"It is very difficult to fuel access."
/Larry Dorman talks to Commissioner Tim Finchem who is in great spirits, cracking jokes, employing slang and....oh no, just kidding.
We are off to a terrific start after just two years with the FedEx Cup — way ahead on virtually every metric, starting with fan awareness and interest. Obviously, maximizing this position requires all of our top players playing, starting with the No. 1 player in the world and that didn’t happen for the 2008 FedEx Cup.
Tim, there's room for growth! I suppose the G word is so 2007.
Q. A recent Sports Business Journal report identified Crowne Plaza as “at least the sixth company” not planning to renew its title sponsorship. Will we be seeing a reduced schedule on the PGA Tour after 2010, and what kind of effect would a loss of five or six events have on the Tour’s charitable giving?
A. We do not intend to reduce our schedule in 2010. We are working very hard to ensure that does not happen, and that was evident with the announcement Thursday of our agreement with SBS for a 10-year commitment to take the position of title sponsor at the event at Kapalua, Hawaii, from 2010 to 2019. We had already announced extensions with Travelers, Accenture, Zurich and Liberty Mutual and we’ll have more to come. How much of a falloff a loss of five or six events would generate in charitable dollars would depend on which events were lost. But this is a speculative question that is focused on a scenario we do not see happening.
Objection! That question was speculative! Strike it from the record please.
Q. What do you see as the biggest threat to the health of the competitive side of the game?
A. I do not see a threat to the competitive side of the game, but I am concerned about the ongoing challenge of growing the game. Because of the nature of the sport, the real estate and resultant costs for facilities and an adequate number of golf courses, it is very difficult to fuel access. We are making strides, but golf isn’t like basketball where you can hang a net in a driveway and teach a child to play. We just have to keep working at it.
I smell a new campaign. Together, we can fuel access.