Published Tuesday, Dec 2, 2008 12:00 AM
Tiger Woods can win major championships on a shattered knee, he can intimidate the world's best golfers with his mere presence and, I have it on good authority, can leap tall buildings in a single bound. In fact, up until a week ago it seemed Woods was capable of doing just about anything he set his mind to. Turns out, however, not even Tiger can sell American made cars.
Less than a week after getting the ultimate piñata treatment on Capitol Hill, General Motors announced the premature end to its endorsement contract with Tiger, who's been carrying the Buick logo on his golf bag for nearly a decade.
The costs saving move is just another sign of the auto industry's imminent demise and further example that they just don't get it. Rather than flying their private jets to Washington D.C. to ask for a bailout, GM execs and their Big Three cohorts should have taken a sharp right on down to Orlando to ask Tiger for a few billion bucks to bail them out. Trust me, that guy has more money to spread around than Barack Obama will come late January.
All joking aside, the loss of the GM endorsement is just another troubling sign there are rocky times ahead for the major professional golf tours and their superstars as this country and its top industries plummet further into financial turmoil. Don't get me wrong, Tiger will still be able to put food on the table for his growing den of cubs, and you're unlikely to find Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk or Boo Weekley in an unemployment line anytime soon.But for PGA Tour events such as our own beloved Verizon Heritage and for entire tours such as the LPGA circuit, corporate dollars are drying up and the future is getting ever muddied.
At the same time Woods was politely asked to turn in his Buick Enclave, the LPGA announced the dissolution of three tournaments from its 2009 schedule and the suspension of its season-ending ADT Championship after 2010 due to lack of sponsorship. The tour doesn't even have a sponsor for the 2009 event, which awards a hefty $1 million in cash to the winner, but will fund it from its own coffers, or presumably ask for a Federal bailout.
Granted, it's not all Chicken Little out there. In fact, the PGA Tour will again raise purses across the board for its 2009 tournament schedule. That's a tribute to the local organizations that put on PGA Tour events, such as our own Heritage Classic Foundation, for shaking every bush and turning over every stone to come up with the coin needed to pull off a professional golf tournament.
The question the PGA Tour must answer, however, is whether those grass roots efforts are enough to offset the potential loss of corporate sponsorship. It is, after all, the big boys that lend their brands to tournaments and commit huge marketing dollars to the tour's television partners.
Take a look at the 2009 PGA Tour schedule and tell me just how many of those title sponsors you want your 401k in bed with. Buick itself is the sponsor of two events, a commitment that must easily exceed $10 million. That's a lot of assembly line jobs. Other sponsors include the always reliable financial institutions such as Wachovia, U.S. Bank, Barclays and Northern Trust. Uh, excuse me for a minute while I call my fund manager.
Ever watched a tournament on CBS without trying to ignore ads from AIG, The Villages (I think that jingle has infected my melon to the point it will never leave) or Chrysler? Those expensive ad spots help to pay the television tab the PGA Tour demands and it would be foolish to assume those companies will be lining up to buy spots during riveting events such as the John Deere Classic. Television networks are in the business of airing content people want to watch, but also need to make money in the process. If those two things are not in concert, something has to give.
While the PGA Tour is looking at 2010 with great trepidation, the LPGA Tour will be feeling the pain much sooner. Having been roundly criticized for its mandatory English-speaking policy earlier this year, the Tour is faced with a lack of marketable players, public relations issues and a general pull-back in sponsorship dollars.Though extremely talented, the golfers winning on that tour aren't making registers ring on this shore.
In addition to slashing three events from its schedule, the tour is reducing its total sum payout next year by millions, a pull-back that will certainly hurt the circuit's rank and file that was already playing for purses that would make their PGA Tour brothers ache for them.Making matters worse, Annika Sorenstam, the tour's only International star this side of Lorena Ochoa, is entering a don't-call-it-a-retirement retirement at the same time the tournament that bears her name just up the road in Charleston has been shut down.
Look, the economic issues facing professional golf do certainly pale in comparison to the ones we are all facing day to day. But like many of us are now, golf's major tours and players are feeling the pain from the sins of others. The question is just how bad will things get for professional golf and just how long will it last. That's a question not even Tiger Woods can answer right now.