Talking Tiger With The PGA Tour Commissioner

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Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods didn't win another tournament yesterday.

In fact, he bailed after shooting +6 after his first nine holes.

This morning, we sat down and talked to PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem about Tiger and the Tour.

On the report that you might have forced Tiger to get out there: "It's always important for Tiger to be a part of the Tour, because he's Tiger Woods, but the idea that we would pressure him to play is ludicrous. We don't pressure any player to play the tournament. In this case, the suggestion is somehow he was hurt and we got him to play anyway. Tiger doesn't enter a tournament unless he thinks he can win."

On whether he is worried about Tiger's performance/health: "I'm not worried. You know, I hope he's healthy enough to play. Just look at it from the health of the tour standpoint. If he's an active player it helps us out a lot...He doesn't have to come back and dominate like he did. He needs to play. My concern us, where are his injuries going to go? And he doesn't know what the answer will be and we won't know for a while."

On ratings being up 29% on weekend golf telecasts through April: "It's a focus on young players and I think its also a combination. Tiger has played some this year and a question and interested if he's coming back. Phil is a major impactor. At the same time, I think that you look at live sports."

On allowing people to bring their cell phones in: "Well, we had a problem yesterday. But we tested it at five tournaments last year. We put it in place a couple weeks ago and we really have had almost zero problems. People have become quite sophisticated about cell phone discipline and etiquette. They really want those phones. Nobody wants to be separated from them....If you're separated from your device, you're in a panic. So we have to cater to the fan. So I think it's going t work. We have to be careful with it."

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