Should Gary Van Sickle Should Be Answering This?

SI golf writer Gary Van Sickle's son, Mike, has had a pretty active summer.  Van Sick has played in a couple of PGA Tour events on sponsor exemption.  He hasn't done so hot, but hasn't done poorly either.  He also played in the US Amateur and did not fare too well.  Gary was on the bag for much of that action this summer.

Clearly, being the father of a well-respected amateur player kind of gives him some bias toward other amateur golfers - especially those that might be within the bell curve of his son's talent.

So, that's what took me aback when this question was posed at golf.com's PGA Tour Confidential:

Sam Saunders, Arnold Palmer's grandson, will make his professional debut this week at the Albertsons Boise Open. (He got a sponsor's exemption.) What do we make of his chances as a touring pro? Sons and grandsons of successful Tour pros have had mixed results, at best.

And then Van Sickle answered the question.

Saunders couldn't crack Clemson's lineup and left school early. If you can't beat the guys at Clemson (a college powerhouse), you're going to have a tough time beating the pros, who are a lot better. Saunders has gotten a lot of invites (as an amateur) to things that his record suggests he doesn't deserve. That said, he'll get every opportunity to prove that he's got the game to play as a pro. He might just surprise us all.

It's not that Van Sick's answer was wrong.  It's totally factually accurate.  I have no problem with that.  But isn't there an inherent conflict of interest here?  At the same time, Van Sickle offers a lot more depth to any discussion of amateur golf because of his experience with his son.  I want to get your thoughts on this.

The egregious thing is that the LPGA Tour got exactly zero ink in the segment despite the playoff holding some serious significance for a struggling tour.  Or that the Walker Cup didn't even get a word.