PGA Tour, USA Today Vow To Love And Support One Another Until Their Five-Year Official Marketing Relationship Ends

For Immediate Release...

PGA TOUR and USA TODAY Sports Media Group-Create Official Marketing Relationship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The PGA TOUR and the USA TODAY Sports Media Group announced today that they have entered into a five-year official marketing relationship through 2016.

As part of the agreement, USA TODAY receives the exclusive U.S. rights to use the association and TOUR logos for sales and marketing purposes for the print and digital extensions of USA TODAY sports.

The PGA TOUR will have the opportunity to purchase advertising at preferred rates and to develop several TOUR-themed special sections over the course of each year of the agreement.

“The PGA TOUR is one of the premier sports brands in the world, and we’re honored that they’ve selected us as their partner, especially for the long term,” said Tom Beusse, President of the USA TODAY Sports Media Group.

“We welcome the opportunity to work with the USA TODAY Sports Media Group and look forward to developing our relationship and leveraging this platform to bring added value to our entire family of corporate sponsors,” said Tom Wade, Chief Marketing Officer for the PGA TOUR.

“The PGA TOUR is extremely forward thinking when it comes to creating value and impact for its sponsors,” said Merrill Squires, SVP, Leagues and Properties for the USA TODAY Sports Media Group. “They really understand the unique capabilities and assets we can bring them to help maximize great content and marketing opportunities for the PGA TOUR and its sponsors. We can’t wait to begin our collaboration with them.”

Rest Assured, 42 Is Getting In Some Golf Too...

Bill Clinton is hosting a private fundraiser Wednesday and Arnold Palmer is flying out to greet him at The Tradition, Palmer's west coast home club.

And Clinton will be playing Greg Norman for Saturday's telecast, teeing off at 10:20 reports Sean Martin.

Before then he makes history with his premiere on...Wednesday's Morning Drive in a sitdown grilling from Annika.

Reminder: Humana Challenge Health Matters Conference

All events are streaming live at the Clinton Foundation website. These will be the events I'm attending...

9:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Conference Welcome & Opening Remarks
    •    Karolee Sowle, CEO, Desert Regional Medical Center
    •    Tim Finchem, Commissioner, PGA TOUR
    •    President Bill Clinton

10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Achieving Lifelong Health & Well-Being
Opening Discussion
    •    Moderated by President Bill Clinton
    •    Jillian Michaels, Health & Wellness Expert
    •    Billie Jean King, Founder, Women’s Sports Foundation
    •    Dr. David Satcher, Former Surgeon General & Director, Satcher Health Leadership Institute, Morehouse School
of Medicine
    •    Richard Gephardt, President/CEO, Gephardt
Government Affairs
    •    Dr. Mark Hyman, Chairman of the Institute for
Functional Medicine

1:45 — 2:45 p.m.
Health, Wellness and the Bottom Line: A Dialogue Among Business Leaders
    •    Moderated by Jerry Tarde, Editor in Chief, Golf Digest
    •    Travis Bogard, CMO, Jawbone
    •    James Curleigh, CEO, KEEN Footwear
    •    Casey Wasserman, Chairman and CEO, Wasserman Media Group
    •    Michael McCallister, CEO, Humana
    •    Bob Lanier, Special Assistant to the Commissioner and NBA Cares Global Ambassador

3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Building Healthy Communities
    •    Moderated by Karolee Sowle, CEO, Desert Regional Medical Center
    •    Susan Dell, Founder, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation
    •    Lakeysha Sowunmi, Mom & Wellness Community Leader
    •    Notah Begay III, Health & Wellness Advocate
    •    Annika Sorenstam, Founder, Annika Foundation
    •    Goldie Hawn, The Hawn Foundation

5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Closing Conversation: Why Health Matters
    •    Moderated by Dr. Nancy Snyderman,
Chief Medical Editor, NBC
    •    President Bill Clinton & Special Guests

Coachella: "Today nearly one out of every four homes listed for sale is on a golf course."

