Former PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem and his wife Holly have kick-started the Tour's reimagined charity platform with a $13 million donation to PGA Tour Charities.
The donation was announced on Monday, Aug. 24, by the Tour as part of the evolution of its 501(c)(3) charity arm that has generated more than $4.4 billion in donations back to communities that host PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour events since 1933.
Finchem, 79, is battling Alzheimer's. Holly revealed the news in a story published by Global Golf Post.
"ALS is to the body like Alzheimer's is to the brain," Holly Finchem said. "It's different in every person afflicted with it. It proceeds in a fashion no one can predict or plan for the pace or the effect. It is terribly
sad to lose the person you know and loved a little bit at a time."
The Finchems have been married for 40 years.
"When I pick him up to go play at Pablo [Creek Club], I put oldies on the radio for the ride over and he knows the words. He can still make a decent pass at the ball. The golf course is his happy place," Tim Smith, former deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of the PGA Tour and a friend of Finchem's for more than 50 years, said in the GGP story. "It's devastating. He was the guy in our peer group that did everything right. He took care of himself."
During his tenure as the Tour Commissioner from 1995-2016, the Tour reached and passed $1 billion and $2 billion of giving.
"It's because of our trust in the PGA Tour and its commitment to communities and charities and the diversity of the people and places that they have an impact, we thought they would be good stewards," Holly Finchem said.
“The charitable impact of the PGA Tour is real and a powerful model we are proud of,” said PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp in a statement. “Our continued, shared responsibility is to make that impact even greater and easier for our players, partners and fans to rally around. We are deeply grateful for the incredible gift from Tim and Holly Finchem as we enter this next chapter.”
New PGA Tour model will have 'direct community investment'
The Tour said in the release that PGA Tour Charities will be a "dedicated platform for direct community investment." The new model will give players, partners, events and fans "a clear and meaningful way to engage and connect to the Tour’s impact.
“The PGA Tour family, its players, fans and communities have meant so much to us for so long, and we feel a connection to the golf world that endures to this day,” said Holly Finchem in a statement. “This donation to PGA Tour Charities, as it is reimagined for future generations of impact, is more than a capstone on Tim’s unwavering commitment to charity. It is a celebration of our belief in this great game and the PGA Tour. We can’t wait to see all the good this gift will inspire through the organization Tim and I love so much.”
The Tour will launch national campaigns with charitable themes, including well-being, service, youth, access, and opportunity, that aim to attract new resources through elevated visibility and more locally driven impact.
Charitable platform will begin in 2028
Without citing specifics, the release said partners, fans, players and communities will have "clearer ways to support, engage with and help grow the Tour’s impact."
The release said the Tour will work with its constituencies to develop the reimagined platform. It is scheduled to begin with the 2028 season.
The previous charitable model took a hitduring the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as tournaments were unable to match their previous levels of giving due to event cancellations and restricted fan attendance that lasted into 2021.
The Tour also went to a for-profit model for its business arm in 2024, PGA Tour Enterprises, ending decades of operating as a 501(c)(6) charity and also had to increase purses and other forms of player compensation to compete with the rise of the LIV Golf League.
The Tour will provide an update by the 2027 Players Championship, March 11-14.
A players committee, led by PGA Tour Player Advisory Council Chairman Lucas Glover, will direct the new initiatives.
“Charity has been such an important part of the PGA Tour, and I’ve seen that firsthand in the tournament markets ― big and small ― that I’ve played throughout my career,” said Glover in a statement. “Ensuring that remains the case is one of the reasons I ran for PAC Chairman, and I know it’s incredibly important to my fellow players as well."
The Tour said that half of the $5 million donation by Brooks Kopeka earlier this year as part of his reinstatement via the Returning Member Program will be allocated to charitable beneficiaries designated by 99 eligible members, adding another layer of "player-driven engagement."
"This next chapter is about generating even more focus, coordination, resources and visibility," said Laura Neal, executive vice president of PGA Tour Strategic Philanthropy in the statement. "Launching an evolved PGA Tour Charities ― with a legacy-defining, transformative gift from the Finchems ― is an exciting next step in golf's enduring commitment to giving back."
Tim Finchem served Tour as Commissioner for 22 years
Finchem, a native of Illinois and a graduate of the University of Richmond and the University of Virginia law school, came to the Tour as its legal counsel in the late 1980s and rose to succeed Deane Beman as the Tour's third commissioner in 1994.
While commissioner, Finchem developed the World Golf Championships, the FedEx Cup and The First Tee, and oversaw changes to the PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour competitive structures. In addition to the FedEx Cup, postseason playoffs were brought to the Champions and Korn Ferry Tours.
The Players Championship, the PGA Tour's marquee event, and its venue, the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, also evolved under Finchem, with a 12-year experiment in holding the tournament in May from 2007-2018 but also enhancing the property with a $25 million clubhouse and improvements to the course.
Finchem's time as the Commissioner coincided with the rise of Tiger Woods as perhaps the world's most dominant athlete, and TV revenue and purses soared. Finchem was succeeded by Jay Monahan in 2017 and eventually was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and received the Tour’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Amid Alzheimer's diagnosis, ex-PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, wife Holly make $13 million gift
