Tim Finchem, PGA Tour pros selfish and arrogant?

You may already know that almost everyone else in the world thinks American pro golfers are a bunch of spoiled, rich brats who hate to bother with the inconvenience of traveling outside the U.S. Why not just stay home and play where the money is, the hell with growing the game around the world?

John Huggan, European correspondent for Golf Digest and Golf World really lays it on the line with a column about how the World Golf Championships, designed to spread the gospel in the far-flung reaches of the globe, have evolved into tournaments largely in the U.S.

When the Accenture Match Play Championship headed to Australia, 40 players withdrew, most of them American.

“Pampered, spoiled and apparently devoid of responsibility, too many of golf’s elite displayed a depressing disdain for the game that has made them materially rich beyond imagination,” Huggan writes in a column.

As most of the WGC tournaments have migrated to the U.S., not to mention three of the four majors already here, Huggan takes off on PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem.

“As an example of corporate arrogance, it was breathtaking,” he writes. “As an example of international cooperation and friendship, it was, to put it in crude Scottish parlance, piss-taking.

“It was also, of course, an example of blatant hypocrisy…So while everyone else is holding hands around the table, Finchem is – hidden from view no doubt – gleefully rubbing his sticky little fingers together.”

Strong words. Can’t say I disagree.