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.

Jeff Ogilvy 2009 Kapalua Winner

Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) is the new title sponsor of the PGA Tour’s season-opening, winners only event on Jan. 4-10, 2010 at The Plantation Course in Kapalua.

34 PGA Tour professionals are invited to compete for the first title of the 2010 season.

The small field of golfers will compete for a share of the $5.6 million purse.

The event will begin with professional practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 4 & 5.

There will be a  pro-am tournament on Jan. 6.

The SBS Championship’s first 3 rounds will be held Jan. 7-9, with the final round on Sunday, Jan. 10.

Champions from the 2009 tour season are eligible to compete in the 2010 SBS Championship .

Play will be on The Plantation Course for all four rounds.

The following players have qualified for this event: Geoff Ogilvy, Zach Johnson, Pat Perez, Kenny Perry, Nick Watney, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Mark Wilson, Y.E. Yang, Michael Bradley, Retief Goosen, Tiger Woods, Paul Casey, Angel Cabrera, Brian Gay, Jerry Kelly, Sean O’Hair, Henrik Stenson, Rory Sabbatini, Steve Stricker, Brian Gay, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink, Bo Van Pelt, Nathan Green, John Rollins, Ryan Moore, Heath Slocum, Matt Kuchar, Martin Laird, Troy Matteson and Stephen Ames.