Four tournaments possible to replace the International…

… and the Canadian Open ain’t one of them.

The other cities being considered for the Fourth of July spot on the schedule are Portland, Ore., Minneapolis and another market he declined to identify that “just came across the tracks.”

Well I guess that doesn’t entirely disregard the Canadian Open, but I’m a bettting man, and I’ll wager against Canada in this case.

Finchem said he was surprised by the amount of interest from potential sponsors and cities, which included phone calls from mayors, over filling the void when the International decided to cancel the tournament July 5-8 outside Denver.

And I’ll bet Stephen Ross was one of those calls….

“We are working forward on a three-city, and possibly four-city review, of trying by next week to get aligned in each of those areas where to play, what the sponsorship structure would be and how the tournament would work in those different communities from a Fourth of July standpoint,” he said in a telephone interview.

Sponsorship structure? Let’s not talk about that when discussing the Canadian Open. Let’s talk about the history of the event, the fact players once showed up to fight for the title, um, well you get the point.

Apparently International founder Jack Vickers has also become a little more vocal on the subject of why his tournament is no longer:

“On the one hand, the Tour’s asking for a new five- or six-year commitment and you’ve got a one-man show out there right now that is the big difference,” Vickers said Thursday.

Finchem disagreed. He said if that were true, “we would have a schedule of 18 events.”

Now there’s a thought…..

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Other news:

Geoff Shackelford argues Wayne K’s point — that Tiger is now bigger than the PGA Tour and maybe doesn’t need it any longer.