The Western Open is officially dead and Trevor Immelman is its last champion. It was announced this week that BMW has ponied up approximately $12-14 million for the next several years to sponsor this event. This coincides with the formality of making this event part of the three event "playoff series" for the new FedEx Cup that begins next season.
With BMW dumping so much money into sponsorship of this marquee event, the Western Open will no longer be open or run by the Western Golf Association. So, the Tour has changed the name of the event to the BMW Championship. (Although, in a way, that new title still better than the current title — the Penis Pill, er, Cialis Western Open.)
As if changing the name of this historic event were not enough to piss on its tradition, the PGA Tour's marketing geniuses went one step further to make sure they alienated the maximum number of fans possible. The PGA Tour has decided that the new BMW Championship will only be staged in Chicago every other year. That means that the Chicagoland area will host a PGA Tour stop in 2007, 2009, 2011, and so forth.
In the alternating years, the PGA Tour will seek to play other noteworthy Midwestern courses. Bellerive in St. Louis is on board for 2008 and Crooked Stick in Indiana appears to be the site for the 2010 event. Hazeltine has been thrown out as a possibility for 2012 — assuming the FedEx Cup makes it that far.
Now, I have nothing against St. Louis, Indianapolis, or the Quad Cities areas or the aforementioned golf courses. They are all American treasures and would make fine host sites. But, they make fine host sites for other tournaments. Chicago is arguably the third biggest urban market in the country and certainly one of the best parts of the country in terms of golf courses and fan base. The Western Open has a great history in the city and is very well supported by the community.
It only makes sense that the PGA Tour has an annual, not biannual, event in Chicago. Even if all of the Tour's MBA marketing executives disagree with my assessment of Chicago as a fine market for this tournament (in whatever form it takes), the Tour should not have made this move out of respect for the support shown to this event over the years. Good sports entrepreneurs reward and respect their fans for their loyalty and support by making a strong commitment to presenting a great product with the resources they have. Chicago deserves that from the Tour, but instead is getting slapped in the face for some reason unbeknownst to me.
What further befuddles me is that this event is the only one of the final four events that comprise the FedEx Cup playoff series that changes locales. The other tournaments — the Deutsch Bank in Boston, the Barclay's Classic outside of NYC, and the Tour Championship in Atlanta — are firmly planted for years to come.
How did Chicago draw the short straw out of those four events and become the PGA Tour's Midwest Traveling Show? Of all of those events, the Western Open/BMW Championship has the best history and a list of champions that rivals the majors themselves. In fact, people used to consider the Western Open on the level of a major championship.
Perhaps it is this elite status that the Western Open had earned over its life that drew the ire of Commissioner Tim Finchem. After all, for years he has been trying to get us golf fans to buy into the notion that the PGA Tour's Players Championship is worthy of major consideration. If you were to compare the champions list of the two events, though, you would find that there is no comparison. I'll bet that the Tour knows that as well as you or I do and they were incredibly envious. The FedEx Cup presented an opportunity to kill off an event that is historically more significant and relevant than the Players and do it under the guise of "upgrading" the event and the Tour. (How's that for a conspiracy theory?)
Regardless of the motivation, this decision is an absurd miscalculation by the Tour. Tiger Woods even acknowledged this in his post-round press conference on Sunday. Unfortunately, this is just another blunder by the Tour in a recent string that is just indefensible. Though not nearly as relevant as the Western Open, the news that the event in Washington, DC, has also officially been scrapped is disconcerting. Again, the Tour shuts the door to a major market because of hubris and marketing problems.
The Quest for the Card series also appears to be in significant jeopardy given the recent rumors that the Tour is having a tough time in securing sponsors for the events. It appears that the Tour may have overlooked that title sponsors may not be willing to invest significant marketing dollars into tournaments that will essentially be a continuation of the Nationwide Tour season, appear only on cable, and have no proven history.
Even further than that, the Tour's ego was even shown in how it revealed the FedEx Cup during the US Women's Open — the most important and prestigious event on the LPGA schedule. Either someone forgot to check their calendar at the home office, or the Tour sincerely believed that their announcement would make a huge splash in the golf world despite (a) the obvious distraction in Rhode Island and (b) the total lack of interest shown to date in the FedEx Cup.
For an organization that produces more biz speak than any Fortune 500 company, the decisions that have come out of Ponte Vedra Beach lately leave a lot to be questioned. The Tour needs to right this ship quickly from a marketing perspective. While the product on the course has picked up during majors season, the Tour is still dragging its feet when it comes to marketing and scheduling. If the Tour is not more careful, they will find themselves with a thinning fan base and a schedule with stops in only half of the country's major cities.
Perhaps all of the MBAs at the Tour could use a course in geography?
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