Tim Finchem Quotations

Connecting with people, getting things done - that's what makes the travel worthwhile.

Working in Washington, trying to make a difference, that was a very meaningful time for me, a period of personal growth.

I'm a fan of the power nap. About twice a week, I'll stretch out on a little couch in my office for 20 minutes. I don't need a wake-up call; I pop right up, feeling refreshed.

To be a former PGA Tour player typically means you're about 75 years old. They just don't stop.

Good television people have a sense of what television people relate to.

I'm not getting into a public debate with Jack Nicklaus.

If I was going to go to college, I had to have a scholarship. By my sophomore year, it was evident golf was not going to be the path.

The game of golf was bigger than Jack Nicklaus when Jack was dominating the game.

We like the fact people who watch the telecasts get excited about something they see.

I've never played golf with Tiger Woods. To tell the truth, I'm not sure that watching him pound it 100 yards past me all day is something I'd like to do.

If I want to make something known, I have to make a concerted effort to get the word out. Tiger Woods, on the other hand, only has to say something, and it's tomorrow's headlines.

That's what PGA Tour golf is all about. It's a partnership with the community to help people to raise money for charity and to do it using golf as a platform.

What tournaments want to do, typically, is support charities in their community that need the money and charities that are impactful to their community. The better the job the tournament does for the charities, the better they are able to sell the tournament and raise money for the charity.

When I was 10, I had a paper route. One year, I delivered my papers through a hurricane. My mother was against the idea, but my dad, who was a sergeant in the Marine Corps, overruled her. I was determined to deliver my papers.

We are extremely pleased that the greater Hartford region will be part of the FedEx Cup schedule with St. Paul Travelers as title sponsor. This event has a long history with the Tour and has always had outstanding support from the community.

Henry Picard was one of the country's brightest stars in the decade leading up to World War II, where his victory total compares favorably to the likes of Sam Snead during that span.

The purse increases year to year will not be as steep in the next six years as they have in the last six. Retirement benefits will actually go up more steeply, but our purses . . . will flatten a little bit.

The people who are concerned about this issue, the fans, ought to relax and know there's going to be a lot of great golf here over the years if we keep the course in good shape,

Stature is something that we don't determine. Others determine.

Payne was a great champion, a gentleman and a devoted husband and father. He will always be remembered as a very special competitor, and one who contributed enormously to the positive image of professional golf.

It creates a nice flow in the schedule.

It is always exciting to watch Tiger battle to be the best. We congratulate him on another great season and on the accomplishment of continuing to be the No.1 player in the world.

Overall play should not deviate too much from the way it is now. The fall series will be worth more than just a guy keeping his card.

I think it's fair to say that the purse level increases year-to-year will not be as steep in the next six years.

We couldn't be more pleased with the outcome of these discussions. We have been able to streamline and solidify our television presence for the long term through this alignment with two very strong network partners and an exclusive cable provider. These agreements will drive enormous value to sponsors. And it's a big win for our fans, because these television partners will provide the continuity and quality of coverage that will bring out the drama of the season-long FedEx Cup competition, while also positioning The Players Championship for maximum impact and fan interest.

We've been going through a transition phase for a few years. We have Europe trying to find more playing opportunities for its members, sanctioning tournaments here and there, picking up half of their playing opportunities for members. It raises as many questions as there are answers.

We do like that notion that we have the deepest field in the game from A to Z, and virtually every one of those players can win. We would not want to move drastically away from that.

We're about to get this done, ... We're in discussions with English Turn. We can't play the TPC in April. It's just too much work.

We're about to get this done. We're in discussions with English Turn. We can't play the TPC in April. It's just too much work.

When Hartford had this date in the past, the field quality has been very solid. So if you add an improved overall tournament, the type of energy to make that happen here, plus the Fed Ex cup, we're very comfortable with the field quality we'll get.

We're excited about the golf course infrastructure. It should allow us the flexibility to get the kind of conditions we want, whether we're in March or May although we're focused on May.

We play two tournaments in the same marketplace. That's always a concern, because we have other markets around the country that would like to see the best players in the world play. We have five or six markets that we're not getting to.

There has always been this challenge, having as long a season as we have, trying to define it for the fan. The reason the other sports find it easy is because their season is always about the end. We need a culminating event that's special, and that you have to play hard to get into.

We've always believed we're prepared to do it, ... We can handle it in short order if we need to.

With the lack of consistent dates, it's been difficult to grow the tournament. We believe with consistent dates in the fall, we have the best opportunity.

At the end of the day, it wasn't something we thought we should continue.

A significant amount of time and effort went into the development of the FedEx Cup schedule to maximize the strength of our tournaments, sponsors and venues, while providing a logical flow geographically.

