Tiger Woods says he'll play in the Masters, much to PGA Tour commish Finchem's relief

This April 7, 2009, file photo shows Tiger Woods speaking to the media at the Masters.

(AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)

Tiger Woods will grace us with his presence again at the Masters. No surprise there. It's perfect for him, on a number of fronts.

Media access to the Masters is tightly controlled, and there's a good chance certain lines of questioning will be ruled out of bounds by the green-jacketed moderators of Woods' press conferences; TV commentary on ESPN and CBS will be confined to Tiger's birdies and bogies, as dictated by Augusta National; hecklers will be non-existent. Scalpers, be they undercover TMZ reporters or people simply bent on harassing the world's most notorious philanderer, will be escorted from the hallowed grounds faster than even Stevie Williams can get to them.

Did anyone really believe Woods would skip the first leg of what, even under current circumstances, figures to be his best shot at winning golf's Grand Slam? Woods knows the contours and quirks of Augusta National better than anyone. By the time he tees it up for Round 1, he'll have had more than a month of practice under his belt, specifically targeting Augusta. That's plenty for him.

Certainly one of the biggest sighs of relief heaved after getting word of Woods' plans came from Tim Finchem, the most impotent of sports league commissioners. The PGA Tour has no responsibility for the Masters, and Finchem is all too happy to let Augusta National deal with Tiger's return. 

As for Finchem's impotence, such is life when, technically, you’re employed by the 400-plus independent contractors who fall under the umbrella of the PGA Tour. Plus the fact that his rain-maker is the most virile athlete in sports (in more ways than one, as we learned).

In a conference call yesterday to announce a new sponsorship deal in San Diego with Farmers Insurance, Finchem was peppered with questions about Woods' plans. The commissioner said he didn’t know much more than anyone else on the planet, outside of Woods’ closest confidants. Whether he was telling the truth or keeping his cards close to the vest, a testy Finchem didn’t sound like a man with a handle on the situation, let alone control of it. Should we be surprised? Not really. Finchem works for the players, and the most powerful player of all – perhaps now more than ever, considering the TV viewership and media coverage his early forays back on Tour will command – is Tiger Woods.

Fact is, Finchem has little leverage over his constituency. Witness the five suspensions and more than $100,000 in fines levied against John Daly since 1992. In terms of Tour image management, Daly is Finchem’s worst nightmare. But the commissioner can’t make him go away. JD has his own reality show on Golf Channel, and he continues to attract sponsor exemptions, including last week in Puerto Rico and this week in Tampa.

As noted in a scathing post (March 15, 8:35 p.m.) by the prolific golf blogger Geoff Shackleford, statements Finchem continues to make about the Tour’s place in the grand scheme of sports further strain the commissioner’s credibility. During yesterday’s conference call, Finchem claimed that most PGA Tour events are ticket sell-outs, and that viewership of the average Tour telecast is second only to an NFL game.
Anyone who’s attended a Tour stop on Thursday or Friday, when galleries on any given hole often number in the tens, would surely question the sell-out claim. You won’t have to fend off a hoard of scalpers outside the entrance of Innisbrook this week, nor will you see a “Sold Out” sign posted at the walk-up ticket booth.

The TV viewership claim is distorted, too. The Tour doesn’t own the five most popular – and far and away the most viewed – properties in golf: the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship and Ryder Cup. TV money for those events goes to Augusta National, the U.S. Golf Association, the R&A and the PGA of America, respectively. True, a run-of-the-mill PGA Tour tournament typically gets 24 hours of air time each week, including replays on Golf Channel (compared to four hours for an NFL game), and they’re shown on cable channels in Europe and Asia. But the claim of 23 million to 25 million TV viewers for the average Tour event sure seems like a stretch, especially since we have no idea how many people actually watch Golf Channel. (Insiders have told me that average viewership of daily GC telecasts is in the low to mid six figures, and that might be a generous estimate. After all, what are you going to watch Thursday – Round 1 of the Transitions Championship or Round 1 of the NCAA Basketball Championship?)

In any case, Finchem desperately is trying to protect the image of the PGA Tour and its appeal to big-ticket advertisers and corporate America event planners. He’s banking on a successful return by Woods, on the assumption that Tiger’s transgressions will be forgiven and forgotten after he notches a couple of victories.

CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus boldly predicted Woods’ return will be the biggest media phenomenon since Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration. Perhaps so, but like President Obama, Woods may find his coming out party a tough act to follow – much to Commissioner Finchem’s chagrin.