This Week at WorldGolf.com: March 22, 2005

A beer truck driver won a Champions Tour event Sunday. Specifically, former Budweiser hauler Mark Johnson won a Champions Tour event that nobody's ever heard of (who can get more specific about a Champions Tour event than that?)

Yeah sure, it's a nice story. Johnson is a real Cinderella who knows his Clydesdales. Yet somehow he hasn't captured the nation's attention with the same force as NCAA darlings Vermont and Bucknell. What does a guy have to do to become lovable? I mean, he drove a beer truck.

Perhaps Johnson would be advised to play on a real tour.

Can we put an end to this parade of washed up geriatric golfers? Any day now?

It doesn't matter if you call them Champions or Seniors, they're just boring. Golf is the only sport that forces us to keep watching its competitors after they no longer can hack it in the big leagues. Did we have to see Henry Aaron fall on his face in the minors after he set the career home run record? Will anyone have to watch a 50-year-old Shaq try to lumber down the court or a 45-year-old Barry Sanders cut on a dime?

It's about time for golf to join the rest of the sports world. Save carting out the old-timers for a special day with special uniforms that everyone knows is just for chucks and giggles. Sure, the "Champions" are still better than 99.9 percent of your average golfers. Who cares? Pro sports are about the best of the best.

The guys struggling in the NBDL are better than 99.9 percent of the average basketball players too, and nobody pretends they're worthy of major attention.

Worse yet, the Champions Tour doesn't just give us has-beens and legends collecting another paycheck. It gives us never-beens and expects people to be wowed by the idea of golfers never good enough to thrive on the PGA Tour racking up wins.

Call me unAmerican, but I don't care about the beer truck driving golfer.

I'd rather hear about Pinehurst No. 2 putting her face on for the U.S. Open or the usual bunker controversy surrounding the Old Course's British Open spruce-up or Michelle Wie. Or a good bingo game for that matter.

Anything but this faux, self-important tour.

As always your comments are welcome on any topic, including your loving or loathing of the Champions Tour.

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