Golf Channel Showing Finchem's 3 ET Sunday Scrum

If you want to turn over from NBC's telecast of the Mahan-Kuchar final, Golf Channel will be showing highlights of Commissioner Tim Finchem's 3 p.m. ET "scrum" with the scribblers before his annual appearance in the booth with Johnny and Dan.

You know, considering Commish I Hate Controversy goes positively bonkers when his players take attention away from a golf tournament and/or the sponsor...oh I'll shut up before he speaks.

Update on Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 11:17 AM by Geoff

**The timing could be more like 3:15 ET...

PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem will be available to speak with media today at 1:15 p.m. MT in the press room at the Accenture Match Play Championship.  This will not be a formal press conference, but rather a gathering near the registration area.  Please contact Laura Hill with any questions.

A gathering near the registration area! Because I hear the walk to the interview room is quite arduous.

Update on Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 11:23 AM by Geoff

**Sure enough, now Golf Channel is saying they will not be cutting in live, but with a report soon after his remarks. I'm guessing someone at the tour wised up. Just adding more fun to weirdness that is Dove Mountain.

Comments

[Digger Dave *is* digsouth]

Dadgum, I haven't watched but about 7 holes of the morning pairs, and didn't know , or want to know who won.

I am never,ever, ever making the mistake of clicking on to Shack before i know results again....

now I really don't need/want to watch, ole bug eyes got mahandled, and I had him as the winner; now my bracket watch has wound down-- and while I was not for Day or Kutch in particular, Day named his son ''Dash''.... *~*~*Dash Day*~*~* wow- that kid is gonna have girlfriends before he can read. Kutch, sorry, but that won me over.

So I got no dog in this hunt, but I would like to see Mahan repeat.

Dam commish ruined my golfTV.

[gov. lepetomane]

DD*i*d:
It is Mahan v. Kuchar, or, as I see it,
Young Gun v. HATM2 (Human ATM2 (HATM1 being Stricker))

[DTF]

Those guys would be HATM's 2 and 3, Scott Hoch was the original ;0)

[Liberty Apples]

Can I get some clarification here. Is Finchem holding a news conference while the championship match is underway? And if so, is that his picture next to the word selfish in the dictionary?

[RickABQ]

Commish on NBC: "... we are all interested in doing what's best for the game of golf..."

As long as we realize that he defines the "game of golf" to be "the PGATour", as he reps them.

[Bobby D]

yes and maybe

[Alex H]

Did Finchem just say on live TV that they thought about 20% (!!) of amateurs are using a long putter? I/m pretty sure he just said "they looked at some numbers"...
THAT number is absolutely positively ridiculous. Impossible. 1 in 5? I don't think so.

[Bobby D]

Finchy's no dummy...he used the Match Play TV audience because he is gambling the PGA Tour's "anti-ban" stance will be popular with Joe the Golfing Plumber...he thinks the numbers are on his side...and he knows there's a lot of "Anti USGA" sentiment out there so he's jumping on this one. Whether or not he is making the right move time will tell. The 20% number got my attention, also. What's funny is this guy making 10 million per year salary representing a group of 150 professional golfing multi- millionaires with private jets and Maseratis thinks all the muny hackers out there will agree with him. And he's probably right.

[Ump]

when did the PGA become anti ban? i thot they were with the USGA...

[carnaptious and camsteerie]

Well, my previous two posts today have failed to register. Perhaps third time will be a charm?

Alex H ... those stats were outrageously off the mark.

I sure hope the governing bodies come out fighting on this and ban it sooner rather than later now.

[Euro Tour]

I stand by my earlier posts, affixing part of the club to your torso so that the grip cant move is not swinging the golf club. By definition of club, the grip is a part of the club, if the grip is affixed to the torso the grip can not be swung because it is affixed, meaning the club has not been swung. The commissioner did mention scraping the ball, shoveling the ball, and that is precisely what a club anchored to the torso is doing, scraping and shoveling the ball, that club is not being swung.

If the commissioner is looking for empirical data I would suggest he use some of those high speed high definition cameras and witness the grip end of a belly putter or long putter anchored to the torso and ask him if by definition the grip "moved forward at impact and after impact, which is the current definition of a stroke taken. Nick Faldo said it best the other day, "its not a golf swing". If you haven't swung the entire club, you haven't taken a swing. The high definition cameras are going to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the butt of the club is not being swung.

Area of intended swing, you cant swing a club that is affixed to the torso, impossible.

[Ghillie]

C& C -- are there more or fewer players "using" in Scotland than over here, by your estimate? I realise it would not be scientific, but just as a casual perception.

And if Tim is going for Joe the plumber, he's picked an odd day for it. The ratings on the final day of this thing are usually abysmal -- as he well knows. I suspect he is trying to look transparent -- "look, I'm talking openly during the exciting final round of a WGC" -- in the certain knowledge that hardly anyone will ever even know he spoke.

His 20% seems ludicrous, and if we had any golf writers left who actually did stories, one could do a little very preliminary research on the sales figures of those long putters, for a kick-off, to start estimating their prevalence compared to proper putters.

"Looked at some numbers"? Let's see them.. I look at numbers all the time -- on my keypad, on my phone. So he may not actually be LYING.

Ban the anchoring, and let the PGA Tour use local rules. And God help them at the Open and US Open. Or, they could learn to play golf -- the whole game.

[3foot1]

Is there any chance that Finchem is just bluffing? Could the Tour and PGA America be lobbying the USGA hard, yet knowing that they'll knuckle under if the USGA '' decides to ban? Because Finch is paid by the players, he's got to side with them, but he may not really care, so long as he LOOKS like he cares.

[carnaptious and camsteerie]

Ghillie ... the only people I see using belly or broom handled putters are on the telly!

[Amen Coroner]

Does an anchoring ban really affect the recreational amateur? I mean rec ams will still use longs or bellies and the manufacturers will keep making and selling them. To ban is not necessarily bad for anyone but the competitve ams and pros which is certainly a smaller percentage than the rec ams. The same rec ams that play things like winter rules in the summer, leaf rules, mulligans, and sometimes drop a new ball next to a white stake versus re-teeing.

To me it is clear the Tour and the PGA of A are using the rec am as their main argument who might be using a long or belly 1 out of every 10 to 15 players maybe. The junior competitive am percentage is probably more like 1 in 5. In D3 golf where I coach its probably about 1 in 20 use a long or belly.

[Ghost of Perry Maxwell]

i have a headache now

[Chico]

I've been a club pro in Scotland for 33 years.In total I don't think I have sold 20 of them.I use one myself but have no problem with a ban.

[Chico]

Gillie-I have been selling golf gear.in Scotland for 33 years-I haven't sold 20!

[fyg]

Finchen and the tour are looking out for the little guy!

[Bobby D]

"The ratings on the final day of this thing are usually abysmal -- as he well knows. "

maybe...but don't forget he got double coverage today...his presser was carried live on Golf Channel then he switched over to NBC on the Match Play and repeated his stance to another golf audience...a "two-fer"...and whatever today's ratings are, at what time-slot would he get a larger golf audience? The timing today was his best chance to plead his case.

[non profit winner]

It sounds like everyone believes it has little to no effect on the recreational golfer.

So, everyone is in favor of making golf rules aimed at the tour.

Anchored putting ban because of Keegan and Webb\
Balls and club roll back because of well, everyone on tour

Changing rules because of the Tour, but if the Tour played by their own rules...........