Donald Says Player of the Year Vote “Sketchy”

Is the PGA Tour trying to keep Luke Donald from the Player of the Year award? I don’t think so, but I can see where it might appear that way.

Earlier this week, the Tour revealed that it would delay mailing the POY ballots for two weeks so that voters could include the results of the HSBC Champions event in Shanghai. The problem, the Tour said, was that no one realized the HSBC results would count if a PGA Tour member won. In fact, PGA Tour executive vice president Ty Votaw said it took a journalist to wake up the staff in Ponte Vedra

“A journalist contacted us on Monday to confirm whether HSBC was in fact an official victory. When asking that question, it focused us on what the impact of a potential victory at HSBC would be on information that membership would receive if ballots went out this week as opposed to going out after HSBC.”

It seems strange to me that no one was on top of that issue. And it probably wouldn’t attract any notice but for the fact that PGA Champion Keegan Bradley is playing in Shanghai. If he manages to win, the voting delay would help solidify his claim to Player of the Year honors.

So is it a conspiracy to keep Player of the Year honors from Donald, who plays on two Tours? Again, I doubt it. But Luke Donald seems to think so. In an interview on The Golf Channel’s Morning Drive, he made no bones about it:

“I think the decision to add HSBC is sketchy at best. Why change the rule the day after Disney? It doesn’t really make sense to me. I feel like if I even went to HSBC and won, they’d find another event to add.”

No mincing words there.

There are two explanations here: That the Tour is engaged in a conspiracy to award Player of the Year to an American or that someone completely dropped the ball in the planning phase. The conspiracy doesn’t make sense because even if Bradley were to win in Shanghai, there’s still no guarantee he wins with the voters. It seems incredibly stupid to try to engineer a conspiracy with no guarantee of a desired outcome. The other explanation is less sinister and more embarassing and thus to my ears rings more true.

I think I understand Donald’s frustration. But I’m sure he’ll realize how nutty and petty it sounds and in some way retract it in the coming days.

For what it’s worth, Donald would get my vote, regardless of the HSBC Shanghai outcome. His clutch win at Disney made up my mind.