NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA. - PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is, by training, an economist and a lawyer and, by profession, a politician - in the Jimmy Carter White House - and an administrator. Needless to say, he has had a lot of practice employing phrases like "vagaries of the marketplace." This man does not speak in bumper-sticker shorthand and rarely hands out a catchy phrase on which you can hang your journalistic hat. Finding a catchy quote from Finchem is like stumbling upon a Democrat in pro golf - rare indeed.

The reason Finchem has not only survived but thrived for 16 years as commissioner is not because of his oratorical eloquence but because he took over a very good product groomed for him by Deane Beman and made it better. Under Finchem, purses have skyrocketed, TV exposure has expanded enormously and the game has become truly one without borders, both in its players and its venues. Oh, and his constituency -- the players -- have become very wealthy.

There is, in the way Finchem approaches matters, a calm and a refusal to panic that suggests he was not only the perfect man to lead the tour in good times but is also even better to serve it in the bad. Speaking Wednesday at the AT&T National at Aronimink GC near Philadelphia, Finchem acknowledged that "the economy continues to lag" and that some events are without sponsors, but at the same time calmly added: "We don't anticipate any need for contraction" in the 2011 schedule.

That's a pretty bold statement from a guy facing potential holes next year at the Doral-WGC event, Memphis, Hilton Head, Reno-Tahoe and the Bob Hope - at the very least. But they are also the words of a man who understands well the value of his product. "We are basically on track with where we are in most years, good or bad economy, in terms of the amount of work we have to do either to renew sponsors or bring in new sponsors," Finchem said. "The market is generally soft, but our product continues to perform well."

And they are also the words of a man who also understands his product is going to have to make some modifications in the way it operates. One of those modifications is a plan to designate some tournaments deemed to be weaker that will form a pool from which players will have to select one to add to their schedule. Finchem said such a proposal would have to be presented to the PGA Tour Board by September in order for approval - or rejection - to occur in time for the 2011 season.

"Tournament regulations need to be approved twice by the Board," Finchem explained. "It's a fail-safe mechanism that keeps us from doing damage to ourselves. And, in this case, you would want the fourth quarter to educate the players and tournaments how it would work."

And that is exactly an example of how Finchem works: Far more substance than sizzle. And isn't that refreshing? Isn't that the way it should be?

-- Ron Sirak

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. - If Dustin Johnson bears any emotional scars from his epic implosion during the final round of the U.S. Open, they are well hidden. At least that's the case when he's behind a microphone. We'll find out Thursday when he tees it up at the AT&T National whether the wounds reopen when he is swinging a golf club

When last we saw young Dustin, you'll remember, he was adding up 82 strokes after blowing a three-stroke lead Sunday at Pebble Beach. He took last week off, in part to enjoy his 26th birthday and in part to chill out. Thursday he'll be back at work, paired with Tiger Woods and Davis Love III in the opening round of the AT&T at Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia.

"It was gone when I left California," Johnson said about the possibility his collapse at the Open will follow him. "It was a tough day. Golfers have tough days. You just have to put it behind you. I still finished in the top 10. It's not like I had a terrible week or anything." Well, those are all the right words to say.

Johnson says his cell phone didn't stop buzzing in the days right after Pebble Beach, mostly from friends trying to comfort him. But he did get a call from someone who could relate to what Dustin must have been feeling.

"I got a call from Greg Norman," Johnson said. "He said golf is a learning process non-stop." Then, saying what perhaps didn't need to be said, Johnson added about Norman: "He's been in my situation a few times. As if we needed to be told that: See 1996 Masters. Six-stroke lead. 78 strokes.

Asked his regrets about the final round at Pebble Beach - the left-handed shot, the hurried shots or the missed two-footer on No. 2; the needlessly aggressive tee shots on No. 3 and 4 - Johnson said: "If anything, maybe I should have been a little more aggressive in my approach shot on 2." That was the shot that ended up in the rough that led to his triple-bogey 7, followed by a double bogey and a bogey.

Johnson will also get some encouraging words from Woods. "It happens," Tiger says he will tell Johnson when they play Thursday, pointing out that he played with Mike Weir when Weir shot 80 in the final round of the PGA Championship, and then went on to win a Masters.

