TPC notebook

Finchem pitch: Field 'deepest in game'

TIGER WOODS One major missing piece

Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Jim McCabe

Globe Staff / May 7, 2008

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - There were a number of topics to be covered, but PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem couldn't bypass a glaring absence at the 35th Players Championship, which begins tomorrow.

"Obviously, we miss Tiger [ Woods]," said Finchem yesterday. "Not having the No. 1 player in the world is a frustration."

Finchem knows that no matter what sort of PR advances are processed - like having 49 of the top 50 players in the FedEx Cup point standings - it's a hollow distinction with Woods at home recuperating from April 15 surgery on his left knee. Reportedly targeting a return to action at the Memorial in three weeks, Woods is missing the Players Championship for the first time in his pro career.

No surprise, however, that Finchem put a positive spin on it.

"We like to think about the quality of the field," he said. "We think it's the deepest in the game of golf."

It's a point well taken, since all the other heavyweights are here, from defending champion Phil Mickelson to 2004 winner Adam Scott to Ernie Els, Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh, Justin Leonard, and on and on. Throw in the fact that Woods has won this tournament just once in 11 tries and it's easier to see why Finchem makes a good point.

"In terms of the three things we look at most frequently - the quality of the champions, the quality of the golf course, and the quality of the field - we're delighted going into this week," said the commissioner.

Dye cast in Hall

When players struggle in tomorrow's opening round at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, as they're bound to do, they best be warned about casting criticism toward the designer, Pete Dye. The icon of risk-reward golf holes and esteemed layouts such as Whistling Straits, the Ocean Course at Kiawah, and Harbour Town is the newest member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. "I am surprised and extremely honored to be inducted," said the 82-year-old Dye, who is remembered famously for jumping into the water after Jerry Pate won the inaugural Players Championship at Sawgrass in 1982. Dye was selected in the lifetime achievement category. Other members of the Class of 2008 will be announced at the US Open in June and the British Open in July.

A dry spell

For years there was talk of moving this tournament from March to May, and when it came to fruition last year, what happened? A storm hovered offshore, temperatures stayed in the 60s, there was rain, and the golf course didn't play the way officials had hoped. No such problem this week, because there's been a stretch of dry weather, and with hot, humid air predicted, "balls are not stopping at all," said Mickelson. The lefthander raved about the course conditions - "it is in incredible shape" - and suggested that he and his colleagues would have trouble keeping "balls to stay on that [island-green] 17th, which is fine." . . . Finchem announced that the purse had been bumped $500,000 to a whopping $9.5 million, which means the winner will receive $1.71 million.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com