Stat profiles for 1500 golfers
After yesterdays testy press conference in Maui could it be time for PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem to start thinking of some measures to make the tour cheaper for sponsors and TV plus while Tiger is on leave to try and cure golf of it's addiction of Tiger Woods and bringing attention to the other players on tour.
For years now I have always admired PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem. Of course he was in the right place at the right time but his magical ways has propelled the PGA Tour to dazzling heights. Finchem has to be close to the top of the list of all-time great sports commissioner's, some could argue and say that he just rode the Tiger Woods coat-tails, but I tend to disagree because so much has gotten accomplished since he took over in June of 1994.
|
In a way Finchem reminds me of baseball great Sandy Koufax, in his prime Koufax never seemed to make a mistake as in the last five years of his career he won 111 games compared to just 34 loses for a 76.5% winning percent. No matter what the challenge was for Finchem, he would be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat just like Koufax pulled out so many victories.
Tim has been the magician of the business of golf but you have to wonder after hearing the Tuesday press conference in Maui, if he has any rabbits left to pull out of his bag. On the surface, the PGA Tour is firing on all cylinders. It's slate is full of events with only three of them sponsorless. In 2010 they will be playing for slightly more than the $272 million that was given out last year. Charity will get $118 million and Finchem paints the picture that everything is great and the future couldn't be better. For members of the media, we have always taken what he says with a grain of salt but we bought into it with very little arguments because Tim always had the answers to make the PGA Tour bigger and better. Still we never asked Tim the magical question on each of his great conquests, was this driving the costs and expectations too high, thus making it impossible to keep topping. We always wondered if someplace down the road if we all would be quiet lossers in this growth process but as some would say about eating steak, everyone enjoys eating it but nobody wants to hear how the cow got slaughtered.
Finchem has been great in pulling rabbits out of a hat. He has been a part of three television contracts that have helped grow the tour and has been able to bring a lot of business opportunities for the players. For years now he always had some company that has been knocking on the door wanting to do business with the tour and Finchem has always been accommodating. In 2005, I and many others thought that Finchem would struggle with television negotiations because golf and the Woods era seem to be wilting for the whole tour in general. Yes television got great ratings for Tiger Woods events, but frankly for the other 30 events that Woods didn't play in many wondered what networks were doing. So up against the ropes what did Finchem do, out of his magic bag he pulled out the FedEx Cup and was able to again sell CBS, NBC and Golf Channel the TV contract, another great coup . We have seen a lot of that in his dealings with television contracts. In my tenure at ABC Sports between 1999 and 2002, many question why ABC Sports was doing the fall series events that were opposite the NFL. Despite the loss in those years, Finchem was able to talk ABC into resigning again and continued to do fall golf between 2003 and 2006, again at big loses for the network before they jettison the whole golf package. Again, Finchem was great in negotiations and got ABC management to agree to something for eight years that cost them a small fortune.
|
I can remember in 2007 when Finchem seemed in trouble. At the end of the previous year the Booz Allen event in Washington was discontinued and when the highly popular International event surprisingly shut down, many of us were wondering how much trouble Finchem was in. But a couple of weeks later, when most of the media were in attendance at the WGC-Accenture, Finchem announced a new event in Washington D.C., the AT&T National and everything was great. I can remember sitting at a table with a bunch of other writers as we were shocked at the great timing for Finchem. The point is, you can't ever discount Tim.
That is until now I think. A couple of weeks ago Tim Finchem had a telephone news conference for most of the media, to give a preview of the year coming up. Again in about 300 platitudes, Finchem told everyone how great things are and how the future looks great. Of course Finchem probably never't realized that he was only talking to about a quarter of the media that would of been a part of this conference three years ago. The other 75% have lost there jobs in those years.
See that is the problem right now, as the PGA Tour plays for purses worth millions of dollars, the whole golf industry is in terrible decline. Sales for golf equipment are at a 20 year low, golf courses around the country are not only closing but being plowed under. The average person who use to play golf can't afford the game and the time it takes so the industry is having serious problems. So while Tim Finchem is rolling in the dough right now, everyone is suffering. Even the folks associated with the tour from sponsors to television networks to even charities are strapped right now.
