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By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- He couldn't resist pointing out the irony of the situation.

"Welcome to sunny, dry, warm Florida," PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said with a wry smile as he began his annual press conference on the eve of THE PLAYERS Championship.

PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem couldn't help but find humor in the poor weather on Wednesday. (Levy/WireImage)

Outside, the temperature was in the 70s -- but at least there was a break in the rain ushered into this tony Jacksonville suburb by tropical depression Andrea, the first named storm of the 2007 hurricane season.

It wasn't supposed to be like that, though. The move from March to May was supposed to bring just what Finchem was talking about -- those Chamber-of-Commerce days that annually attract tourists to Florida's thriving First Coast.

And that's exactly the kind of weather this barrier island has been experiencing -- until Thursday, that is. In fact, it's been so dry that deadly wildfires have sprung up in neighboring counties, and the biggest concern this week was about the smell of smoke.

Those changes to the infrastructure of THE PLAYERS Stadium Course look especially prescient now, though. That state-of-the-art drainage system that includes an 8-inch layer of sand will come in handy to keep Pete Dye's signature layout firm, fast and fair.

"It's actually funny because we never said it doesn't rain in May, we just said the patterns are different, and it's not going to rain as much, and when it rains you don't usually get a system," Finchem said.

OK, so maybe the commissioner's meteorological prowess can be called into question. But his powers of prognostication are right on target.

"We opened the golf course in December, so I think we've had over an inch once since we started construction 14 months ago," Finchem said. "We had a half an inch on Sunday. There just hadn't been any rain. So my assumption was it would definitely rain this week. It hasn't rained in a year, it might as well rain this week.

"I also believe since we're going late on Sunday, until 7 o'clock, we haven't had a playoff since '88. I'll bet you we have a playoff Sunday night."

Playoff or not, the winner will receive $1.62 million from the purse of $9 million, which is the largest ever offered at a tournament anywhere in the world.

And -- weather permitting -- he'll accept that Waterford crystal trophy in the shadow of that magnificent new Mediterranean revival clubhouse, which at 77,000 square feet is 40 percent bigger than the White House. Not to mention, it was built in 14 months.

"The direction was to make it as good as we could for the tournament week, and then we felt like if we did that, it would be a facility that really helped elevate the overall resort experience the other 51 weeks of the year, and we think that's the way it came out," Finchem said. "We're really pleased with that."

The PGA TOUR commissioner also discussed the on-site leaderboards that debut this week at the TPC Sawgrass and will travel to all events going forward. He talked about the TV broadcast, which will be in HDTV and presented with limited commercials.

Ticket sales for the 2008 PLAYERS Championship commence on Monday, and Finchem said a concerted effort will be made to attract fans from around the world.

"The reason we want to do it is because, A, we want fans around the country to feel like they're wanted here," Finchem said. "We want to communicate with fans, and we don't think there's a better way to communicate with them than reaching out to them and inviting them to come."

With all the improvements to the course and to the tournament, the inevitable question of whether THE PLAYERS is the fifth major was sure to come up, and it did. Finchem said he didn't have an answer, nor did he want to put the TOUR in the middle of the debate.

"We try to manage the tournament and make it as good as we can, and that's what we want to do," he said. "At some point I also said, though, that things are generational, things change. If at some point our players felt strongly or the golfing public felt strongly that there needed to be some adjustment to the stated hierarchy of tournaments, I suppose we would address that. I don't sense the need to do that now.

"We feel really comfortable focusing on making the tournament better. And you know, the thing about THE PLAYERS is over the years, if you go back 20 years, as far as the tournaments we ran, manage or co sanction, it's our flagship event. So I think we have a responsibility to use it as an event that impacts what's good for players, and that means encouraging bigger purses, candidly.

"So we lead in purse levels and we use that to try to bring other tournaments along, ours, majors, whatever, the purse. We try to create the best fan experience and use modern technology to do it. We made an adjustment this year to help do that, and we like to set the bar in that regard for tournaments."