FanHouse Tim Finchem

ATLANTA -- Addressing the PGA Tour's business health, commissioner Tim Finchem on Wednesday said he anticipates the need to replace some title sponsors on next year's schedule and would not rule out the complete loss of other tournament stops.

"I think it's possible we could lose a couple of events," Finchem said. "It's probable that we're going to lose some sponsors."

Already gone from next year's schedule in the Buick Open, but its place on the schedule has been filled with a new event to be played at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

It was reported earlier this month that the business of professional golf is slumping. Spending by North American companies on golf sponsorships is projected to drop 3.7 percent this year.

A study conducted by IEG, an arm of advertising giant WPP Pic, speculates U.S. and Canadian-based companies will spend $1.31 billion in 2009, down from $1.36 billion in 2008.

"Call it the 'big shrimp syndrome,'" IEG Sponsorship Reports senior editor William Chipps said in a statement released in conjunction with the study. "Many companies are reluctant to sign new deals over concerns about what might be perceived as excessive hospitality."

The Presidents Cup is a month away, and Tuesday the teams were announced. It's a welcome break from the FedEx Cup excitement. (To be fair, this year's event has been infinitely more interesting than it was in 2007 or 2008 but still, it's hard to get too worked up about manufactured drama. Well, unless it's wrestling.)

In any event, the International captain, Greg Norman, and the American captain, Fred Couples, were joined by PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem in Washington, DC to name their selections during a televised press conference.

The captains' picks (as well as their comments from the presser -- beware, there's a lot of excitement) are after the jump:

The PGA Tour doesn't talk about such things, but I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that the decision to suspend John Daly for six months was born out of the events that took place a year ago last month. Daly, participating in the Buick Open pro-am, thought it would be great fun to hit a golf ball off a beer can. while an overalls-clad Kid Rock watched on.

Alone, it was harmless, but Daly has a long history of skirting right and wrong, at least in terms of what the PGA deems appropriate. Not long after the beer-can-as-a-tee trick, Daly was cuffed-and-stuffed for being sloppy drunk outside a Winston Salem, NC-area Hooters.

John Daly is a lot like Johnny Depp: born in the South, in his 40s, loves kicking it in Europe, and now, thanks to lap-band surgery, looks unreasonably thin (well, relative to the old JD, anyway). And while he has yet to bust out the pirate ensemble (although I suspect it'll soon be in the rotation), he enjoys dressing up in funny outfits.

Now, after serving a six-month suspension, Daly will be back on the PGA Tour. The former two-time major winner is still without his card, but he'll be in the field at the St. Jude Championship in three weeks on a sponsor's exemption. Just like old times. Save the fact that he's 40 pounds lighter and probably playing some of his best golf in recent years.

Save the mustache and the mullet, the John Daly who won the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick looks a lot like the guy who finished second at last week's Italian Open. The new JD -- 40 pounds lighter and now taking fashion advice from Craig Sager -- finally seems committed to saving his golf career after years of interventions, rehab and falling off the wagon. It's a refreshing change, frankly.

PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem suspended Daly for the first six months of the 2009 season, presumably in response to his latest beer-and-wings-fueled mayhem. But instead of seeking solace at the nearest Hooters, Daly decided to rededicate himself to golf. Again. Last year, golf instructor to the stars Butch Harmon dumped Big John after four months, citing that the most important thing in Daly's life "was getting drunk."

On Thursday, FanHouse columnist Greg Couch put together a piece from TPC Sawgrass about how the PGA Tour has been 100 percent clean so far with its drug testing. The elephant in the room about drug testing was that Tim Finchem started it because Tiger Woods (and others) had ballooned and golf, just like other sports, didn't want to deal with what baseball dealt with.

Well, Tiger admitted that he's been tested twice since the PGA Tour started testing last July, and came up negative both times, including one time where he had to test when he wasn't even playing in the tournament.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- At least one game has integrity. Manny Ramirez, with his 50-game suspension, is just another cheater in a line of steroid users in baseball. How can you trust anyone anymore?

Well, thankfully, we have golf. Not one golfer on the PGA Tour has ever failed a steroid test.

Not ... one.

Zippo. In the power age of golf, when fitness has started to include weightlifting because muscles help to keep up with the Tigers and Phils, every ... single ... golfer is clean.

Golf season starts tomorrow, which means it is time to actually start thinking of the best game with dimples. While the giants take a nap, others will play at the Mercedes Championship, and golf will be around the rest of the year. FanHouse spent a couple of minutes thinking what is to come in 2009. Here is what transpired.

Which golfer will be the first to break through in the Majors?
A lot of the time this is overlooked, but look back a few years ago to Tiger's first full year on tour. The guy won his first-ever start in a major as a professional. With Tiger, the monkey never even had a chance to find a nice place to rest on his back. How long did it take for Tiger to win number two? Eleven major championships. Yeah, it isn't nearly as easy as he makes it seem now.

What I'm trying to say with all of this is that winning a major championship is really, really, really tough and as Sergio Garcia (and Phil Mickelson a few years back) can tell you, if you don't get one early, then the questions about "When will it happen?" start to stir around.

Garcia has gone 38 majors as a professional without a victory. That might seem like a tremendously long time until you think of some of the talented guys that took a while to win their first big one. Vijay Singh didn't get his until his 27th major. Fred Couples went 34 until he took the 1992 Masters. Tom Kite played in 67 majors before taking his 1992 U.S. Open crown.

Garcia is in panic mode but he's still young (in golf terms) and has enough talent to open the floodgates in the major championship sense.

Along with him, Anthony Kim is due to take one of these as a youngster, as well as Hunter Mahan, Adam Scott, Aaron Baddeley and Camilo Villegas.

Interesting stat to close all this up and make it apparent how hard it is to win a major: Out of the top 10 in the Official World Rankings, five have won majors, five have not.

Tiger Woods and his enormous head are back on the range hitting golf balls. Which likely means that he'll be teeing it up in a real live tournament in a few months, much to PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem's delight. (Philbert, on the other hand, is less thrilled. His moobs couldn't be reached for comment*.)

Woods currently has 14 professional majors, just four shy of Jack Nicklaus' record, and depending on how he bounces back from his knee injury, he could conceivably surpass the Golden Bear in 2010. (Optimistic, yes ... but still quite plausible.) Jack, however, wants to make sure Woods doesn't rush things. You know, for health reasons.