Top Of The Leaderboard: SI Profiles PGA Tour's Tim Finchem

SI Profiles PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem

THANKS BUT NO THANKS? As a result of Finchem's "bare-knuckled negotiating of TV contracts," the Tour's purses have grown from $56.4M in '94 to more than $270M in '07. But even as Tour players "have become fabulously wealthy under Finchem, there exists an undercurrent of discontent with his leadership." Shipnuck notes the "bad buzz got a high-profile airing" when golfer PHIL MICKELSON in September said that he was "peeved by some of the details in the execution of the inaugural FedEx Cup." Mickelson the following week skipped the Tour's BMW Championship, which was "widely interpreted as a slap at Finchem." The Mickelson incident "followed the massive public-relations hit that came when TIGER WOODS did not bother to show up" for The Barclays, the first event in the FedEx Cup. Shipnuck writes the "funny thing about Finchem is that he is always in the news but he has somehow remained a stranger, even to those working alongside him." Golfer JOE OGILVIE: "There is definitely an elusive quality about him, probably because he is always being pulled in so many different directions by so many different constituencies. As much time as I've spent in conversation with him I can't say I really know him. I'm not sure any of us know the real Tim Finchem" (SI GOLF PLUS, 5/5 issue).

Print This Article