Finchem: PGA Tour Is Always Growing, And It Sure Doesn't Need Tiger For Even More Growth!

Dave Shedloski notes the main takeaway from Tim Finchem's Sunday presser at Kapalua, the Commish's insistence that PGA Tour growth is not dependent on Tiger and that Tiger's success doesn't matter in the all-vital area of...growth!

"The PGA Tour grew when Jack Nicklaus was winning. It grew when he stopped winning and it's grown with Tiger winning. It doesn't matter to us," Finchem said Sunday at the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort. "We can grow with one player dominant or we can work with more wide-open competition. The fans like it and are interested in it both ways."

Right, and the ratings sure reflect that!

Moving right along, this was interesting from the presser as well: on top of a V-word explosion, there was his suggestion that schedules were changed last year by top players to help struggling events.

When we talk to players about moving their schedule around, it's a private conversation. We respect their decision regardless. I think that's the philosophy that we'll continue.

Having said that, last year we went out and asked players to move their schedule around and over 90 percent of players did in some fashion and it helped our fields, it helped our sponsors.

Is that 90% based on some sort of sliding scale? Say, with Tiger playing Frys.com accounting for 80% of the 90%?

Q. Why not legislate that players as a part of membership have to play a different event each year so that you can get that remaining ten percent on board?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, we looked at that. We looked at that last year. We said we don't like to legislate and tell players what to do unless it has an overriding importance.

In this particular case, we asked for a volunteer; by now virtually, I'd say 90 percent, I couldn't tell you any players that haven't been helpful to be honest,

...double negative alert...

including a couple of just referenced in your question about moving their schedules around the first quarter this year.

So this is an ongoing process. We are doing very well with sponsors. Our sponsors are very pleased with the value equation on the PGA TOUR; if they didn't, they would be spending their money elsewhere. There are multiple value streams that go to sponsors. Our price point is such that given that value, you are 100 percent sponsored.

Three V's in three sentences. That's a nice clip for the season-opening presser.

We don't have a crisis in this area and we have a very, very positive situation. When somebody writes an article like at Memorial that five of the Top 25 players are not here or something, and somebody is sensitive to that, we are not going to start changing policies because of that.

Of course, in the same press conference he was talking about options to help the weak field situation at the Tournament of Champions, even though they are not sensitive to such things..

Hey, at least the Commish's form-fitting Hawaiian shirt was admired by a former 2-time Players Champion.

PGA Tour's Q-School Replacement Requires At Least Three Sentences To Explain

Doug Ferguson says the pieces "are starting to come together" for a plan to end PGA Tour cards from Q-School in the name of trying to legitimize (and fund) the Nationwide Tour.

The final pieces are starting to come together in a plan that would merge the top 75 players from the Nationwide Tour with the 75 players from the PGA Tour who failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. They would play a three-tournament series, and the top 50 would earn PGA Tour cards. The rest could go back to Q-school to try to earn status on the Nationwide Tour.

The current Q-School and Nationwide structures each requires one sentence.

Q-School: Write a check, survive three stages and you have a tour card.

Nationwide Tour: Finish in the top 25 and get your card.

Ferguson writes that policy board member Steve Stricker would like to see 10 spots at Q-School still saved for PGA Tour cards, but Stricker also partially endorses the tour's idea.

"I still think it would be nice if somebody had the opportunity to get a quick turn on tour. I believe, though, it's going to be better for a better player. It's going to bring out talent over a longer period of time. If I was a good player, I would love to have the whole year to prove myself for 50 spots."

Except that you work the whole year to prove yourself, yet your graduation status still comes down to a bizarre seeding and three-week window to ultimately prove yourself?  It's kind of like asking a student to gets straight A's just to take the final, which they also have to earn an A on just to get a diploma.

The top 25 from the Nationwide Tour money list - players who previously would have automatically earned PGA Tour cards - would be seeded No. 1 through No. 25. The next seed would be shared by No. 26 on the Nationwide money list and No. 126 on the PGA Tour money list. The PGA Tour player would be assigned the same money as his counterpart from the Nationwide Tour.

Some of the early calculations have shown that top 25 would be virtually assured of finishing among the top 50 to earn their cards; and that anyone winning one of those three tournaments also would be a lock to earn a card.

Virtually assured.

Have we already forgotten how the FedExCup models panned out and how many times the formula has been changed?

So I ask, if the season long play is considered better, then why would you open the door to a "virtually assured" situation?

Oh right, money.

The PGA Tour And Australia

It's wishful thinking, but I'm advocating in this week's Golf World Monday that the PGA Tour's possible fall kickoff for official money starting in 2013 include consideration for an Australia event(s) based on what I saw last week. In other words, stop obsessing about emerging markets and figure out how to tap underutilized or appreciated markets. Thoughts?

John Daly: "I think I may get in trouble for saying this, but..."

From an unbylined wire story:

John Daly was in the group at 69 along with Lee Westwood, Retief Goosen, Y.E. Yang and Robert Karlsson.

"With a small field like we have here, and I think I may get in trouble for saying this, but I'm kind of glad it's not sanctioned by the European or PGA Tour," Daly said. "It shows that China is doing something on their own. They're saying, 'Hey, we may not need the PGA Tour or European Tour, no disrespect."

When did China become IMG? Or IMG become China?