In entering its brave, new, NASCAR-driven, FedEx-sponsored world next year, the PGA Tour is betting hundreds of millions of dollars that the allure of a season-long chase to crown a champion will dazzle everyone to the point that they’ll forget, at least momentarily, about college and pro football.
But in the process, there are concerns that something else will be left behind. Namely the individuality of the circuit’s week-to-week events.
“I hope that’s not the case, but I could see where that could maybe happen,” said Larry Thiel, the executive director of The International. “FedEx has formed a partnership with the PGA to the point where they have to be considered the sponsor of the entire Tour.”
The local stop at Castle Pines Golf Club is one of the winners to emerge from the changes to the Tour schedule. Next year’s event will move from August, one week before the PGA Championship, to July 5-8. Tournament officials feel that date, coming three weeks after the U.S. Open and two weeks before the British, will enable it to attract, in Thiel’s words, “all the premier players currently playing throughout the world.”
That really means Tiger Woods.
The game’s best has only played The International twice, and not since 1999. However, he has been a regular at the Western Open, which has in recent years held the slot The International is moving into. That event, in turn, will become part of the four-tournament playoff that will culminate in what is hoped will be a compelling grand finale at the Tour Championship.
Scheduled for Sept. 13-16, just after the NFL kicks off, the winner of the FedEx Cup will receive a prize of $10 million.
Thiel said The International had a chance to become part of that package but opted not to lest the event lose its distinctiveness to the broad FedEx brush. However, even in its new position, the tournament will still be very much a part of the new order.
As part of the new contract, for example, each tournament will be required to donate, Thiel said, a “significant” amount of signage to the FedEx Cup, the series logo being attached to everything from signs at the course to the stationery in the tournament office.
In essence, that will make FedEx the co-sponsor of each week’s tournament, a situation that may not be the best thing for some events like The International, which has been beating the bushes to find corporate sponsors.
“At the end of the day, a title sponsor wants to have the highest profile associated with an event, but now, in many respects, there’s a binding agreement to give FedEx equal billing,” Thiel said. “We’ve presented opportunities to a couple of corporations recently and they ask about this and we have to be honest with them.
“We’re hoping to negotiate some sort of compromise with regards to exposure, but from the potential sponsor’s standpoint, when it becomes that much of an issue, you have to show them that they won’t be playing second fiddle.”
