If you Sponsor it, they will come ...[maybe not]

Miami Feb 2023. Real conversation between myself and my wife who is a Golf fan also.

Me: Tomorrow starts the Honda Classic in West Palm Beach. It’s only an hour drive, I think we should go.

Wife: Oh great, sure why not! At what time Scottie Scheffler starts?

Me: Err Scheffler is not playing.

Wife: What about JT?

Me: Nope

Wife: Homa?

Me: Nada

Wife: Rahm or Rory?

Me: Negative.

Wife: I really have nothing against the rest of the guys but if the top players are not going to Palm Beach, why should we?

Me: [crickets…]

We ended up staying in Miami and watching the highlights on TV.

The absence of this group of players is not because they don’t like the weather in Palm Beach (which is one of the nicest in the country) or because they are Pro Toyota and have something against Honda. Joking aside, the true reason is because they are exhausted from the tight schedule of the PGA Tour after playing a Major or another important tournament.

With one tournament pretty much every single week, cannot afford to play all of them and must be selective.

If you think about it, assuming they make the cut, they will need to play Thursday to Sunday.

Plus Wednesday to arrive and Monday to depart, Tuesday is the only free day of the week.

But what about the time they need to practice to perfect some areas of opportunities with their game, maybe recover or get therapy due to an injury and of course, spending time with their families for enjoyment and mental health?

It is virtually impossible to play all tournaments.

What are the economic implications for the Tournament Sponsors? Well, if they week that the PGA allocated for the tournament is too close either before or after a Major for example, chances are that the top performing players are going to skip it unless the event is "elevated".

The Tournament will be filled by great players that even though are not short of skills, they need to take advantage of the absence of certain players in order to increase their chances to clinch their first PGA winning and potentially extend the duration of their Tour Card.

Nothing wrong with this dynamic, however some (a lot) fans may decide to take it easy and go elsewhere instead.

And that’s not good for the Sponsoring Company.

Don’t believe it? Check what happened in the John Deere Tournament. A friend of mine asked me “Carlos , who is gonna win there?” I replied “It will be pretty random…pretty Random”

At the end Straka lifted the Trophy but meanwhile, the majority of the Top Guns of the Tours were enjoying other activities completely outside the Golf Sphere and on the other side of the Pond in preparation for the upcoming 151st edition of The Open Championship in Royal Liverpool.

This structure (PGA’s) contracts drastically with the current LIV Golf format on which all players are able to Play all Tournaments and LIV fans will be able to see their stars all the time.

Talking about LIV Golf, the Australian Cam Smith won his first Tournament of the Tour and that’s great news for my fellow Aussie golfer who is actually the defending Champion of the The Open.

More on Majors this week.

Congrats to Allisen Corpus for winning the 78th edition of the Women’s US Open in Pebble Beach.

Also great farewell to Wie West who hung the gloves and Clubs after the Tournament with a majestic last Putt.

Thanks for the memories.

Yours in Golf