Is Tim Finchem Irreplaceable?

My colleague Ron Sirak essentially says so, suggesting the stability Finchem brings is vital to the tour's success.

Now, that group will have Finchem at the helm for four more years. And that can only be a good thing. Who knows what TV delivery will look like in 2021? Finchem has brought the PGA Tour to the brink of a new frontier. Now he will lead them a few steps further before handing over the reigns to someone else. That stability is a large part of the PGA Tour's strength.

And there was this from Steve Flesch in Bob Harig's column about PGA Tour Commissioner Finchem's contract extension through 2016.

"The bottom line is you're not going to make everybody happy,'' said veteran player Steve Flesch, a member of the Player Advisory Council (PAC), when asked once about the difficulty of the commissioner's job. "What's good for Tiger Woods isn't necessarily good for the guy who is 125th on the money list. The gripes that players have are mostly selfish.

"'If I'm not driving the ball well, I want less rough.' At the PAC meetings, we try to weed through that. [But] to find a guy with a better background is going to be hard.''

So is Tim Finchem irreplaceable? Yes, it's a pointless question with Finchem locked in until 2016.

But is there really no one on the planet as capable of leading the PGA Tour into the digital frontier or simply into a future with broadcast rights locked in for nine more years?

As longtime readers know, I haven't been able to get excited about the Commissioner's ability to lead for some time. A few highlights for review...

--He consistently resisted drug testing while insisting distance gains were the product of improved athleticism. To Finchem's credit, he later backed off the resistance to testing when golf needed to join the modern sports world and has since acknowledged that the distance chase isn't great for the PGA Tour "product."

--The lame-on-arrival FedExCup concept is a Finchem brainchild, and while it certainly brings players together at the end of the PGA Tour season, the convoluted format has not improved and manages to make the moribund BCS look like a well-conceived athletic competition.

--Finchem has continued to rake in a big salary with lavish perks as he ushered out many low-paid and longtime employees under the guise of "early retirement." If he fulfills his current contract, it'll be well past the same retirement age  he has used to weed out staff or those within "striking distance" of retirement age.

--Finchem publicy issued an edict to denouncing the PGA Tour rules calling for slow play penalties. There has not been a slow play penalty during Finchem's tenure and there will not be one issued for another four years even as the World No. 1 is calling it the game's top issue. I can't fathom how the Commissioner can public suggest a rule not be enforced as a possible cure for a problem.

--There's the sense that the PGA Tour "product" is in need of new energy and I can't envision a scenario where we see a renewed jolt coming from the Commissioner's office, especially when we see creative solutions to business problems like the current Q-School squashing concept.

And finally, there's the increasing likelihood that The First Tee is going to be Finchem's legacy project over the next four years. Can the tour afford to have their growth-obsessed leader devoting so much energy to a cause that so far has not proven successful in growing the game? We shall see.

Your thoughts?