Finchem says PGA Tour will get by without Tiger Woods

Finchem, suggesting this is the biggest curveball he has faced in the job, was speaking for the first time on Woods, who announced last Friday on his website that he was leaving the Tour for an indefinite period of time while sorting out family issues. Since wrecking his SUV on Nov. 27, Woods has admitted to infidelity in his marriage to Elin Nordingren. They have two children.

"If Tiger is out for a couple of months or a year, we're going to have a successful year," Finchem said. "It won't be the same level without our No. 1 player, there's no question about that. No sport would be the same level without its No. 1 player. I think the doom and gloom needs to go away, and frankly, it's misleading to our fans."

Woods has been the dominant player in golf since he turned pro in 1996, winning 71 tournaments, including 14 major championships, on the PGA Tour. The Associated Press named him Athlete of the Decade on Wednesday in a vote of its sports editors.

The other news has not been as positive.Accenture has dropped its sponsorship of Woods, and Gillette has suspended commercials in which he appears. His main sponsor,Nike, is among those supporting him.

Woods missed half of the 2008 season while recovering from knee surgery. As part of his rehabilitation he was treated by Anthony Galea, a Canadian doctor who was charged by Canadian authorities Wednesday with selling an unapproved drug known as Actovegin, conspiracy to import an unapproved drug, conspiracy to export a drug and smuggling goods into Canada.

Galea said he treated Woods only with "blood spinning," which is supposed to increase the rate of healing.

Finchem reiterated that so far he has found nothing in Woods' treatment that is a violation of the Tour's anti-doping policy.

"I have no reason to have a concern with respect to him and a doctor who has used HGH with whatever patients for whom it's not an illegal drug," he said.

The Tour has a regulation for disciplining players under "conduct unbecoming," but Finchem said the Tour has never taken a situation in a player's personal life and used it as a means of disciplining a player.

"Our regulations relate to conduct unbecoming that's either in the public area or law enforcement arena," he said. He explained that the policy was used "to bring to a player's attention why certain behavior is inappropriate from a public presentation" of the sport.

"It's never been seriously considered that these matters in his personal life are subject to our tournament regulation," Finchem said.

Finchem also used the conference call to deliver some good news: The Tour has renewed title sponsorship with the Sony Open in Honolulu and plans to work with the company on a 3-D broadcast; the same is planned for one of its playoff events, the BMW Championship outside Chicago.

That makes 10 title sponsors with new contracts this year — seven renewals and three new sponsors. Finchem also said the presenting sponsor of the season-ending Tour Championship, Coca-cola, is finishing up details on its contract renewal.

As for the possibility the Tour will have to go on without Woods for an indefinite period of time, Finchem noted that Woods plays only 16 of the Tour's 47 events in a season.

Finchem noted that the six tournaments that contribute the most to charity have not been played by Woods in at least five years.

Even so, there's no debating Woods' impact on TV ratings. A study by Nielsen conducted when Woods returned from injury last February showed TV ratings for the tournaments where he did not play were down 47% vs. the previous year.

Woods' absence will "cause a domino effect," said Jason Maltby, head of national broadcast for media buyer Mindshare. A PGA Tour without its biggest star will draw fewer TV viewers and post smaller TV ratings. That mean's the Tour's TV partners won't be able to charge advertisers as much for commercials. "He's the No. 1 draw, the Micheal Jorden," Maltby says.

Steve Timms, chairman of the Tour's Tournament Advisory Council, said Woods' absence was discussed by his group, but he said, "It's certainly not gloom and doom."

Timms is tournament director of the Shell Houston Open, an event Woods does not play, but he has played the Tour Championship when it was played in Houston.

"Golf has a lot of players," Timms said, "and a lot of good stories."

He added the main focus for each tournament was its local market and making money for the charity it supports.

Finchem said his biggest concern was the state of the economy and its effect on golf.

"We had 13 major pieces of business we concluded this year," he said. "If you had asked me in January where we would come out at the end of the year, given the difficulty of the economy, I would not have predicted that level of commitments. We've just had a phenomenal year in the sponsorship marketplace."

 

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