PGA Tournament Purse??

[TN94z]

How are the tournament purses accumulated? Is it money that the sponsor of the tournament puts up? Is it player entry fees that their sponsors put up?

Also, how do they determine where the smaller tournaments are hosted...like Nationwide tournaments?

[mdvaldosta]

I'm interested in knowing too...

[billm408]

IIRC, PGA purses are a combination of sponsorship and the TV contracts.

I know it was this way for Hogan/Nike events so would guess it's the same for Nationwide events too... the courses/membership petitions the PGA to host an event. They submit specs about the course, slope ratings etc... plus a detailed plan outlining the logistics (course improvements, parking, scoreboards, volunteer partcipation, etc...). Costs can run into the tens of thousands just to submit the proposal. Once the PGA offices get to a short list, then they visit the sites to confirm the plans and view the property and make recommendations. It's pretty extensive. After the event the PGA reviews the event and determines if they'll return to the venue or not. It can take years to get on the rotation, but you have to screw up to lose the event. A lot of courses just don't want the headache associated with hosting an event.

[TN94z]

IIRC, PGA purses are a combination of sponsorship and the TV contracts.

Even for the Nationwide events? The reason I ask is because I have seen many Nationwide events and there weren't many spectators and some even look like they are played on small municipal type courses.

[billm408]

Even for the Nationwide events? The reason I ask is because I have seen many Nationwide events and there weren't many spectators and some even look like they are played on small municipal type courses.

Can't speak to how Nationwide does it, but it's still a PGA related event and they have some course requirements. Hell, Bethpage and Pebble are public courses too (far from muni's that's for sure!). I know that the few Nationwide events in NorCal are held at pretty decent tracks and I know that one went through a pretty rigorous process to get it. The other's a TPC course so I think it was kind of handed to them. Monday qualifiers though have been on some goat track-ish munis.

[TN94z]

Thanks man. Me and a buddy were talking about this the other day and I was just wondering.