Finchem: Let’s create a clusterf*ck

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem interrupted the final match of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship to announce that the Tour is officially protesting the proposed rule to ban anchored putters. Earlier in the week, the Player Advisory Council and Policy Board convened to discuss the issue and the majority were against the rule change, and those who were initially for the ban were swayed to alter their position.

Now this is a big deal — the Tour openly defying golf’s governing bodies, which will most likely result in a chaotic mess, as I wrote earlier this weekend. (continue reading…)

O Canada!

Commissioner Tim Finchem announced on Thursday that the PGA Tour is assuming “operational control” of the Canadian Tour, which will become re-branded as PGA Tour Canada. The conversion process will begin on November 1st and PGA Tour Canada will be up and running for the 2013 season.

The takeover didn’t come as a surprise since the PGA Tour bailed out the floundering Canadian Professional Golf Tour in 2012, lending its strategic and financial support to the dwindling mini-tour circuit.

The kicker of the deal: Similar to the partnership made last year with Tour de las Américas to form PGA Tour Latinoamérica, PGA Tour Canada will serve as a pathway to the Web.com Tour.  The top-five finishers on the money list will earn playing privileges to the PGA Tour’s developmental circuit (the no. 1 player would have full exempt status and the other four would have conditional status, but “reasonable access”), and the next five will be exempt to the finals of Web.com Q-school. (continue reading…)