Finchem Predicts Global, FIFA-type Platform Integration Of Tours To Capitalize On Multinational Corporate Movements

Doug Ferguson reports that Commissioner Finchem, still drying out from his Ryder Cup first tee duties, is predicting that a "world tour" is in golf's future.

“I think that at some point in time, men’s professional golf will become integrated globally,” Finchem said. “Now, what form that takes, whether it’s a total integration, whether it’s a FIFA-type, I don’t know. One question is how the competition is organized. Another question is how the organizational structure behind it is organized. The first one is the key thing.”

How the organizational structure is organized translation: how many VP's we lay off.

One reason Finchem believes a world tour is inevitable is marketing and sponsorship, which includes the players. Phil Mickelson is sponsored by Barclays, which promotes tournaments in Singapore, Scotland and New York. He is playing all of them this year.

The U.S. tour also has such multinational title sponsors as Deutsche Bank and BMW (both playoff events), Accenture and Zurich.

“I think it’s a matter of time,” Finchem said. “Golf generally is a splintered sport, multi-organizational at every level. But there’s movement. The last 15 years there’s been a lot of movement. I would see that continuing to develop toward integration.”

Movement to integration. He always knows how to make it sound so sexy!