East Lake, Atlanta, GA … Tim Finchem is expected to retire at the end of the year as Commissioner of the PGA Tour.

He’s been at the helm of the most lucrative Tour in golf since taking over from Deane Beman on 1st June, 1994 – a period of more than 22 years.

In his time as Commissioner, Finchem has overseen a remarkable growth in the Tour ranging from a total purse of $56.4m in 1994 to $256.8m in 2006 while the Tour currently employs some 800 staff.

And while Finchem has always been so business-like in any press conference we saw a humorous side of him today ahead of this week’s Tour Championship.

In fact, Finchem shared with the attending media a dozen amusing ‘headlines’ and tweets that he has indeed been the subject of over recent years.

Out-going PGA Tour Commissioner debuts in new role ahead of the Tour Championship.

“Normally, this time of the year, I tee off and regale you with a bunch of information about where I think we are. In recent years, I’ve noticed that here in these sessions a lot of you are busily tweeting and sending e-mails to friends.

So I spent a couple of days last week going through what our folks have collected over the years in terms of some of the stuff you’ve disseminated out there, and I find it to be very funny stuff, in my own way.

So I thought I’d share with you some of them. I went through and I picked out a few that struck me as of particular interest. These are the things you come up with while I’m trying to communicate what’s going on in the PGA TOUR.”

Any idea when Finchem will be retiring? Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Tim Finchem is the new chairman of something called the World Golf Foundation. I know I’ll sleep easier knowing that. See, now there’s an individual who’s not paying attention.

Wake me when Tim Finchem is finished speaking, #inductionceremony.

I watched the Golf Channel’s telecast of Tim Finchem playing a round of golf with the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am the other day. It was really, really exciting. Doctors think they can have me fully revived and maybe even back on my feet by the middle of next week.

Frank Nobilo says golf is a big boy’s game. Clearly he forgot Commissioner Tim Finchem, #communicative at best.

It’s been a while since I had the privilege of reading one of PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem’s torturous transcripts, and I’ll miss him when he retires. Until then, here’s a sample for people who are low on Ambien refills.

The PGA commissioner talks about the head of the board at a retirement home. I’m going to get into those activities soon. I hope it’s not at a home.

He never looks more stiff than during his press conference appearances, at which he hides in plain sight behind lawyerly circumlocutions that are almost impossible to follow without a thesaurus and a compass. At this presser, he drew two laughs, which is two more than usual.

I think this is a paraphrase on Gary Player: He’s one of the finest golfers for his height. The more I study this Tim Finchem transcript on the anchoring issue, the more I like Bud Selig. That really hurts actually. That one really hurts.

How about a new Waste Management Open tradition where we throw stuff at PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem on hole 16? Actually, I think they’ve been trying to get that organized for next year.

Will Tim Finchem ever retire, or will he take Queen Elizabeth’s method of ruling until death? Well, I used to threaten to do that, but then I realized, if I tried it, someone would probably kill me anyway.

And with that introduction Finchem rightfully received a warm applause.