Rory McIlroy, who has emerged as a bold thinker and in many ways the conscience of the fractious professional game, borrowed a page from other sports in addressing a sudden exodus of sponsors on the PGA Tour.
Touring pros should think about giving up their status as independent contractors and signing contracts to assure sponsors that they get golf’s marquee names at tournaments, he suggested.
“Look at other sports,” McIlroy said last week from Dubai in an interview with James Corrigan of London’s Telegraph newspaper. “They can guarantee who is playing, and where. But if the media-rights personnel aren’t seeing the value in putting up this level of finance, then we need to do something.”
That “something” would be guaranteed appearances by McIlroy, a four-time major champion who is ranked No. 2 in the world, and the other top names in the game.
“There’s no point in asking people to pay more for the same product they’ve been getting for the last 20 or 30 years,” he said. “If you’re asking them for more, we need to give up a little bit, as well. That’s just common business practice.”
LIV Golf, with its seemingly bottomless well of Saudi petrodollars, has raised the ante in pro golf since the tour’s 2022 debut. Faced with trying to stanch the defection of top players to the rival tour, the PGA Tour ramped up the size of its purses. This year, the schedule features eight “signature events” offering $20 million prize funds, plus the major championships that are expected to pay that much or more and the $25 million Players Championship.
Amid the push for more money, some sponsors aren’t accepting what has been described to Global Golf Post as strong-arm tactics by the tour to raise the buy-in.
Farmers Insurance will not renew its sponsorship of the PGA Tour’s annual stop at Torrey Pines near San Diego when the agreement expires in 2026, Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter reported. The Farmers Insurance Open, which the Los Angeles-based insurer has sponsored since 2010, has raised its purse from $5.3 million 14 years ago to $9 million for this month’s tournament.
The news comes after Wells Fargo said it would not renew its long-running sponsorship of the tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina, after this year. And, for the first time since 1981, auto manufacturer Honda will not be sponsoring the tour event next month in southeast Florida.
“If the guys want to do that and stay independent contractors, that’s fine,” McIlroy said. “But that’s the alternative, because you’ve got sponsors that are either pulling out of the PGA Tour or are considering it because of the numbers they’re having to put out.” READ MORE
Tiger Woods, who had been Nike’s most visible golfer since his professional debut in 1996, confirmed last week that he no longer will represent the sports-apparel behemoth with its iconic swoosh logo.
Woods thanked Nike for “so many amazing moments and memories” in a career that has featured a PGA Tour-record-tying 82 victories, of which 15 have been major titles. Nike, in turn, saluted a golfer who “broke barriers for all of sport.”
Woods had signed a 10-year contract extension in 2013 with Nike, which stopped manufacturing golf equipment in 2016 but continued to provide apparel to Woods and others. As Global Golf Post’s Ron Green Jr. wrote last week, Woods, 48, is expected to be wearing other sponsored apparel when he makes his 2024 competitive debut at the Genesis Invitational near Los Angeles but still play TaylorMade equipment and Bridgestone balls. READ MORE
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TAP-INS
American Andy Ogletree, who won the 2019 U.S. Amateur title, was named the Asian Tour’s 2023 player of the year in balloting among tour members. Ogletree, 25, won twice and had two other top-10 results in 11 starts as he topped the tour’s money list. READ MORE
Ben Kohles, a two-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour who led the PGA Tour’s top developmental tour’s season-long points list, was named the KFT’s 2023 player of the year in a vote of tour members. Kohles, 33, earned an exemption to the PGA Tour for 2024 and made his season debut last week at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Kohles, a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference champion at Virginia, turned pro in mid-2012 and won his first two starts on what then was known as the Web.com Tour. He played the PGA Tour in 2013 and 2021-22 after promotions from the developmental tour but failed to keep his tour card. READ MORE
The money leader on the China Tour will earn an exemption on the DP World Tour and the No. 2 earner will get a spot on the developmental Challenge Tour under a strategic partnership announced between the European tour and the China Golf Association. The agreement also confirms co-sanctioning tournaments between the DP World and China tours through 2025. READ MORE
Michael Block of Mission Viejo, California, won his second consecutive PGA of America player of the year award, and Bob Sowards of Dublin, Ohio, earned his third straight senior POY honor, the PGA announced. Stephanie Connelly-Eiswerth of Jacksonville, Florida, earned the women’s honor. READ MORE
Arccos, an on-course game-tracking system, has been approved for use by the PGA Tour and its affiliated developmental circuits, the company announced. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon