Finchem Pleas With Players for Cooperation

Not unlike the LPGA Tour, the PGA Tour is facing a difficult sponsor negotiation period in the next couple of years.  With how much the Tour has leveraged the embattled financial sector to sponsor their events for the long term, the Tour will be challenged to renew many of the same sponsors and find replacements for those that simply cannot continue with that kind of financial commitment.

To that end, Commissioner Finchem recognizes that every Tour player has a role to play in ensuring the smoothest negotiation process as possible.  To express his priorities to players, Finchem released a five minute video to players and their agents in December.

Jon Show reports:

Finchem addresses four areas he would like to see players focus on in '09: scheduling, sponsor appreciation, public comments and charitable involvement.

"We’re asking every player to add a tournament or two to their historical schedule to assist the tournaments that historically have weak fields,” Finchem said. "We have a lot of title sponsors this year that are up for renewal. We have to put our best foot forward in terms of presenting our competitions."

On the subject of showing appreciation to sponsors, whose payments range from thousands of dollars to millions, Finchem asked players to spend more time visiting corporate hospitality areas and “make your feelings known about the role of the sponsors, both publicly and in private communication to leadership of our sponsor companies."

He also requested that players avoid making negative public comments about the Tour. "We want players to be, No. 1, upbeat and positive about what the PGA Tour is doing and where we’re going,” Finchem said. "We want you to be excited about the competitive opportunities that you have. And third, we want you to talk about PGA Tour properties when you describe what this year, 2009, is all about. Particularly the FedEx Cup."

He also asks players to be more involved in charity functions during tournament weeks.

The Tour is very good about teaching its players to stay on message.  This is just an extension of that program.  And there aren't that many rogue actors on Tour, so this is likely to be a common thread.  We're seeing it a lot already from the interviews at the Chevron World Challenge.  Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas made conscientious efforts to name Chevron for stepping up in interviews on Golf Channel.

I do find it interesting that Finchem is pleading with players to not disparage the FedEx Cup.  There has been a series of interviews with a variety of players - most notably, Steve Flesch on golf.com with Cameron Morfit - that discuss the FEC's problems.

I still don't think, though, that big name players will play any more often than they would anyway - even those that opted not to take on European Tour membership this season.