While the PGA Tour and its tournaments have donated over $1 billion to charity in the last 70 years, David Toms wonders how high that number would be if it counted what the players do separate of the PGA Tour.  For example, the figure doesn’t include the millions the Tiger Woods Foundation has contributed to scholarships and grants or Phil Mickleson’s Start Smart or Birdies for the Brave programs.

That is going to change.

Commissioner Tim Finchem announced a plan Tuesday to highlight what golfers do for charity and get more tournaments, sponsors, volunteers and fans more involved so the tour can do even more.  The campaign will be called “Together, Anything is Possible” and will be launched in 2010.

The most visible part will be letting fans know what players are doing through different charities.  The Tour’s website will enable fans to see which players support which charities.  The thought is that this will drive fans to become more involved with charities supported by their favorite players or find out which players support their favorite charity.

Another key piece will be bringing tournaments, sponsors and charities together to learn different ways to raise money.

Finchem has said that the campaign has nothing to do with criticism from Rep. Barney Frank and Senator John Kerry over title sponsorship of golf tournaments.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem recently floated — actually, backed — the idea of getting golf back into the Olympic Games. Golf, which was dropped from the Games in 1904, will have an opportunity to state its case and be admitted for the 2016 Games, wherever that may be.

The chances are not good. There are seven sports applying for two slots: Baseball and softball, which were dropped for the 2012 London Games, along with rugby are probably best positioned for admittance. And there are also longshots Karate, roller sports and squash.

Golf’s chances are slim to none because it will not receive the backing of a majority of the International Olympic Committee member nations. Except for South Africa, none of the African countries would sponsor golf. The same goes for most of Asia and Latin America. Besides, golf also has this inconvenient image of being an elite sport, in an age when egalitarianism rules the day.

But the biggest issue is this: Most of golf’s elite players don’t give a hoot about the Olympics, starting with Tiger Woods. By 2016, Tiger will be 40 and probably already have Jack’s record in the bag. I just don’t see him getting all that jacked about a gold medal. Besides, the Olympics most likely will take place during the middle of the majors run — right around the time between the British Open and the PGA, another reason why few elite players would be all that interested.

In addition, golf has absolutely no tradition in the Olympics. Having been out of the Games for over 100 years, it’s been out of sight, out of mind.

We’ll know for sure in about a year and a half from now. But no worries. This is just another bad idea from Finchem. We just hope that some of his other ones would go away as easily.

Say, like the FedEx Cup?

 

 

 

Tim Finchem sounded both smug and defensive when the PGA Tour inexplicably signed a 15-year deal with the Golf Channel before the 2007 season.

Inexplicably is right.

Why anyone would dump ESPN, the most-watched cable network in the English-speaking world, for a glorified infomercial outlet is beyond any reason. And a little more than a year into the contract, Finchem is defensive as ever but no longer smug — for the PGA Tour is paying a dear price.

Money ostensibly was why Finchem and his cronies opted for TGC. ESPN was playing hardball, forecasting (accurately, as it turned out) that sportswriter talk shows such as “Pardon the Interruption” and “Around the Horn” can carry the afternoon slot as well as any mid-week golf tournament. TGC, hungry for actual programming and backed by Comcast’s deep pocket, was much more accommodating.

But there were just two problems: 1. TGC has no real talent. 2. The drive-by audience vanished.

There was no better illustration of TGC’s talent problem than the Kelly Tilghman fiasco that blew up during the 2008 Mercedes Championship — the year’s first tournament. Overwhelmed by the responsibility and lacking both experience and gravitas, Tilghman’s “lynch” gaffe exposed the network’s inability to bring forth a quality broadcast. While TGC paid top dollar for Nick Faldo as an analyst, it utterly struck out with Tilghman, a green cheerleader.

As if that wasn’t enough to tank its ratings, the second problem cemented it. ESPN is one of those channels that men, in the desirable demographic of 18-49, are predisposed to tune to even if nothing is on. Call it the default channel: I see TV, I tune to ESPN. They’re that way at home, they’re that way on the road.

When I’m flipping around for something to watch at home, my fingers go for 2-0-6 much more frequently than 6-0-5 on my DirecTV. In fact, it took me awhile to even remember 605. When I travel for business, I flip around for ESPN and will always find it. As for the Golf Channel, most of the name-brand hotels — Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton — don’t even include it on their in-room TV package because it’s way too obscure.

The recently completed Masters couldn’t have shed a harsher light on this. For the first time ever, ESPN got to broadcast the Thursday and Friday rounds. And of course, the Friday telecast scored the highest rating ever for golf on cable. Billy Payne, in his second year on the job as the chairman of Augusta National, knew what ESPN could bring to the table. And he hit a home run.

While Finchem continues to swing and miss … for another 13 1/2 years.

 

Tiger Woods hates the Players Championship. He hates everything about it. The slow play. The course. The 17th hole. And the fact that it’s the purported Fifth Major — and the way Tim Finchem kept talking it up as if it were a real major. 

I had waited for years for Tiger to finally skip this tournament. In the past, he just couldn’t come up with a good enough excuse. But this year, he struck gold. The knee scope conveniently lets him off the hook. He’ll be laid up for 4-6 weeks and voila! See ya later, Sawgrass gator!

Don’t think for a second that Finchem didn’t consider this a big-time dis. So much so that he even issued a statement expressing his thinly veiled annoyance. Let’s face it, while Tiger is out, the only tournament of consequence that he’ll miss is the Players Championship. He might makes it back just in time for Jack’s tournament, the Memorial.

But Finchem and TPC only have themselves to blame. By shifting the tournament from March to May, they practically invited the top players to skip the tournament. Before, it was an important tuneup for the Masters, and all of the world’s top players obliged by showing up. Now, it’s just another tournament between the Masters and U.S. Open, never mind it does boast the riches purse on tour.

After Tiger won TPC in 2001, it completed his checklist. By then, he’d already won every big tournament on tour in addition to the majors, and from that point and on you know it’s only a matter of time that he’d skip it. He’s done that to the Mercedes Championship pretty much annually now. He’d even passed on the Tour Championship, before it reincarnated as the final tournament of the FedEx Cup “Playoff.” 

Skipping TPC this year was totally premeditated. He’d had the scope done no matter how he performed at the Masters. And by being out, he most definitely realized that he’d miss the Players. You can almost see the mischievous grin on his face when he cooked up this little scheme.

Because Tiger gets it. Nobody is ever going to remember how many Players he wins. The Fifth Major. Yeah. Do you remember who’s the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse?

Exactly.