So in his Tuesday press conference the media for the first time ever I think pushed him hard for questions. Things like if he had talked with Tiger Woods, things like if he was concerned about the weak field at Kapalua, how the future of the PGA Tour is, especially with Tiger Woods on indefinite leave. Some pressed him on drug testing and if the tour is really doing a good job and why Tiger Woods hasn't had any real scrutiny over his association with a doctor that is being investigated for giving athletes human growth treatments. It's fine and dandy that Finchem is honoring Tiger Woods request for privacy but frankly for what Woods has done, he has caused harm on the future of the Tour. So frankly many are wondering if Finchem is doing his job to give Woods his privacy when many questions need to be answered.
|
I have to think that Finchem could of been shocked by the aggressive manner of the media, in the past he really hasn't had this. With so many jobs on the line in the media, you can bet that every aspect of what the PGA Tour does will be scrutinized. That's because the PGA Tour really hasn't had to be fortright, they can just say that it's a private matter. The press hates that we can't find out the truth on a lot of things about the PGA Tour, from fines, to suspensions like the one John Daly endured last year to the real reasons that Doug Barron has become the poster boy for his alleged taking of illegal drugs. There is so much about the tour's business that is a closed book that many are wondering how much Finchem, who in some ways is a dictator should be trusted for face value any more. Some think of the PGA Tour as being this big castle in the middle of a country that is suffering, with folks not allowed inside the gates of the castle. It's not only the PGA Tour, it's every team and sports in which a lot of money is being earned by athletes. Here in Washington and across the country people are ashamed at what Gilbert Arenas did by bringing weapons to the workplace. He makes about $18.5 million a year but still thought that he would store his unloaded guns in his locker at Verizon Center which just happens to be in the District of Columbia which disallows owning firearms.
So now we have the star of the tour Tiger Woods, who will make more money in seclusion while you read this piece, than you and I make in a year bring a terrible scandal upon the Tour. On top of all this, Woods was associated with a doctor that has a shady past. Is this right that nobody has called for some answers from Woods or maybe behind closed doors Finchem and the Tour feel this is no problem. Of course it's just one player but in looking around the tour we see again a lot of athletes playing for a lot of money at a time in which everyone is struggling. That is the whole point, Joe fan is getting tired of seeing someone making a million bucks for playing a stupid game for four days when the average salary in the United States is about $45,000 a year and we have 10% unemployment. Mr. Finchem has a couple of really tough choices to make. As I said, the PGA Tour is a castle in the middle of a country that is having a lot of problems. He may want to think about opening up those walls to allow the rest of us to feel that the PGA Tour is on the band wagon of what is happening to others. The first step as people like Greg Norman and CBS announcer Peter Kostis have suggestion is for Finchem to devalue purses for 2010. Reduce them between 105 to 25% and give the money to the sponsors, TV and charities and those folks on the outside would take more kindly to the PGA Tour. Yes the Rory Sabbatini's of the world wouldn't be very happy at Finchem, who knows personally Tim may make less in his yearly bonus for letting this happen but I would say that a lot of folks on the outside of the PGA Tour would be very grateful.
|
I would also think that it's time to forget about the future of the PGA Tour with Tiger Woods. Who knows when Woods will return but he has become a terrible addiction for not only the Tour but fans. We have to find other stars that make the game as exciting and we have to promote the other 200 plus players on the PGA Tour. We have to find a way to make a Steve Stricker or a Retief Goosen as exciting as Tiger (maybe a bit of a stretch but it sounds very good until you realize that nobody is as exciting as Tiger). We did it before Tiger came on Tour in 1996 and we can do it again. The PGA Tour and golf has to live within it's means and that is without Tiger Woods. If the way the tour does business is by selling Tiger Woods they have to change that. Frankly by giving back somewhere between 10% and 25% of the purse it's a good start and one that will get the tour more rave reviews. Of course some could say that it's bad going backwards and would make the tour look weak but I just don't buy that. Trust me the pockets of most of those on tour may be a bit lighter but they will feel better for all of that and honestly playing for $750,000 instead of a million isn't that bad.
