An Inauspicious Debut

Lyle Anderson, the Arizona-based land developer, has a nose for good real estate and a knack for promoting it through top-shelf golf tournaments. It was Anderson who recognized the value in holding the inaugural Skins Game, in 1983, at his Desert Highlands development near Scottsdale. And in only eight years Anderson turned the Tradition into one of the so-called major championships on the Senior tour as well as a classy marketing tool for his fledgling Desert Mountain property. Now he has created a European tour event to showcase Loch Lomond, a new private club a half hour's drive north of Glasgow, Scotland. But last week's $1.16 million Loch Lomond World Invitational ran into a couple of obstacles right out of the box.

First, Anderson decided that he would not pay appearance fees to marquee players, even though they are a matter of course on the European tour. As a result, only two of the world's top 20—Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomerie—and no Americans of note entered. Second, the event was overshadowed by the Solheim Cup.

Anderson doesn't blame players for demanding appearance money. He simply takes a long view on how the fees would work against the credibility of his limited-field event, which was won by Thomas Bjorn of Denmark. "Players have a right to make arrangements for people to pay them," Anderson says. "I just don't think you can have a world championship with people not playing on a level field."

The scheduling was a bigger problem. Most of the media were focused on the Solheim Cup and delighted in reporting the tirade by European team captain Mickey Walker, who said the Euro tour's attempt to bigfoot the Solheim Cup by scheduling Loch Lomond for the same week was "insensitive, disrespectful, a slap in the face and an insult to women's golf."

The good news is that if Anderson stays the course, 1997 figures to be a better year for three reasons: There will be no Solheim Cup. Word of the conditions at the highly acclaimed Tom Weiskopf-designed course and the red-carpet treatment given the pros last week will attract some Europeans. Most important, Loch Lomond will probably be played right after the Ryder Cup at Valderrama in Sotogrande, Spain, making it a convenient stop for many of the world's best players.

Dumb like a Fox

Indications are that 70-year-old Frank Chirkinian has worked his last golf telecast for CBS. Chirkinian, who during his 46 years at the network came up with such innovations as listing the players' scores against par and miking the tees, was feted at a lavish dinner hosted by PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem during the Presidents Cup. At the end of the week, when CBS concluded its coverage of the event, Jim Nantz signed off by saying, "Good night from the Frank Chirkinian broadcast team," something he had never done before.

Chirkinian, his agent and Dave Kenin, the president of CBS Sports, are to meet soon to discuss Chirkinian's future. High-ranking CBS executives reportedly want to replace Chirkinian with 41-year-old Lance Barrow, his longtime apprentice. If that change is made, Chirkinian might be pushed into the arms of the Fox network, which recently bought a one-third stake in the Golf Channel. Fox is expected to bid on PGA Tour events—including the three new worldwide tournaments announced last week—when contracts come up for renewal after the 1998 season. At Fox, Chirkinian would be reunited with Pat Summerall and might also be in a position to resurrect the career of the banished Ben Wright.

Muscle Men

The International team is 0-2 between the ropes in the Presidents Cup but undefeated at getting its way. Having already threatened to boycott this year's match if David Graham did not resign as captain, the Internationals again laid down the law by demanding that the event be held overseas in 1998—or else.