GOLF WORLD's John Antonini reports the 16-member PGA Tour Player Advisory Council met April 10 and "voted to recommend to the PGA Tour policy board that it approve awarding full FedEx Cup points to the Fall Finish events that are moving to the beginning of a split-calendar season" in late '13. The PGA Tour announced March 20 a "restructuring of the schedule and of the tour's qualifying system" in which 50 membership cards would be "awarded via a new three-tournament series and Q school would no longer award PGA Tour cards." Jim Furyk, a member of the tour’s four-player Policy Board, said that "ideas were brought forward" as for how those cards are to be awarded, but that "nothing has been decided" (GOLF WORLD, 4/23 issue).
A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: SI.com's Jon Wertheim wrote the WTA Tour "has put forth a strong product lately," and "more should be made of this." Top-ranked player Victoria Azarenka has lost "once all year," while Serena Williams "appears to be back in form" during the recent tournament in Charleston and Venus Williams has returned from injury. Maria Sharapova may "not be winning titles, but credit her for competing and being a professional." Pitted against the ATP's "Big Four" of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, the WTA is a "tough sell." And when the top players "come and go so erratically, it can be tough to satisfy the hard-core fans and lure the casual ones." But Wertheim wrote, "I get the sense the women's game has turned a corner these past 100 days" (SI.com, 4/18).
WEIGHING THE SCALE: In Boston, Greg Bedard notes NFL personnel "seem to be split on the impact" of the rookie wage scale. In a poll of eight personnel execs, "only a slight majority (five) said they expected more trading near the top of the draft." An AFC exec said, "I think teams would be more inclined to trade up with less concern of financial risk. But I still think a pick is a pick in that if you take a character risk, you still risk losing value with the pick if it fails" (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/19).
NOLA'S GREAT COUP: The Hornets will host the '14 NBA All-Star Game, and a New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE editorial states landing the event for a second time in six years, is a "great coup for the city and the region." The city previously hosted the NBA All-Star Game in '08. New Hornets Owner Tom Benson thanked NBA Commissioner David Stern "for his decision to grant the All-Star Game to New Orleans, and the commissioner deserves particular recognition." He was "instrumental in the Hornets' return to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina" (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 4/19).
