'Team' player Tim Finchem deserves highest individual honor in golf

In the fall of 2016, Tim Finchem was making what amounted to a farewell tour when he was asked to define his own legacy after 22 years as PGA Tour commissioner.

Most would be reticent to follow such a self-indulgent path and the always understated former politico was having no part of it. He talked of his “team’s” relationship with the players over his two decades and how that “team” was the best in all of sports when it came to creating and executing a game plan.

“The team are the creators and the executors of what we do. I do these press conferences and play quarterback some,” figured the son of a Marine.

At the time it all sounded like corporate speak and as the commissioner savored his…