The Inconvenient Ruse of the Independent Contractor

There is not a single player inside of the top 35 of the Official World Golf Rankings at the Bob Hope Classic this week. If anywhere, they're in Abu Dhabi for the first leg of the European Tour's lucrative Desert Swing. Stars are lured to the Middle East with promises of sizable appearance fees, inching into the seven figures for golf superstars.

Since the PGA Tour does not do that, they can lose out to the Euro Tour when a rich sponsor is willing to do whatever it takes to get the best to their event. For the oil barons of the Middle East, money is little object.

The money lured Anthony Kim to the United Arab Emirates for the event and he was chastised for it by long-time PGA Tour veteran Scott McCarron.

McCarron told Golf Digest, "I think it sends a bad message when you're out chasing money over in Abu Dhabi. Are you helping the PGA Tour when you do that? Absolutely not."

Named to the 16-member PGA Tour Players Advisory Council — that really wields little power since player reps on the board can always be outvoted 5-4 — McCarron has not won on the PGA Tour since 2001. In other words, he is not one of the guys being wooed to play in Abu Dhabi for a hefty, up-front sum.

McCarron's contention is that Commissioner Finchem granted Kim a conflicting event exemption — effectively a doctor's note to skip out on playing the PGA Tour during any one week to play on another tour. A player can be granted up to three each year and the Commish rarely declines a request.

Finchem responded to press conference questions about a possible moratorium on those exemptions. He was not convinced about the volume of requests or their impact on the Tour as a whole.

The tournament director of the Bob Hope Classic disagrees, though. Speaking with Golf World magazine, Michael Milthorpe says his event needs defection protection from the Tour.

"I’d personally like to see the tour do a moratorium on them, until things pick up," Milthorpe said. "Support our events here."

Milthorpe, McCarron, and people of their ilk, are not only wrong, but turn their back on the notion (read: ruse) that PGA Tour players are "independent contractors."

The PGA Tour and its players like to claim that the golfers are "independent contractors" — as though they can just came and go as they please from the Tour. That notion is laughable. A PGA Tour member is not independent.

They have to play in 15 events per year. They are subject to random drug testing. Players must compete in pro-ams or participate in other sponsor events. Loyalty to the Tour is required for all but three tournaments per year. In other words, the "independent contractor" is more like an employee than a contractor.

Commissioner Finchem is a smart man. He realizes that the players truly are not independent contractors. The rubber stamp of the conflicting event exemption is a concept that is used to keep top players happy. Three times per year, the best players on Tour can cash in on their international fame in the form of a six- or seven-figure appearance fee overseas.

More often than not, the exemptions are used to appear in European Tour events with host nations and sponsors that are willing to shell out serious money to woo superstars. The practice is in no way relegated to the Desert Swing. It happens in China and Singapore and other places, too.

Likewise, there are European Tour events that refuse to engage in the practice. Those tournaments almost universally offer fewer points than the PGA Tour event held the same week. Only five FedExCup events offered fewer world ranking points than the Euro Tour event opposite it. Five out of thirty-three. Considering the global nature of the sport, the fact that the PGA Tour holds serve on World Ranking Points more than 80% of the time is very telling.

The only European Tour events that eclipse well-established PGA Tour events are during the Desert Swing. Oil money talks. Hell, as a member of the media, I would prefer to cover the Desert Swing than the Hope. For a three-week stretch during each of the last several seasons, the European Tour has taken the spotlight. So what? For the remainder of the season, only one other Euro Tour event will dominate headlines during the FedExCup. That is the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, which is the Euro Tour's version of the Players Championship and offers bonus World Ranking Points to the field. It is the homecoming of the European Tour year.

That homecoming is necessary because the European Tour's membership qualifications are very lax. A mere 11 events are required to be a Tour member and participate in the Race to Dubai. For elite players, that means the four majors and three WGCs co-sponsored by the Euro Tour, plus three other events and the Dubai World Championship.

The Race to Dubai was concocted by the European Tour as a way of keeping some its homegrown talent in Europe longer, and bring back some of the defectors that went to play the PGA Tour full-time. Just a mere few PGA Tour players took up associate Euro Tour memberships to play in the Race to Dubai. Effectively, that signaled that the PGA Tour has a very loyal base as it is. The money, the ease of travel, and the competition on the PGA Tour is superior to the European Tour.

Knowing this, pockets of the European Tour — the Desert Swing, Race to Dubai, et al — cater to the top players. Meanwhile, PGA Tour players like McCarron appear happy to swipe up the European-born talent. McCarron was not complaining that Rory McIlroy has decided to join the PGA Tour in 2010. He didn't balk at the scores of other players that cultivated their game in Europe and then brought it to America.

Why not? They're taking up spots in PGA Tour events that prevent rank-and-file guys like McCarron from having higher priority. Many players that hold dual memberships are in Abu Dhabi, including eight of the world's top 14. Why did McCarron focus his rage on Anthony Kim, one of three Americans in the field, instead of former major champion Todd Hamilton?

In all honesty, guys like McCarron really only want superstars to appear to help promote events in the short-term. For every guy ranked highly like Kim that appears in the Hope, McCarron's odds of being in the field get worse. The rank-and-file want loyalty only to the end that it helps them maintain opportunities to play. To McCarron, "supporting the PGA Tour" means "ensuring that second- and third-tier players have intramural tournaments."

Unlike the European Tour, the PGA Tour is very much influenced by the rank-and-file, the guys that have made millions of dollars, but never actually won a tournament. Happy with their lifestyle, they seek to preserve it when they feel threatened by the reality that a global tour is taking shape above them, operating outside of their reach and influence.

As Doug Barron said to me earlier this week, "Golf is a selfish game. You've got to look out for yourself."