Love's five steps to help the TOUR in this economy

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The faltering economy is a topic on seemingly every cable news show these days. And not surprisingly, it was the primary subject addressed by PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem at a player meeting last week at the Buick Invitational.

Love III

Davis Love III, who has served several terms on the PGA TOUR Policy Board and is up for election again this year, said Finchem wanted to "reassure us and also at the same time motivate us to continue to do a good job."

As Love sees it, one of the most important things is to make sure the sponsors, who put up big bucks to help stage the tournaments and fund the purses, know they are appreciated.

"Do something special for the sponsors," Love said, "Write a letter to the CEO. If you got a nice birthday present from somebody, you'd write them a thank-you note at home. Well, you're getting a nice birthday present every week so you ought to thank somebody.

"You ought to do something every week, and if we can create that culture, which we should have created, (we'll be OK). Arnold almost created it but now we're spoiled. ... There's a lot of guys who do a lot, don't get credit for it, do a pretty good job. But there's also a lot of guys that just are so focused on their game they don't realize.

"It's not that they don't want to do it. It's just that they don't know how to do it. Teaching the young guys to do pro-ams and stuff like that is something we're going to have to work on."

So PGATOUR.COM asked Love the five things he would tell his peers to do in order to make sure that the PGA TOUR remains on solid financial ground.