Probably a coincidence as the rebooted Bob Hope becomes the Humana Challenge, but USA Today's Mike Perrault and Keith Matheny focus on the Coachella Valley in writing that the "unbreakable linkage between golf and real estate" has been broken.

In the nine cities of the Coachella Valley, including Palm Springs, where multiple presidents, Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra swung the clubs and lived in golf-centric resorts, today nearly one out of every four homes listed for sale is on a golf course.

"We're entering a new normal," said Pete Halter, chairman of The Halter Companies, an Atlanta firm that advises developers. "We can't think this will be over soon. Things have changed for good."

Among the forces reshaping the relationship between golf and real estate:

•Fewer people play golf, and Baby Boomers don't have the time, money or interest in the game their parents did. The number of golfers in the U.S. has fallen by 13% in the past five years, according to National Golf Foundation statistics. The number of golf rounds played nationwide last year through November was down 3.5% from the previous year, according to the foundation.

Something to note for clubs looking to adjust to the times...

Resort communities are already beginning to offer fewer golf courses, and high-priced courses designed by top golfers or famous architects will become rarer, Goodkin said. Allowing non-residents onto club courses and letting them pay by the round will become more prevalent as a way to control costs within golf communities, he said.

"There will be a lot more focus on soft amenities — education, fitness and health programs — not just playing golf four or five times per week," he said. "Things where there isn't a lot of physical equipment, land and high maintenance associated with it."

The Belfry For Sale...Donald Are You Paying Attention?

Thanks to reader Chris for this unbylined golf365.com story revealing that former Ryder Cup host The Belfry can be had at a bargain rate even after a recent renovation of the resort hotel. The three golf courses remain forgettable except for the wild and weird short par-4 10th. The rest is screaming out to be fixed by the only man buying golf courses at the moment, Donald Trump.

There has been widespread speculation surrounding the future of the highly-rated golf estate with its 324-bedroomed hotel and upstanding conference facilities, its three courses, the Brabazon, the PGA National and the Derby, since its once-powerful owners led by Irish-based businessman Sean Quinn Junior, hit a financial crisis.

This just six years after purchasing it for £186million.

The talk is that a figure of some £60million is being asked for by the current owners of the 550-acre Warwickshire venue via their commercial property agent Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels which has been appointed to market the resort at Sutton Coldfield.

Donald: “My feasibility study is my gut."

And that's a big study these days. Brad Klein looks at the Ferry Point situation and reminds us that anyone complaining about the $125 green fee should not blame the man who kept Gary Busey in line during season eleven--yes, eleven--of Celebrity Apprentice, but instead, on sloppy and slightly corrupt bureaucrats. And maybe Jack Nicklaus.

The project finally went to public bid in 2008, with the design contract awarded to the team of Jack Nicklaus and John Sanford. Both are golf course designers, with Nicklaus, the game’s leading major champion, having a legendary worldwide portfolio, and Sanford having done much work on land remediation, including conversion of a Boston-area dumpsite for the “Big Dig” into public-access Granite Links Golf Club at Quarry Hills.

The idea behind Ferry Point has been for the city to add to its existing supply of 13 municipal golf courses and to do so on a level that would make a big splash. There’s certainly a demand for golf, with tee sheets booked steadily through the year and rates attractive and affordable, in the $40 range in peak season.

And the Donald sounds like he wants to displace a course in the current Barclay's rotation. Judging by our Golf World ranking of tour courses, I think I know which one goes first!

For his part, Trump is understandably excited about the prospect of being part of a New York City landmark. “It’s a spectacular piece of land, a major-championship site literally right next to everything, on the city,” he told Golfweek. “It’s important for golf. Golf has been suffering lately, and it’s major course in the biggest city in the world.”

For such projects, Trump says he doesn’t need to do a detailed cost-benefit analysis. “My feasibility study is my gut,” he said.