Why can't we see Tiger Woods' PIP numbers? And why did you jinx Notre Dame? | HEY, WILLIE!

HEY, WILLIE!

I tried to make sense of the PIP but it doesn’t make any sense to me. I want to see the measurements and do my own math to make sure Tiger Woods is really worth $15 million to the American golf tour.

Might they have just cooked up a bunch of gobbledygook and named Tiger the winner so he can get enough payoff to stay on their side instead of the LIVs?

RANDY

HEY, RANDY!

It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen an honoree in need of an honor. Usually, though, it’s a Chamber of Commerce cooking up some award for a local hotshot in order to sell lots of tickets to the annual Community Spirit Dinner & Silent Auction.

I doubt they’ll ever go public with the formula and all the metrics involved with the PGA Tour’s two-year-old Player Impact Program (PIP), just as the Colonel never gave up his 11 herbs and spices.

For many decades now, especially after Arnold Palmer blue-printed the template, the best golfers have made a lot more income than just those Sunday checks they deposited on Monday mornings.

That money has always come from the corporate world, and now some of it comes from the PGA Tour, which, as we all know, is a "tax-exempt non-profit 501(c)6 organization," if you’re scoring at home.

Like Arnie long before him, Tiger lifted the PGA Tour’s value in such a manner — largely through elevated network deals — it’s hard to imagine a commensurate dollar figure.

LANE KIFFIN: His coaching tour is a modern marvel; is he chasing Lou Saban? | KEN WILLIS

YESTERDAY'S NASCAR: A monkey in the cockpit? Cigarette lighters? Johnny Reb? Yep, NASCAR once allowed all that

HEY, WILLIE!

How could you jinx the Fighting Irish like that? 

Now we get a USC team full of transfers in the playoffs. There’s something that just doesn’t feel right about that. 

You proud of yourself?

BILL

HEY, BILL!

No team has exposed my handicapping flaws quite like Notre Dame's Occasionally Fighting Irish this year.

This time, in my defense, I picked them with the darker recesses of my heart, in hopes of dumping USC and making the College Football Playoff committee eventually consider a two-loss Alabama team.

Clemson, Tennessee and LSU were kicked out of the way, and probably even Ohio State, while TCU survived Baylor and now must survive K-State. Southern Cal squeaked past UCLA before handling Notre Dame, but next has the dangerous Utes.

And Michigan goes to the Big Ten title game to play Purdue, which this year hasn’t exactly cashed in on its Spoilermaker reputation. Purdue is overdue. Just throwing that out there.

For what it’s worth, it appears I also slapped the whammy on Tiger Woods, who has pulled out of this week’s 20-man field in The Bahamas due to plantar fasciitis. And let’s not overlook last Friday’s column on Lane Kiffin going to Auburn.

Stand back, folks, I’m on a roll . . .

HEY, WILLIE!

I voted for Ross Chastain!

STEVE

HEY, STEVE!

Good for you, and I don’t blame you, but I don’t like Ross’ chances to win the Chase Elliott Trophy, officially known as NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver award.

As an eighth-generation South Florida watermelon farmer (in his free time, of course), Chastain is the rare modern racer who knows what it’s like to have dirty fingernails. That back story, along with his fearless nature on the track, should provide him a solid fan following for years to come.

But no force of nature can overcome birthright, and it was Chase’s birthright to inherit the officially licensed popularity trophy previously owned by daddy Bill. That’s racin’.

— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Tiger Woods' PIP, Notre Dame's hex, Ross Chastain's hurdle | HEY, WILLIE!