Sorry, Tiger and Rory – PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and Nike Golf president Cindy Davis were the only golf-specific figures to make the list of Sports Illustrated’s “50 Most Powerful People in Sports.”
No active athletes made the list, which was topped by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Finchem checked in at No. 25 – behind Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, ahead of Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany – because, the website writes, “He had the good fortune of presiding over the Tiger Woods era, when even the Tour’s journeymen got rich.” Perhaps more significantly, he also helped bring golf back to the Olympics for the first time in more than a century.
Davis is one of only two women on the list, and at No. 46 she finds herself ahead of power-agent Tom Condon and brash Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. In locking up Rory McIlroy to a multi-year deal over the offseason, Davis now oversees a company with the top two players in the world, including a transcendent star in McIlroy who could rule the game for the better part of the next two decades.
NBC Sports chairman Mark Lazarus was seventh on the list. (Golf Channel is part of the NBC Sports Group.)