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Wednesday,
Nov. 8
For years the players have always had the same issues Tiger Woods has now with the PGA Tour. Jack Nicklaus had them. Arnold Palmer had them. Tom Watson had them. I've had issues in the past with former commissioner Deane Beman over things like releases.
While the Tour has always promoted its players, now it has somebody like Tiger, who is so big in the world of sports. I can understand where he's coming from. Yet historically, golf's best and biggest names have always
bought into the Tour concept; it's a Tour that needs to work for everybody.
Quite often, the players aren't terribly happy with what's going on at the Tour headquarters. If I stood up and said the same things Tiger did, no one would pay any attention to it -- and I've had the same feelings and dealings. A lot of players have. Because it's Tiger, though, it becomes totally different from a media standpoint.
The issues between Tiger and the Tour and commissioner Tim Finchem may need to be addressed, but not in the media. If every disagreement between a player and the commissioner were in the media, it would happen every day. That's the nature of the business. There are 350 independent contractors on the PGA Tour and 200 on the Senior Tour. You can't make everyone happy. We all want to change things, but Tiger and the
commissioner and the tour board need to figure it out together.
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