Caddie's Role: Halloween is traditionally a holiday for children, unless you are in America that is, when the whole nation likes to dress up on the last day of October.
Having missed the cut in Tampa the previous week I took myself up to New York for the weekend and out of the snow bird pensioner's environment of south west Florida.
I stayed with a friend in Brooklyn. It was like walking though a pumpkin display along the brownstone lined avenues of the city. At the top of the steps to most of the four-storey buildings were clusters of pumpkins with faces carved into them. The railings at the bottom of the homes were shrouded in decorative webs.
When I looked up at the hostess, who was offering me a drink on my flight to Atlanta out of La Guardia airport, I was greeted by a broad beaming lady who was wearing a tiger mask. Another hostess had a Vikings hat.
There was no trick or treat when we got to the Tour Championships at the revamped East Lake course close to downtown Atlanta. There was no holiday atmosphere from the championship office given the fact their main man, Tiger Woods, and best supporting star, Phil Mickelson, were not playing.
The 27 other competitors in the grand finale to the US Tour, which traditionally comprises of the elite top-30 on the money list, were rubbing their hands in anticipation of not having to beat the currently invincible Tiger in strokeplay events.
Even though Tiger was not in Atlanta he still was the talk of the tournament. The fact that his face adorned most advertising for the event was an indication of how the sponsors thought their event was going to go. They had anticipated a Tiger fest and all they got were the rest.
It seems to be a tour policy to promote both Woods and Mickelson as the "only players" worth watching at their events.
The problem with this policy is when their stars decide to opt out of playing, no matter what the prize money on offer. Of course as free agents the players are not obliged to play in any event as long as they show up for 15 events in a year, which is the minimum required to keep their status. There is an expectation, however, amongst the tour and sponsors the stars will show for their event. It is almost unthinkable they would have the audacity not to pitch for their elitist showpiece.
Once again the success of the US Tour is actually working against it. Of course there was much speculation in the locker-room and caddie shack about why the world's best golfer, and to all of us in the business, our guarantee of the future health of the professional game, would not have played last week.
The problem with modern golf diplomacy is that we rarely find out the real reason for the public statement because it's easier not to offend. Fatigue and not being ready to play sounds plausible, until you realise he is making the 14-hour trip to Shanghai this week instead of the hours jaunt to Atlanta. We all know why players of Tiger's calibre travel beyond their borders to play and it's usually not for the scenery.
This time last year the tour announced that the 2007 schedule would be notably different. With an effective play-off system operating in September culminating in Atlanta at the East Lake course. The event is to be sponsored by FedEx and the winner of the "mini-tour" will hoist both the FedEx Cup and a $10 million bonus. It would be hard even for Tiger and Phil to pass on this offer you would imagine. Unless there is a catch and there seems to be one. The $10 million would go into an annuity or pension scheme. The rumour is that the best player who didn't play last week would prefer to choose himself, after he wins the $10 million, how he should invest it.
The Tour is trying to reinvent the professional tour's schedule to make it more enticing to the television viewer. They seem to think the prospect of Phil and Tiger battling it out in the sweat-box of Atlanta in September is more appealing than not watching them brush the autumn leaves from their putting lines for just $1.17 million in November. They may well have a point. We will have to wait and see in September next year.
There is one certainty, it is not a good idea to irk Mr Woods. He has made us all more affluent than we possibly should be at various ends of the golf tour. The less events he turns up for ultimately the more detrimental it is to the rest of us.
Adam Scott won this year's Tour Championship with a solid 11-under-par total under the most testing conditions that East Lake has presented in recent years. Maybe Tiger would have amassed a lower total. We will never know. What we do know is that the crowds and accompanying atmosphere at the event were not befitting of a season finale.
In a contradictory way it was good for the rest of the field that Tiger was not there but we do not need him to stay away for too long.
It's trick or treat with the US Tours most successful golfer, who is not wearing a mask, and the tour which is sporting its customary business attire. It needs to offer those treats which entice the great man to play the big events, otherwise they will lose both their appeal and status.
