Big Trouble in Little Doral

The PGA has always been against the use of appearance fees to recruit strong fields. However, sports management company IMG has stirred up some major controversy about the PGA and appearance fees.

IMGEarlier last week, our preview of the Ford Championship at Doral briefly touched on a Ford “company outing” where several high profile players were paid roughly $100,000 to appear on the Monday before the tournament. At the time, PGA Tour officials okayed the event, but made it clear they would be examining the issue more closely later in the year. However, a letter just published by Golf World writer Ron Sirak may speed up the time table on the issue.

The letter is from International Marketing Group, a management agency who represents the likes of Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, John Daly, and Retief Goosen. IMG was the company who organized the company outing with Ford before Doral and the letter has now attracted some major attention from the powers that be at the PGA Tour.

A quick glance up and down the list of players reveals some very big names and the dollar amounts required to gain their services. In summary, the letter states that IMG will help tournament directors organize a pre-tournament event with five PGA Tour stars and a small group of 25-30 people. The big kicker, “It is IMG’s intention to secure 5 players, focusing on those who traditionally have not played your tournament – these professionals will look favorably upon staying for the tournament, which would enhance the strength of field.”

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This seems to stand directly in opposition with the PGA Tour which clearly states its policy: “Neither players, nor other individuals acting on such players’ behalf, shall solicit or accept any compensation, gratuity or other things of value offered for the purpose of guaranteeing their appearances at any PGA TOUR co-sponsored, approved or coordinated tournament.”

Will this new policy really change the strength of PGA Tour fields? Superstars like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have established a strong trend of setting their own schedules and aren’t likely to be swayed by monetary amounts below $1 million. In a way, this kind of recruiting has been going on for quite some time.

How different is IMG’s letter from companies who both endorse golfers and host PGA Tournaments? Although it isn’t explicit in his contracts, Tiger is pretty much a lock to appear in all three Buick sponsored tournaments as well as the WGC American Express Championships. Need another example? Is it any coincidence that the 84 Lumber Classic can’t seem to attract many big names, other than Vijay Singh and John Daly who happen to wear the company’s logo embroidered on their clothing. If anything, this policy may be able to help smaller market tournaments such as this week’s Honda Classic obtain some bigger names by ponying up some cash to generate some interest.

However, it is not too difficult to see the other end of the spectrum where tournaments end up completely devoid of any star power since they do not have the monetary resources of the larger tournaments. Eventually, the crowds begin to dwindle and profits fall off. In a worst case scenario, the PGA would have to go to a shortened season not by choice, but out of necessity since small tournaments are no longer profitable. Kym Hougham, director of the Wachovia Championship said, “If this catches on, do I think it’s going to hurt other events? I absolutely do, because players only play in a certain number of events.”

Where do you stand on this issue? Discuss it in our forum.

Photo Credit: © Golf World.

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