Tournaments are doing creative things to entice top players to consider playing in their events.

Case in point, the Travelers Championship, seated immediately behind (and completely across the country) from this year’s U.S. Open, offered players free charter flights for them and their families from the Seattle/Tacoma to their tournament near Harftord.

They also are famous for the custom M&M’s with the likeness of their winner.

So, how do you attract the former World’s #1, and believe it or not, now the World’s #220 (wow, what a fall from Blues Station 104.0, click HERE if you didn’t catch our blog on it), Tiger Woods?

Well, not many of those tournaments have been successful yet, but we’re pretty sure we know what you DON’T want to offer as an incentive to get him to your place.  Here are our Top 5, in descending order:

• #5 – Barbasol Classic – Assuming there’s a year sometime in the next 40 years when Tiger doesn’t want to play in the Open Championship, the second best place to be that week is in lovely Auburn, Alabama (although Alabama Crimson Tide fans might dispute that) for the Barbasol Classic. It might not be a good idea for the folks in Auburn to offer an “Instructors All Star Foursome” for Tiger’s pro-am partners, those being Butch Harmon, Hank Haney, Sean Foley and Chris Como.  If we were on the Barbasol committee, we’d suggest working a deal where Tiger gets to toss the first roll of toilet paper after Auburn beats Louisville on September 5.  The game’s in Atlanta so if the toss doesn’t go that great, not many will see it anyway.

  

• #4 – RBC Heritage – Probably one of the most popular tournaments on tour, Woods has never played in this event at Harbour Town Golf Links.  Likely, because it’s the week following the Masters.  In the recruitment of Tiger, we certainly would not suggest a practice round with Rick Reilly, who wrote the book “Tiger, Meet my Sister…….and other things I possibly shouldn’t have said.” Stick with the red tartan winner’s jacket and soft shell crabs at the marina.
• #3 – John Deere Classic – Rumor has it that the folks at the John Deere were thinking of offering up a secret time and place for Tiger to have a lesson with David Leadbetter, the only instructor that TW’s not tried to this point.  We suggest otherwise, perhaps offering to pair him with Bill Murray in the pro-am, or guaranteeing Tiger his 2-4 tournament rounds (depending if he makes the cut) with 3 time champion Steve Stricker, who basically owns the place.

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  #2 – The Greenbrier – It looks like Tiger is one step ahead of us, as he’s committed to playing in the Greenbrier this week!  However, we bet they didn’t offer to let Tiger ditch their strict “coat and tie” dress code” in their 103,000 square foot casino and allow him go casual with his cap on backwards (a la Junior Griffey) as he’s been seen doing (see photo).

• #1 – The FUTURE MASTERS – If he ever get’s tired of the real Masters, there’s always the Press Thornton Future Masters in Dothan, Alabama which has been going on for 66 plus years.  With winners such as Stewart Cink, Briney Baird, Shaun Micheel and Mark Brooks, TW would have a chance to add his name to an impressive list of past champions, although they won at 18 years of age or less.  While we do recommend showing some of the sights and attractions of Dothan, such as the Ross Clark Circle and Wiregrass Church to the esteemed tournament guest, we certainly would not recommend to the committee under any circumstances waiving the mandatory qualifying and and the $250 non-refundable entry fee.