"We wanted to get back to Liberty. I think it's one of the most stunning settings for professional golf there is on the planet."

The Commish visited the media center at Aronimink and the conversation quickly turned to the television contract negotiations which he says have not begun, contrary to some reports.

I'm here today for a while, so we wanted to give you the opportunity -- the primary purpose of this is to give you the opportunity to ask me anything that's on your mind.

Anything? Have you read The Swinger yet? The Commissioner is portrayed in a fashion you'll just love! Or how about Dave Shedloski's story in the new Golf World. Right up your alley: pot smoking pros!

Oh, we have a question from the unwashed man wearing that age inappropriate white belt in the second row...

Q. When you played at Liberty National last there were a few issues brought up by the players that I'm sure will be taken into consideration. Will there be any changes to the golf course to address some of the issues that they raised?

TIM FINCHEM: Well, yeah, there have been, and I think that over my years here there have been very few times where we've played a golf course for the first time that we don't get a lot of input on what it ought to be, and particularly true when you play a new golf course. Liberty was obviously brand new when we played it. We got a lot of suggestions. Liberty has made a few adjustments in I think a very positive way. I wouldn't call them fundamental. I think most of the player input was subtle things around greens, subtle things that impact the play of the hole. But I think some nice changes, and that's always an evolution with a golf course.

I remember last time I was at Pinehurst they were telling me that Donald Ross over 40 years made 241 changes to Pinehurst No. 2. It's always a work in progress.

But we wanted to get back to Liberty. I think it's one of the most stunning settings for professional golf there is on the planet, and we want to take advantage of that, and we're delighted that the club assisted us with making some positive changes to give us a better competitive format going forward.

Ah yes, Pinehurst and Liberty National. That's the first and last time you'll hear about those two courses in the same breath.

I wonder who served up that "241 changes" doozy to the Commish?

Q. Secondly, have you started negotiations for TV?
TIM FINCHEM: No.

Q. Have you started to put together different permutations of schedules to present to TV?
TIM FINCHEM: A long time ago.

That question did deserve the short answer it got.

Q. How many do you have so far?

TIM FINCHEM: There are a lot of changes. We might have one one day and another day we might have three, so it's just a work in progress. You know, it's different levels of things you look at, where are we with sponsors, how are our tournaments performing, does the flow of the schedule work from a field quality standpoint. We're in a global setting clearly today, so what's happening around the globe. You know, you have a variety of things before you get to what television would like to see. Television always has their own opinions on schedule.

How about formats?

And everyone just loves Philadelphia...

The fact that it's happened, to answer your second question, does certainly lead us to conclude that we would definitely like to continue an involvement here in Philadelphia, and we're actively looking for ways to do that. We have a full schedule right now, but there are some times we're moving tournaments around, doing things. We certainly wouldn't want -- we recognize that the U.S. Open is coming here, and that's good. But this is a place where you don't want to be gone for very long. That's not good for the sport. So we'll be looking at that.

Q. To follow up on that if I could, that was pretty much my question, but last year you were very patient, and we appreciate it,

Oh stop kissing up, just ask your question!

in explaining the entire scenario of sponsor involvement and the possibility of the TOUR lobbying a sponsor by saying, this is a wonderful place to come and a void that really needs to be filled, maybe not a sponsor that's located here. Has any of that taken place? Are you still willing to go down that road?

TIM FINCHEM: Well, we are. Just to follow up on my answer, I honestly think we're looking after the Open. We just made an adjustment in the AT&T National to accommodate the USGA in Washington, so it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to try to get something going here before the Open. So based on that, it's not something that's driven by, okay, where is our cycle going to be in '13. But we will be. We'll be looking for opportunities.

Oh they haven't room to sell any tents at Merion anyway, so why not just go for the jugular and set up shop next year!

Q. In light of Tiger's injuries, do you see Jack's major record as being more unattainable than you did before?

TIM FINCHEM: Well, it's just logical that every time he misses a competitive age, the opportunity to win a major championship, it's not a plus. So that's an easy one to answer. Whether overall he has an opportunity, I think it depends on -- I'm not worried at all about his motivation or his work ethic; those are given. But his physical ability to play obviously is a factor. He feels pretty confident that that's going to be handled, but we'll just have to wait and see.

I always -- to me as a golf fan, I think of Jack's record as really important, but I also think Snead's record is important. In fact, I told Tiger on multiple occasions, you've got to win more tournaments to get to Snead's record, and I want you to be thinking about winning more tournaments, not just four or five, because that means you'll play longer.

And I'm sure he appreciated that.

So I don't know. We'll just have to see what happens. And like everybody else, it'll be an interesting story to watch unfold. My sense is that the fans really want to see him come back and prevail, and that's good. In the meantime, what's been great really, and I'd rather have him playing well, believe me, but what's been great is so much focus on the young players coming up and the ability with media focus on those players which just is not available when he's playing. He dominates the media so much and the telecast, but now that it's been available, we have an enormous interest in these -- and all the data tell us that that's the case, the amount of time a fan is staying with the telecast, the amount of interest that's showing on the website of the players, the word of mouth, the emails, and that's very healthy for our sport, very,very healthy, because when Jack -- when you left the Jack era, between the Jack era and the Tiger era, that was what was happening on the TOUR.

Which reminds me, I haven't gotten a ratings-touting press release in ages...

Q. Just to follow up on Doug's question about permutations in the schedule, when you're considering all of the various things that you have to consider, do you and the other major sports bodies get together to collaborate on different things or to compare schedules to try and work out possible conflicts that might hurt the other or help the other, anything like that?

TIM FINCHEM: Yeah, we do. We try to keep -- we're in touch with them and we try to keep a beat on what's going on. I think the one thing that they're all together on right now, other than one sport, is that the NFL hopefully won't extend its schedule. I think everybody is on the same page, whether it's NASCAR, baseball, NBA. So we're all together on that. We'll wait to see what happens.

There you go, the Commish agrees with the players union, keep the NFL schedule as it is! Though for a growth-mantra guy like Finchem, that seems oddly hypocritical, no?

Q. This year designating tournaments was voluntary. What kind of impact do you feel like it's had and are you still considering making it into an actual policy?

TIM FINCHEM: Well, I haven't thought too much about it.

No kidding!

We'll look at it after the season and talk about it this fall. But I know generally we're very pleased whether we need to take another step. We'll take a look at that probably in October.

Oh why bother.

Q. Is there any concern about getting FedEx to renew after this run?

TIM FINCHEM: No, not this time, but we put FedEx in the same category as television.

Oh?

In other words, FedEx has the same view as television; what's the full schedule, where are you going, so that will be discussions that we have ongoing in a year. But based on everything I know, FedEx is very pleased with the way the Cup has performed these first four years.

Q. They're interested in renewing?

TIM FINCHEM: Yes.

I'll lose a bet but it'll be worth it to keep the playoffs around. Because they are so, so exciting!