Not April Fools: Donald Trump Says PGA Tour Moving Longtime Doral Stop To...Mexico City

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If you listened to ShackHouse episode 7, you know I shared the view of several PGA Tour insiders that the longtime Doral stop was soon coming to an end and likely headed to Mexico as a World Golf Championship tournament.

Business Insider picked up the comments, but I've held out on doing a story in hopes of pinning down what city and course is in the running to replace a storied PGA Tour stop.

(Background: The PGA Tour had a long term deal to play events at Doral but they had an out should they not be able to secure a sponsor. With Cadillac done as sponsor of the WGC at Doral, the tour has not been able to find a sponsor and has been planning its exit.)

Now it seems the host at Doral, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, revealed today on Hannity that the tour is taking its annual Miami stop to Mexico City and he hopes they have kidnapping insurance!

Here is the video, followed by a Tweeted transcript with the kidnapping comment.

The quotes:

 

Let's pause for a moment to giggle at the PGA Tour taking an event to Mexico, away from the person who is campaigning on jobs and business being lost to...Mexico or Mexican immigrants.

Now, the serious (golf) issues at hand here:

--The PGA Tour has been going to Miami since at least 1961 and Doral was an important event before being turned into a WGC by Commissioner Tim Finchem. WGC's are costlier to sponsor and therefore prone to be moved, altered and stripped of identity.

--Trump has invested heavily into the resort and course with great results. While he may have intervened in course setup and may have been too high of a profile for the tour or sponsors, the event is seemingly is a great sponsorship opportunity due to its place on the schedule, the status of Trump Doral and the Miami market. Apparently the tour no longer can convince a sponsor of that.

--At a time the PGA Tour is considering opting out of its current TV deal with the networks, it is considering saddling a network with a WGC in a country other than the United States and one that only gives candidate Trump more fodder for one of his key campaign themes. I'm not sure how that creates leverage for the tour, only headaches.

--Instead of just letting the Doral event die and opening up a spot on the schedule, a replacement event is the goal because executive bonuses are tied to playing opportunities. Even when the playing opportunity might be in Mexico City!

--Finchem is possibly positioning the PGA Tour to become a focal point of the presidential campaign as he's preparing to opt-out of a television contract. A wiser commish less-focused on his golden parachute would have had the tour self-sponsor the event for a year to ride out the campaign.

Let the fun begin!

Mitzvah Files: Less Bermuda Rough At TPC Sawgrass

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Rusticize the place! 

As previously reported, changes are coming to the TPC Sawgrass after The Players. And great news, the clubhouse is getting bigger!

As I write for Golf World, my Sawgrass sources say we will see Bermuda roughs reduced and more sand/pine needle/scrub areas brought closer to the fairways to recapture some of the original Swamp Golf aesthetic.

Longtime readers know I feel a Pinehurst-like restoration to the original Pete Dye vibe would look livelier, more interesting, more environmentally-responsible and more visually intimidating. Done right, it might even justify the price of golf here in the way that Pinehursts's renaissance has restored a singularity to No. 2.

Check out the aerial comparison from 1982 at Golf Course Histories. It speaks for itself.

As difficult as the TPC remains, today's equipment and conditioning means the TPC Sawgrass has been left behind and green speed is one of its last defenses. It's an unfathomable notion given that this course was viewed as too tough when it opened, and the bermuda rough lining the fairways has not instilled much fear.

Jason Day hitting iron-3-wood to the once unreachable 9th? Dustin Johnson launching a 372 yard drive there as well, and too many other instances of players able to bomb and gouge has to be an alarming sight for those insisting the course should not be updated. I will argue until I'm blue in the face that there was not an intentional effort to reverse the low scoring by the tour staff on Saturday, but a strong case can be made that the green speeds we saw are motivated by a desire to keep an immacutely-groomed, scoreable course relevant.

As for the look of the TPC, two-time former Players Champion Steve Elkington noted this on Twitter:

Ultimately, the weird dynamics we saw at TPC Sawgrass boil down to one thing: the fear factor has been lost.

Getting that back won't be easy because of modern driving distance prowess, but at least bringing back some of the rusticity to TPC Sawgrass--and a few back tees--would help for the long term good of The Players.

Did The Tour Leave As Much As A Billion Dollars On The Table?

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As we get ready to kick off another unpredictable Players Championship (Sean Martin on the amazingly wild track records at TPC for top players even those who have played well here), Cameron Morfit talks to a few folks about the challenges facing likely incoming Commissioner Jay Monahan.

In the short term, Morfit outlines how Miami, Trump and the WGC figure to be a huge matter, as will FedEx in 2017 if Commissioner Reset isn't able to secure a new deal before he hands over his NetJets card.

But as I've outlined in a few posts, the tour seems to be building some leverage with television networks for the next deal with various media ventures. Morfit's reporting suggests what I suspected: the tour is operating with a bit of a chip on its shoulder for having been out negotiated by Comcast when signing for 15 years to be on Golf Channel exclusivity with no out clause, even as the network takes on the money losing leftovers like the Web.com and Champions Tours.

Ogilvie, who was on the policy board when the Tour's 15-year deal with Golf Channel was announced in 2006, says Monahan will have to shore up the main TV deal, which he says is costing players money. Ogilvie's assessment is based on recent sports-television deals, specifically the 12-year Fox-USGA pact, which was said to be worth around $100 million a year when it was announced in '13.

"The Tour left $700 million to $1 billion on the table when it did the deal with Golf Channel," Ogilvie says. "There's been astronomical growth since then, and with 20/20 hindsight Comcast got a sweetheart deal. Tim went for what was safe, and you can't fault him for that."

Pre-20/20 hindsight, the deal got all early rounds on TV, which as I recall, was a pretty big deal and has been sensational for the players. No one could have seen rights fees going the way they did, so the tour has nothing to be bitter about. Except that the rights craze may be subsiding and nets like ESPN and Fox are likely not going to be bidding on any golf.

Topgolf "Strategic Alliance" With PGA Tour And LPGA Tour: Five Ways This Could Be Fun

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A newly announced PGA Tour/LPGA Tour/Topgolf "strategic alliance" was announced yesterday and while LPGA Commish Mike Whan appeared to have thought about the possibilities, Commissioner Ben Carson was alarmingly disengaged about possible fun ideas.

Therefore, my suggestions for the alliance at GolfDigest.com for scaling, leveraging, baking and of course, platforming the fast-growing Topgolf brand on the C-level. (That's C as in championship level).

The full press release from the groups.