Tour boss talks about Tiger
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US PGA Tour supremo Tim Finchem spoke candidly about the ‘Tiger Affair’ before the Waste Management Phoenix Open which starts at TPC Scottsdale tomorrow.
Commissioner Finchem admitted: “We’ve had a lot of reaction following last Friday’s press conference. I think the reaction has generally been quite positive. I thought his statement was comprehensive and dealt with the issues that people wanted to see him deal with.
“In my view I thought his statement set the bar for his performance going forward. There seems to be a feeling that we’re now looking to the future.
“And when he said things like ‘I want to rebuild the trust that people have had in me’ and ‘I want to come back with a renewed level of respect for the game,’ he’s really setting the bar.
“Over the last 14 years we’ve seen what hapens when Tiger focuses on setting the bar for himself. He’s an individual who improves every year in almost every category – on Friday it seemed to me that he was quite determined in that and, if history is any indication, I certainly won’t bet against him in his efforts.”
When it was put to Finchem that Tiger had been spotted in the Phoenix area earlier in the week, he quipped: “I don’t know where he is this week. May be he’ll be spotted on Saturday as one of the 150,000 people out here!”
The Phoenix event attracts the biggest galleries in golf (over 470,000 last year) and is self-dubbed the Greatest Show on Grass…
Most of the massive crowds gather at the notorious par-3 16th hole where players are wildly cheered if they get near the hole…and loudly booed if they fail to find the green!
Among another star-studded field is World no. 2 Phil Mickelson, defending champ Kenny Perry, Vijay Singh and newly-crowned World March Play victor Ian Poulter who’ll be looking for his second successive desert win.
