Photo credit: Scott Halleran/Getty Images
With the new season on us and memories of the down 2009 season, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is moving swiftly to make as much out of the 2010 season as possible. He has already visited the Kapalua Resort as the season-opening tour event approaches and welcomed the new sponsor Seoul Broadcasting Corp. The SBS Championship begins Thursday at the Plantation Course with only winners of last year’s tour events eligible for the $5.6 million tournament.
“We’ve had two very challenging couple of years, but I think we’ve turned the corner,” said Finchem. There is no mystery about what has occurred with economic challenges and the media blitz over golf’s icon, Tiger Woods. He did offer one observation: “I’ve never seen such media scrutiny, such a frenzy for coverage. It was bigger than 9-11, bigger than anything else you can think of. It was never ending there for a while. Thankfully, there’s a lull.”
Very important, at least early on, is Finchem’s travel itinerary. He plans to jet back and forth between his headquarters and west coast golf events for the next two months. Sponsors need to see him and players need to see him. Two tour events, San Diego and Palm Springs,still require sponsors. But at least AT&T, which recently dropped its sponsorship of Woods, remains committed to two PGA Tour stops, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the AT&T National, the event hosted by Woods which will move from the Washington D.C. area to Aronimink GC outside Philadelphia.
Finchem will not be able to be at the Sony Open in Hawaii, next week’s first full-field event. But he will make an appearance at six or seven of the next eight tournaments. He’ll be required to do some heavy duty traveling early in this new season to try to salvage what some say may be a disastrous season for the PGA.
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