As for events, the SBS Championship has degraded in the last couple of years. It use to be exciting because in the past every great player was in the field. But in 2010, players like Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, David Toms, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington didn't win an event so they won't be at Kapalua. It's a bit embarrassing for a tournament in which the only past champion in the field is the defender and that's how bad the field is for this week's SBS Championship. So what's the answer you say? In two weeks time the Mitsubishi Electric Championship will be played. It's the Champions Tour sister to the SBS Championship allowing the previous years winners into the field but the difference is that winners of major championships for the last five years and those that won Champions Tour events the last two years get invites. For the SBS Championship why doesn't the PGA Tour do the same or better yet invite all the winners of the last three years? Then all of those great players that we talked about in the beginning of this paragraph would be in the field, making the event what it should be great and having one of the better fields of the year. If that would of been the case I bet you that Woods and Phil Mickelson wouldn't be missed this week.
The point to all of this, Finchem can't just tell all of us how rosy things are, if anything we should of learned a lesson from Carolyn Bivens and the LPGA, you wait too long and who knows what the Tour will be like. Frankly the PGA Tour and Tim Finchem need to step into reality and join some of us outside the castle and see that we have to work together to make things work. I have loved the PGA Tour for 35 years now and I have seen a lot of changes. But the one thing that the Arnold Palmer's and the Jack Nicklaus' taught us was that they were not the main show, yes they were an important element but the show is the wonderment of guys that play the best golf for that certain week. That has been lost the last 13 years or so as too many are putting Woods on this pedestal and making him the whole show. Now with so many people stuck on thinking Woods is the show, in a week that he isn't around nobody seems to care. In this bad time with a poor economy which isn't really getting any better it's only a matter of time that some sponsor will think and say, "what the hell am I paying nine million bucks for a non-Tiger tournament that nobody cares about". Hopefully in the next couple of months we can see a different side of the tour and at the same time make sure that we can make an event just as important without Tiger as with him in the field. But the only way for that to happen is to make sure that Tim Finchem finds a way to lower the costs of the tour so that he will get a better effort from everyone. Tim, you listening?
4 comments
AtlBo --- Mar 14th, 2010 05:09 am
| Disagree with the notion that the PGA could exist as anything but a business. Life is all about the money. I love the crackers who try to separate money from life...like anything is more important than money. You guys kill me. I admit, though, that the PGA could have done and could be doing better overseas. The European Tour (I know people believe that it is run by the PGA, bnt I don't believe it, whatsoever), is setting the standard for growth. Good for them, bad for the PGA...pretty much that simple. I believe the PGA should take a look at what they are doing and very hard. This "alliance" between the European Tour and the PGA won't last much longer, and then it will be difficult to get footholds overseas. I have to admit too, that I agree that there is little likelihood that the PGA under Tim Finchem will look into the matter. Finchem's contribution to the PGA tour will go down as the FedEx Cup. In that light I would have to say his years, at least, are numbered as leader of the PGA. The next guy will inherit a full blown American red, white, and blue tour, but I doubt many around the world will pay much attention to the tour. Still, the PGA will be number one...that's how much there is in American golf...ALOT... |
Dave --- Jan 7th, 2010 08:01 am
| Thanks Sal. This is a start. Thanks for standing up and hopefully more of your peers will also.. This is about the integrity of the Great Game of Golf.Please keep digging on the drug testing and doping...... |
WRY999 --- Jan 6th, 2010 09:44 pm
| Very interesting article Sal. Although I have to question this sentence: "We have to find a way to make a Steve Stricker or a Retief Goosen as exciting as Tiger." Good luck with that. There are a limited number of super stars in any sport. Stricker and Goosen are not in that category. Another will come around to supplant Tiger. But it might be awhile. |
Oliver Chettle --- Jan 6th, 2010 07:03 pm
| He won't listen. To him the PGA Tour is a business rather than a sport. If he cared about the sport of golf he wouldn't have done so much to harm it outside the United States, which is where almost all its growth potential lies. And what is the purpose of a business to MBA types? To generate the maximum possible amount in executive bonuses between now and the day they leave the company. What happens after that is someone else's problem. |
