The Kroger Senior Classic announced Saturday that PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem will help kick off its golf tournament week by speaking at a Power Breakfast for corporate and community leaders Aug.27 at the Montgomery Inn Banquet Center in downtown Cincinnati.

        Finchem will make his first appearance in Cincinnati and to the Kroger Senior Classic, which takes place Aug.27-Sept.2.

        “Cincinnati is one of the best stops on the Senior Tour, and I wanted to come there and see the tournament and talk with the volunteers first-hand,” Finchem said. “Tournament Director Margie French and her staff do a tremendous job. We wish all our events could be run like the Kroger tournament.”

        Tim Pennington, the Kroger Senior Classic's director of communications, said one of the reasons Finchem accepted the tournament's invitation is the longevity of the event, now in its 12th year.

        “The commissioner does not make many personal speaking engagements, but we are one of the oldest events on the Senior Tour with the same corporate sponsors,” Pennington said. “I think he realizes the Kroger tournament has done a lot of things right, and he wants to be a part of it and see it firsthand.”

        Finchem is presently in negotiations with numerous broadcast and cable TV outlets on a new rights package that could bump the broadcast fees for the PGA and Senior Tour from $500 million to almost $1 billion as ratings soar.

        “Tim Finchem is a very busy man with lots of things on his plate,” Pennington said. “To get him to come to your tournament, especially a Senior Tour event, is a coup. I think people will be interested with that he has to say about golf and business in general.”

        Tickets to the Power Breakfast are $25 each, including a pair of single-day tickets to the tournament and a full-service breakfast. They can be ordered by calling 513-398-5742.

Check out our Tristate golf guide for a directory and features on local courses, coverage of the Men's and Women's Met, and other news.

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