"Just because it happened doesn't mean you can't win again," Woods says. "He has the talent to have the lead in the last round of the U.S. Open. You just have to pick yourself up and do it all over again."

That seems to be exactly the attitude Johnson is bringing into Aronimink this week. But it's also an attitude that's easier to have on a Tuesday than it is on a Thursday - or on a Sunday. That is just a matter of wait and see.

-- Ron Sirak

Tiger Woods is No. 5 on the Celebrity 100, Forbes' annual list of the 100 most powerful celebrities, the same rank he held on the list a year ago.

Woods, who has ranked as high as No. 1 on this list, trails only Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce Knowles, James Cameron and Lady Gaga. Phil Mickelson ranks 45th.

The list is here.

-- John Strege

Colin Montgomerie's captaincy of the European Ryder Cup team encountered more turbulence over the weekend, when its last captain, Nick Faldo, revealed that his attempts to sit down and talk with Montgomerie have been for naught.

"I didn't want just to make my views known to him through the media," Faldo said at the BMW International Open in Munich, Germany, where he missed the cut. "So I wrote to Monty three weeks ago suggesting we meet up for a chat, but I have not had a reply. I don't think I need say any more than that. It says it all."

Montgomerie also was playing in Munich and made the cut. When asked about meeting with Faldo, he replied, "I think Nick missed out here (the cut) so I don't know what he is doing."

Of course, the cynic might ask what insights Faldo could possibly impart from a former captain's viewpoint given the drubbing his team took, 16 1/2-11 1/2, in 2008.

The larger issue is Montgomerie, who continues to make headlines beyond the simple promotion of the Ryder Cup. Last month was his warning to potential team members that they'd better play the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles in Scotland in August, despite a conflict for European players who play the PGA Tour: The Barclays, the first event in the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Mike Davis, the USGA's senior director rules and competition, generally has been applauded for his U.S. Open setups, but have they served to negate some of the advantages the game's best players have and allowed lesser lights to win?

Steve Elling of CBSSports.com makes a compelling argument that that is the case, quoting Tiger Woods, who said, "He's given more guys the chance to win the golf tournament. It's more open now." In other words, "fair," the word so often used by players to describe Davis' setups, has in fact become an equalizer, Elling argues.

"Beginning in 2005, with the exception of Woods' victory at Torrey Pines two years ago, the toughest test in golf has been won by a series of less-heralded players, some with no pedigree whatsoever on the PGA Tour," Elling writes. "In fact, throw out the career victory total of Woods -- who, mind you, required 19 playoff holes to defeat journeyman Rocco Mediate -- and the five other winners combined had amassed three U.S. tour wins before winning the Open."

He cites winners Michael Campbell, Angel Cabrera and Graeme McDowell. "None was higher than No. 37 [in the World Ranking] heading into the tournament week, and among the winners of the past six Opens, only Woods was ranked in the top 16. Two were ranked outside the top 70.

"Hardly stiffs. Hardly stalwarts."

But hasn't that always been the case, great Open champions, Hall of Famers, interspersed with winners who were hardly stiffs, but hardly stalwarts?

From 1969 through 1998, these men have won Opens: Orville Moody, Lou Graham, Andy North (twice), Scott Simpson, Lee Janzen (twice), Corey Pavin and Steve Jones. That's nearly one in three won by a player who could have been described as hardly a stiff, but hardly a stalwart.

There are, too, those winners whose game seemed better suited for an Open than any of the other majors: Hale Irwin (three-time U.S. Open champion), Pavin, Tom Kite, Curtis Strange (two Opens) and Retief Goosen (two Opens). All were stars, but none won any other major.

It seems that the recent spate of Open champions to which Elling refers is less an anomaly than a continuation of a historical pattern.

-- John Strege

The mystery known as Sergio Garcia continued at the BMW International Open in Munich, Germany, on Thursday, where the sad state of his game reached this depth: He was unable to score better than Nick Faldo, who is 52 and essentially retired from competitive golf.

Garcia, who has fallen from second in the World Ranking to 36th, shot 77 and stands second to last in the field at the European Tour event. Faldo shot 76. Faldo told Mark Garrod of the Press Association that Garcia "is just not with it. "I know there's a lot going on -- game, life, family. Everything is on a downward spiral right now."

