"I always like, when we talk about changing things, drawing an analogy to Donald Ross and building Pinehurst No. 2."

You know I always sensed Tim Finchem didn't have much of a feel for golf architecture, but when I finally got through his rambling press session from earlier this week, I have a new appreciation for his bizarre take on things.

On the state of the FedEx Cup:

I think it's important to recognize that we view the FedExCup competition as a big part of our future. We are committed to it; it's a long-term proposition. We're not going to get hung up at the start if we have to make a few changes the first few years. Who knows how many years we'll have to make changes until we're at a point where we're very, very comfortable.

I always like, when we talk about changing things, drawing an analogy to Donald Ross and building Pinehurst No. 2. He moved there, and I think he made 213 or 220 changes in the first 12 years of its existence. Sometimes to get perfection you have to keep working at it, and we intend to do that.

I've never known that someone was keeping track of Ross's changes! Maybe the contractor tracking change orders? Or perhaps someone knew it'd make for a killer FedEx Cup metaphor some day?

Before I throw it open to questions, let me briefly comment on five other items.

Okay...

First of all, I've been getting a lot of questions over the past months, and certainly in the last few weeks, on the economy. We are impacted by the economy and the economic challenges like everybody else. We have a lot of customers and sponsors in economic sectors that are impacted negatively by the volatility in the economy.

Thus far, we have not suffered any major damage. But clearly, if the instability were to continue for a sustained period of time, we will have real challenges. We are encouraged by the steps that are being taken, and we'll do everything we can to continue to drive value and communicate that invest in our sport with the hopes that we can get through this with very little damage.

The PGA Tour supports the bailout! If Congress only knew...

After a bunch of stuff on drug testing, this made no sense and I presume it's a transcription error.

Television ratings are awfully good this year.

Awfully, yes.

We attribute that largely to two things: missing our No. 1 player for two big chunks of the season, number one problem; number two problem, the Olympics during three weeks got higher ratings than normal. Tough competition and took away from our ratings a little bit.

Darn Olympics...yet another reason that...oh wait...

Next year our assumptions are based on, A, all of our players are going to be back, including our No. 1 player; and number two, we get to wait three more years for the Olympics.

You're getting your number one player for 15 events, maybe.

The other long-term issue on the Olympics is that of course if we are successful in having golf added as an Olympic sport or schedule tournaments around the Olympics, including some golf competition in the Olympics, which will change that dynamic somewhat.

See, if you add golf to the Olympics it can't hurt the ratings starting in 2016.

Seems the questioners are playing to the cameras. Or the transcripts?

Q. I don't know about everybody else, but I followed this as closely as anybody, and I couldn't follow the points system this year. I'm not sure Henry Paulson could have. I'm just curious if that's something that has been up for discussion, and is it going to be simpler or are we still going to be looking at Camilo Villegas trying to make a six-footer to try to get somebody else in the field?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, I have a great answer for you. We have a book coming out, and it's called, FedExCup Points For Dummies (laughter).

Banging fist on desk here.

But the reality is the model we looked at -- seriously, the model we looked at was NASCAR. You know, some people say, You know, you can make it simpler by going back to the Money List.

Well, the Money List isn't any more simple than points, because you still have to analyze why one tournament generates this many points versus another tournament. The difference between money is you have a lot more fluctuation in dollars than you had points, so points we can control and focus on the Cup.

We like the points system. We're not sure many fans really care how many points a guy has. They want to see what relationship -- our research tells us in focus groups and polls is that fans want to see how -- you, know, what kind of lead Vijay has on Phil Mickelson. What's the spread? How can he win it back? What's at stake this week? That's most of it.

The PGA Tour ran the FedEx Cup by focus groups and this is what they came up with? Shocking.

Q. Two questions, please: One player just told me that this tournament has the wrong name. It's not the TOUR Championship, it's the FedEx Final, and that its name should be changed. Is that something you might consider?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Yeah, I've heard that from a couple people over the last few months. We're going to -- we'll consider everything. I mean, to this gentleman's question, tying the branding and the nomenclature of what's happening in the playoffs to what the competition really is important. So we'll be looking at all avenues to get to a desired goal.

Isn't there a VP of Brand and Nomenclature Suturing to figure this out? The FedEx Cup Final Brought To You By Coca-Cola. Works for me. I'll just call it The Crosby anyway.

Q. Just one short follow-up. In the short-term what you're seeing cropping up in various places such as Atlanta, some problems with gas availability, I imagine that hurts on-site attendance and other ancillary services that you have going on.

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Yeah, we've noticed some softness in attendance.

Well that's why Cial...sorry, I promised no more erectile dysfunction jokes. Continue...

Even in markets where ticket sales are up, a little softness in the people that are coming out.

That's rude!

There's no science to this.

That's why they created Cial...

We don't have a lot of metrics. Anecdotally our tournaments are telling us that some people are buying a week pass, they usually come out three days and they're coming out one or two days and it's because of gas. People are just driving less.

It hasn't really been that noticeable. And like I said, it's not huge on admissions at this point. But we have noticed that in some markets. It's an interesting phenomenon. I don't know where that goes in the long-term, but it's not a good thing, gas prices.

You know, I think that's the least of the PGA Tour's concerns.