Every other sport has their channel, ... That's not lost on us.

We want to use that week to tell the story about the future of New Orleans, to showcase it. We definitely will use it as a way to think about it -- not so much look back to Katrina, but looking forward.

With the conclusion of the FedEx Cup competition at The Tour Championship the week September 10-16, we felt that the competitors could use an extra week to rest and be fully prepared for The Presidents Cup.

Sandy had this idea of rebuilding Harding Park, and we decided to work together on getting it rebuilt. And then it took awhile it takes awhile to do things in California. But it works for the community. And we'll see how it works for the big boys.

There's only so many dates. Our objective for the Fall Series is for every week to have the strongest possible tournament.

The playoffs are all about starting over, ... (The championship series) gives us what we've wanted for a long time, a culminating end to our season. If we do anything approaching any other sports, it's a huge impact on our overall television position, and it helps carry our audience into the fall.

To say any one option is the lead option ... there are issues with all of them.

You need to challenge yourself every few years and say, 'Are we taking all the steps necessary to allow us to compete effectively? It may develop that you say, 'You know what? There's no better way to do it, so let's just leave it alone.' It's certainly easier to do that. But I think it's been good to challenge what we're doing, and I think the likelihood is we'll make some changes.

This is a win-win-win partnership that we have in this room today. The players are going to love being here and love playing on this course.

This is a tremendous loss for the entire golfing community and all of sports,

I've given Tiger Woods enough of these trophies, so I'm going to let someone else do it.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to say. We've got so many things going on. Given where we are, on the brink of going to TV (negotiations), I don't want to mislead anyone. But I want to give folks a broad sense of what we're looking at.

It's pretty special. It's nice to celebrate a milestone like this. If more people and more companies really understand what's happening, that can help you grow. This is part of our mission. It's part of our culture.

I think our job right now is to continue to build The Players and make it as good as it can be and probably work harder to connect with fans about it. Stature (as far as The Players being considered golf's fifth major) is something we don't determine; others do that.

George was a tough competitor who, as many golfers know, was a master with the putter. George will be missed by all who walked the fairways with him, and those of us who got to know him outside the ropes.

Good tournaments can compete and perform very nicely. And the Tour Championship doesn't do that bad, but it's too far removed. It reinforced to us that if you put something special out there, we can carry the audience with us into September. And if it's a strong enough finish, then the season becomes more important.

The bottom line is, we can challenge the players much more effectively with much more firm and fast conditions. As a matter of fact, in the studies we've done over the last 10 years, the difference between a generally soft course and a firm and fast golf course is an average of five shots in the winning score and about the same in terms of the overall scoring average.

You want to grow. To compete effectively -- even if you weren't going to grow, just to maintain your position -- you look at who you're competing with. And everyone you're competing with is changing to get better, sometimes dramatically.

The Championship Series gives us what we've wanted for a long time - a culminating end to our season.

It's taken a lot longer than we thought. It's going to be very late in the year before we get to television (negotiations). I would be concerned about that, because we don't like to be within a year of starting the next season. But this year is a little different in the sense we've extended so many title sponsors.

At least going forward, we know it can be done. ... If the golfers who play here regularly are comfortable with cutting back play for a little while, we can look forward to good conditions the next time we come here.

This move will help ensure that world's best players have an extra week to prepare for the 2007 Presidents Cup,

This move will help ensure the worlds best players have an extra week to prepare for the 2007 Presidents Cup. We felt the competitors could use an extra week to rest and be fully prepared for The Presidents Cup.

We're very pleased with being able to bring the best players in the world back to this particular venue.

It is our plan to include Hartford in the fall schedule.

This week's tournaments will put us over the top.

We will be investing a number of millions of dollars to give the players a five-star experience, as well as improve the quality for the fans.

We go so far into the football season, and so far into the fall, that we haven't been able to get the kind of strength we see in other sports. We're the only major sport that doesn't have a playoff system.

This tells us the people involved here are capable of doing it,

It's a plus to position the Players in a manner that it flows with the Masters in April and the Open in June.

The mathematics are such if you're going to compete in the Cup competition, there's a very significant upside, certainly if you're a consistent top player, to perform well just like you are within a tournament structure. So that is a dynamic, and the fact that the way the point structure for this series will be structured almost dictates if you're going to perform well, you've got to play every week.

You want to grow. To compete effectively - - even if you weren't going to grow, just to maintain your position - - you look at who you're competing with. And everyone you're competing with is changing to get better, sometimes dramatically.

There is one pressing need, we think, to help us compete, and that is the need to define our season, .. That relates to, first of all, creating a real season, which would include a year-long competition and a dramatic finish to that competition.

An organization needs to be constantly refreshed.