Garcia hasn't won since the fall of 2008. He has had only a single top 10 in 2010, in the WGC-Match Play Championship. Otherwise, a tie for 22nd in the U.S. Open is his best performance this year and he is in danger of not making the European Ryder Cup team after having played on the last five.

"He isn't enjoying his golf at all at the moment," Garcia's manager Carlos Rodriguez said. "It is not fun for him. Sergio has even said that if Colin Montgomerie were willing to offer him a Ryder Cup wild card he's not sure whether he would be of any help to the European team."

-- John Strege

Seve Ballesteros has canceled plans to play in the four-hole Champions Challenge at St. Andrews on the eve of the British Open on the advice of his doctors, he announced on his website.

Ballesteros, who has been battling brain cancer, arrived at the decision after undergoing routine tests that he has every three months. His medical team advised him "that at this time he should not put himself under any undue stress or in potentially emotional situations. It is for this reason that they have advised him against traveling to St. Andrews."

"Despite the excellent general state that Mr. Ballesteros enjoys, we do not think the trip to Scotland, this coming July, would be appropriate," his oncologist Dr. Cristobel Belda, said on the website. "It is important that Mr. Ballesteros continues with a peaceful life and our advice has been not to travel to Scotland."

"I very much wanted to be at the British Open in St. Andrews next month to personally thank all the golf fans and friends who have given me their support, not only during these two years, when I have been recovering from my illness, but also to thank them for the affection they have shown during my golf career," he said on his website."I am aware that there might be people who have been preparing their trip to encourage and cheer me up. Hence, I do not want to disappoint anyone at the last minute and after listening to the doctors' advice I have taken the difficult decision not to travel to St. Andrews."

Golf Digest's Jaime Diaz visited Ballesteros at his home in Pedrena, Spain, to discuss his recovery. The story is here.

-- John Strege

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell returned to a hero's welcome in Portrush on Wednesday, where he revealed that removing the U.S. Open trophy he earned on Sunday at Pebble Beach required bolt cutters to cut through the combination lock.

"We got a huge big metal box with the trophy, obviously pretty secure, and a combination lock to go with it," he said, according to this story in the Irish Times. "I take no responsibility for it because I didn't lock the thing. When we got to Callaway headquarters [in Carlsbad, Calif.] people were pretty excited and wanted to get the trophy out, but we didn't have the combination.

"We got a set of bolt cutters and cut it off. So, I'm off to a flyer in my relationship with the U.S. Open trophy. It's been an interesting one so far."

McDowell, the first Brit to win the U.S. Open since Tony Jacklin's victory at Hazeltine in 1970, went straight to Rathmore Golf Club, where he learned the game as a teenager. He has been running on adrenaline, he said, though he intends to refuel with something different.

"I am here for the weekend and intend to see some drinking action," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

-- John Strege

When Tiger Woods described Pebble Beach Golf Links' greens as "awful" in the wake of his first round in the U.S. Open, he was roundly and appropriately criticized.

USGA executive director David Fay took him to task, arguing that Pebble Beach's greens had never been better, that some of the best superintendents and a dedicated staff worked tirelessly on getting the best from them. All true.

Here's another reason: A preponderance of rounds in the U.S., 78 percent according to the National Golf Foundation, are played on public courses, most of them featuring greens considerably worse than those on which the Open was played. Many of those same golfers would donate a body part for the opportunity to Pebble Beach at its worst. Bad form, Tiger.

Pebble's greens are poa annua, which get bumpy in the afternoon. Unavoidable. Here's what Ernie Els wrote on his website: "The greens weren't what you'd call perfect, but other than that it was one of the better U.S. Open set-ups that I've seen."

Yet Els blamed his putting woes in the first round on himself. "After my round I went straight to the practice green and worked hard on my putting and managed to sort a few things out," he wrote.

Incidentally, the USGA emphasis on taking the Open to more public facilities is admirable, but understand this: the public courses on which the Open is played in no way resemble the public courses as the public plays them.

Woods is a product of public golf, having been weened on some courses for which "awful" would represent an improvement in their condition day in and day out.

He should know better.

-- John Strege