When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
I tracked the jargon-usage from the press conference to announce a new TV deal--starring Tim Finchem, with cameos by Sean McManus and Mark Lazarus--and Value never had to go the whip, leading gate to wire despite a nice stretch run move by 99-1 longshot Underpinning. Value you paid $2.80 to win.
Details will follow. My Twitter stream has the highlights from Tim Finchem's press conference in Boston.
****The official release highlights:
Highlights of the CBS package include the majority of the popular West Coast Swing; a strong spring and summer schedule; the end of the FedExCup Regular Season including the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and the play-in event to the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, the Wyndham Championship; and coverage of The Barclays to begin the Playoffs. CBS will maintain more than 130 hours of live weekend coverage per year.
NBC will continue to have a strong first quarter of coverage including two World Golf Championships events – the Accenture Match Play Championship and Cadillac Championship – and the Southern Swing; extended coverage of THE PLAYERS Championship in May with limited commercial interruption; and the final three Playoff events: the Deutsche Bank Championship, BMW Championship and the FedExCup season-ending TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola. NBC also will continue coverage of the biennial Presidents Cup. In all, NBC will have more than 75 hours of live coverage annually.
Golf Channel will continue to open the PGA TOUR season with four-round coverage of the first three tournaments, provide exclusive early-round coverage of the tournaments televised by CBS and NBC, and provide four-round coverage of alternate events and the Fall Series. In addition, Golf Channel will continue to broadcast prime time replays of its early round coverage, and will have rights to expand its exclusive lead-in coverage and replays for every event televised by CBS and NBC.
Financial terms of the new television deals were not disclosed, as has been the case historically with the PGA TOUR and its network partners. However, Finchem indicated that rights fee increases in this new term will allow the PGA TOUR to grow financial opportunities for players, invest in digital assets for fans globally that will create more one-on-one interactions between players, tournaments and fans and will position the TOUR to allow for increasing charitable contributions.
The new agreements also will provide for innovative coverage on digital platforms and the Golf Channel designed to enhance and expand the viewing experience for PGA TOUR fans. This includes:
A wide range of simulcast coverage of live tournament action on various PGA TOUR digital platforms starting with PGATOUR.COM, as well as CBSports.com, NBCSports.com and GolfChannel.com
Additional digital coverage of a number of tournaments featuring the ability to enjoy coverage from marquee holes, competition highlights and regular news updates from tournament sites; and
In partnership with NBC and Golf Channel, innovative, new live complementary tournament coverage on Golf Channel, which will air along with NBC’s coverage.
Joe Ogilvie tells Jeffri Chadiha that the players "have a perfectly great commissioner right now in Tim" but "eventually Tim is going to retire." And with that, he officially lets it be known he would be interested in the job.
And based on this Michael Curey special report to PGATour.com, he needs more reps on the EA Sports Tiger Woods game too after finding himself trailing a 19-year-old from Indiana flown in as part of contest to help plug the creation of the next iteration. 
When no date on the tour schedule opened this year, Cadillac sought a date in 2012. But finding a date on the tour’s schedule during Michigan's few dependably warm months proved too difficult, according to a person familiar with the situation.
A potential opening on the tour's schedule closed when the Heritage, a longtime tour stop in Hilton Head, S.C., found a new sponsor in Royal Bank of Canada, signing a five-year deal in June.
Cadillac will continue through 2016 its sponsorship of the Cadillac Championship, which is held in March at Doral, Fla., and is one of three premier World Golf Championships events on the schedule.
“Our relationship with Cadillac, from a sponsorship perspective, started with the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship at Doral,” PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said. “We’ve jointly pursued exploring the potential for a new event in Detroit in addition to that, and that exploration is no longer.”
David Ranii of the News and Observer reports that TPC Wakefield, home to the Nationwide Tour's Rex Hospital Open, has sold to McConnell Golf for a measely $1.8 million, or a four place check in the Players Championship.It sure sounds like the Greenbrier's chances of landing a future Presidents Cup have improved with their home-run of an operation and the obvious need for some kind of reward for becoming the Old White Guys TPC. Sean Martin, writing about why players enjoy the Greenbrier week so much, slips this in toward the end of his column:
He has big plans for his resort, hopeful that it can host the 2017 Presidents Cup. (The Tour declined comment.) You have to like his chances. Pazder said Justice has been a perfect partner with the Tour; his club joined the TPC network this year. Crowds for practice days were larger than some tournaments on Sundays. Volunteers welcomed guests with a smile and a greeting.
Tom Watson, the club’s pro emeritus, first saw the resort at the 1979 Ryder Cup. He left before the competition began for the birth of his daughter, Meg, but had fond memories.
“I just liked the way people treated you here,” he said.
And that’s the main reason the prognosis for this PGA Tour event is a strong one.
They didn't take his comments about the weather very seriously and now the shock is evident as some of the UK's finest golf scribes grapple with the shocking turn of events in Rory McIlroy's world.
Sean Martin talks to Brendan Steele who played last week's French Open and is in this week's Scottish Open at Castle Stuart. Steele spoke highly of the tournament operation in Paris and had no issues like a certain someone else. And as for why he's venturing abroad?
It's always fun to read a well done player profile, especially when the player is interesting and his story is bound to have men in Oxford's running around PGA Tour offices trying to figure out the spin.
So while all the stuff Dave Shedloski tells us about in the Robert Garrigus story--Memphis last year, the 2011 U.S. Open and his struggle with addiction--these are the comments bound to be brought up the next time Tim Finchem claims that PGA Tour pros are all angels and drug testing was unnecessary.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
