Michael Vick’s plea bargain deal and guilty plea to dog fighting once again illustrates how the PGA Tour’s Tim Finchem has the easiest commissioner’s job in all of sports.

Sure, Finchem has been in denial about steroids longer than Bud Selig (which is no easy task in blindness). Sure, Finchem’s transcendent mega superstar Tiger Woods is skipping the first tournament in the commish’s new playoff baby.

But those are minor problems compared to the Vick mess and PETA’s unrelenting pursuit of justice and publicity (not necessarily in that order). In many ways, Finchem is getting a free pass in today’s sports world. The question is: Can it last?

All sports are most vulnerable to gambling and the PGA Tour’s probably no different in this regard. It’s helped by the fact that there are no referees who can change the outcome of a Tour event, that even if a player did find himself deeply in debt to questionable characters, the only score he could really effect is his own.

Nope. No Tim Donaghy’s in golf.

Tim Finchem has it easy. Now he needs to take better advantage of that. The PGA Tour should be getting promoted as one of the last pure sports - which can’t be done until there is ironclad Olympic-style steroids testing.

In an age of doubt and disappointments, it’s time for golf to market its rare high morale ground.

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