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Commissioner denies favouritism

Some players have grumbled in recent weeks that the PGA Tour caters to its two biggest stars, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Woods will be host of his first PGA Tour event this summer in Washington, and the field was reduced to 120 players. Mickelson was excused from playing the pro-am in Dallas two weeks ago when his plane was grounded in Arkansas.

And both were vocal about having shorter seasons before the tour created the FedEx Cup.

"There's always been a perception that top players have more access, more involvement, more impact than other players," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said Wednesday. "I think that's an understandable perception. Why wouldn't they? To the average fan, if your top four or five players got together said, 'We should change tournament regulation X,' wouldn't the tournament pay attention to that?'

"I think the tour would, but the tour is an organization of the players. So I suspect the players would in that context."

Finchem said he has found top players worry more about their games than policies and issues.