thing. I mean how can you skip the seasons first broadcast of Monday Night Football, errrr, I mean golf.

That the loser pockets $400,000 is a product of the fact that IMG manufactured the whole event. The players were not crying out for the matchup, the fans weren't even crying out for it. Somewhere, Andre Agassi could have been crying, but that's just what he does.

I half-expected Jerry Maguire to step out of the crowd and hug both players at the end. Or Don King's hair to emerge from one of those beautiful green side ponds. Didn't Duval's tee shot on that one par 3 land in King's Hair? Nevertheless, it turned out just how they wanted.

	Tiger Woods

After watching this made-for-TV golf rassling match that could only occur A.T. (After Tiger), I am all for the Showdown. I am almost in love, teetering just above lust. Even as a "golf purist" I never really had strong feelings against.

I mean, come on, I still like to bite into a slim jim now and then, and I know the Body could take Hillary down with a flying butterfly if she wasn't expecting it.

If you think about it, it is no cheesier than the string of B.S. money mongering, appearance fee-based tournaments held in the "off season" from October to January.

There are two tweakings that could take place, however, to make the Showdown one of the great sporting events of the year:

First, make it an annual event and second, make it the top two players on the money list. No one really understands how the Golf World Rankings work, as Mike Tirico alluded to last night.

Plus, using the money list will yield more interesting match ups. In all likelihood, Duval and Woods will dominate the World Rankings for years to come, but they may not be winning the most $ on Tour in a given year.

	David Duval

This way, we could get to see the course management skills of a Justin Leonard or a Mark O'Meara against the booming drives of a Woods or Duval.

If the Showdown is an annual event, based on the money list, the event could actually pick up quite a bit of credibility - as if golf needed more of that.