Category: Business of Golf

Florida follows handful of other states in allowing off-course retail golf shops to reopen

As with several other states, off-course retail golf shops can reopen May 4 in most of Florida in wake of coronavirus

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced last week that many retail stores and restaurants could reopen May 4 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and several golf stores have raced to tee it up for customers, albeit in a somewhat limited capacity. The Sunshine State joins a handful of others that will allow consumers into retail locations that include golf stores.

The big chain retailers such as PGA Tour Superstore, Golf Galaxy and Edwin Watts reopened most of their Florida shops Monday. Many of these stores had implemented curbside service during mandated closures that kept customers out of the confines of the stores, as well as still operating online sales.

DeSantis’ allowance for reopening did not include Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, which are the most southeasterly counties on the mainland along the Atlantic Ocean. Those three have been the hardest hit in the Sunshine State, which has had more than 36,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and almost 1,400 deaths as of Monday morning.

Under DeSantis’ reopening plans, retail stores can allow 25 percent of indoor customer capacity into a facility at one time. The plan also suggests maintaining social-distancing guidelines, avoiding groups of 10 or more people and wearing a mask when it’s impossible to stay 6 feet away from others.

PGA Tour Superstore sent an email to consumers saying employees have been trained in more detailed cleaning regimens and that employees will be subject to health screening before reporting to work.

For PGA Tour Superstore, Monday’s reopening means the chain is allowing customers back into its stores in six states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. In Florida, five of the chain’s seven stores are open: Altamonte Springs, Jacksonville, Naples, Orlando and Sarasota. The stores in Delray Beach and Plantation still will not allow customers into the stores, as they are in counties that remain under stricter shutdowns.

Golf Galaxy is likewise open in several states, according to its website. Those states are Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. The chain is offering curbside pickup in many other states. Dick’s Sporting Goods, which owns Golf Galaxy, also reopened select stores in Florida and other states.

Worldwide Golf Shops, which operates Edwin Watts, Roger Dunn and several otherwise branded shops, also is operating in many of those same states. Other locations are offering curbside pickup only.

DeSantis’ order also allows independent shops to open in Florida, as they have in several of the state listed above. Check with those shops in your area to learn their hours and of any restrictions.

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NGF report: Nearly half of U.S. courses were open last week

A national survey conducted by the NGF found that 49 percent of courses were open for play and that number could soon surge to 57 percent.

The number of golf courses open for play last week in the United States has increased, according to the latest national survey of golf facilities by the National Golf Foundation.

Its fourth survey revealed that 49 percent of courses in the U.S. were open for play last week. This figure, which is based on phone surveys of 1,271 golf facilities, has risen slightly over the past weeks and the NGF expects it to continue to do so as warmer weather creeps further north, Wisconsin allows walking-only play, some private clubs re-open to members in New York, and golf operations resume in a few California counties.

Last week, the NGF said the percentage of open U.S. courses had climbed from roughly 44 to 48 percent. For the week ending April 19, that number moseyed up one more percentage point, meaning just under half of all courses in the U.S. are open for play.

The biggest optimism in the coming weeks is a potential surge in openings at courses located above 45 degrees latitude — namely in states such as Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakotas and Wisconsin.

The NGF projects that the percentage of open courses could climb to 57 percent in the immediate future — and potentially higher — as long as there is no further action from state and local governments or voluntary closures.

“At this time we don’t expect to see the percentage of courses open for play to significantly increase until more states begin to ease restrictions or grant exceptions for golf,” the NGF report said. “Once that gains some momentum then the tracking will become very dynamic and you’ll be able to see the numbers really begin to rise.”

The survey also found that daily-fee (51 percent) and private facilities (52 percent) are slightly above the 50 percent threshold while municipal courses are lagging behind (40 percent, but up from 33 percent a week ago).

The majority of golf facilities in the South remain open for play, with more than 70 percent of courses open to players in golf-rich states such as Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. The biggest increase came in the Midwest region, even with polling conducted before Minnesota golf courses were given approval to open as of April 18.

The most noteworthy drop could be found in the Mid-Atlantic, where most New York golf courses that had been open suspended operations in response to an updated executive order that said golf is a non-essential business. While this remains true, private clubs have been told they are permitted to allow members access to the property with strict social distancing guidelines in place.

The full report can be accessed here.

 

AT&T Byron Nelson moving in 2021 to TPC Craig Ranch near Dallas

Next year’s tournament will be the first time the event, which dates to 1944, is held outside Dallas County.

The PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson will in 2021 move to TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

It had been announced in January that the tournament would be at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas for this last time this year, but the event planned for May 7-10 was canceled because of COVID-19. Sung Kang won the 2019 Sung KangAT&T Byron Nelson, the most recent time the event was played.

Next year’s tournament will be the first time the event, which dates to 1944, is held outside Dallas County. Before moving to Trinity Forest in 2018, the event had been played for 35 years at TPC Four Seasons. The event will remain at TPC Craig Ranch for at least five years, according to the report.

The private TPC Craig Ranch is a par-72, 7,438-yard Tom Weiskopf design that opened in 2004. It hosted what is now the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in 2008 and 2012.

Trinity Forest Golf Club (Courtesy of Trinity Forest)

Built on a former toxic landfill southeast of downtown Dallas, Trinity Forest was designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and opened in 2016. It is a rugged, linksy course that offers plenty of roll for golf balls, different than the typically softer target courses frequented by the PGA Tour. Trinity Forest was ranked No. 105 in 2019 among Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses for tracks built in or after 1960.

Bad weather in the event’s first two years at Trinity Forest didn’t help attendance, revenue or the fast-and-firm playing conditions, and the Salesmanship Club of Dallas –  which hosts the event through its charitable golf organization – decided to pull the plug.

“As the necessary footprint to grow the event continues to expand, collectively, we will be evaluating other facilities in the Dallas area for 2021 to ensure a premium fan experience and allow the Salesmanship Club to continue to do great things through its support of the Momentous Institute,” Tyler Dennis, chief of operations at PGA Tour, told the Dallas Morning News in January.

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PGA of America offer millions of dollars in cash grants to help industry workers

The Golf Emergency Relief Fund will help individuals who work in the golf industry weather the storm caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The PGA of America announced on Monday that it has developed the Golf Emergency Relief Fund to help individuals who work in the golf industry weather the storm caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Golf Emergency Relief Fund started with a $5 million pledge by the PGA of America with a matching fund for gifts by third parties of up to $2.5 million, raising the total to as much or more than $10 million. That money will be made available in direct payments to a wide range of the golf industry’s 1.8 million workers, not just the 29,000 PGA of America professionals. Those impacted financially by COVID-19 can apply for a share of these funds as early as Thursday.

“This is all going to individuals,” said PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh. “We tried to design it in a way that makes the most sense and gets it to the people in the most need.”

The fund will be administered by E4E Relief, an independent third-party public charity. There will be two phases, the first supplying grants of $500 to $1,500 for people in the most immediate need, then transitioning several weeks later into a second phase with grants topping out at $3,500.

Qualified applicants will include Golf Course Superintendents Association of America members, caddies who are employed through a handful of caddie companies, Association of Golf Merchandisers members, players on developmental tours and more (see the complete list of possible candidates at the bottom of this story).

The initial funding includes direct contributions from PGA of America board members and executives, and Waugh said those contributions are not yet fully determined but will reach into the high six figures. The effort also is being supported in various ways by a number of industry organizations, including the GCSAA, PGA Tour, LPGA, U.S. Golf Association, the National Golf Course Owners Association and the Association of Golf Merchandisers.

“We’ve added the Relief Fund as a next layer of defense, to pump a little adrenaline into the system in the form of cash,” Waugh said. “We’re just thinking about how to get everybody to the other side, so that’s our approach.”

Seth Waugh (Photo by Montana Pritchard/PGA of America)

Waugh estimated that with outside contributions, the fund could grow to as much as $20 million. He said the PGA of America has not been able to fully audit how much of the golf industry has been impacted by COVID-19 or to what degree, but he said “it’s a bunch of small businesses that are getting crushed” as more than half the golf courses in the U.S. are closed with 16 states banning golf altogether during the pandemic, based on a recent National Golf Foundation report.

“You go to any business with a zero-revenue model, that’s pretty hard to model, right?” Waugh said. The full impact on the golf industry “obviously depends on how long it lasts. … This is an event-driven crisis. Everything was going well. If this is a two- to three-month crisis, we probably can come back pretty much as business as usual. If it goes longer than that, there will be some failures and there will be some consolidations.”

Hence the relief fund, Waugh said, as well as delaying PGA of America membership dues and working directly with all 41 PGA sections to help them survive the pandemic.

“We’re put on earth to serve our members and the game, and what more important moment to do it than now?” said Waugh, the former CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas who took his role with the PGA of America in 2018. “You wake up every morning trying to figure out how to be smart and to be human, and the most important part is how can you be the most human. If you can do that, and prove that you have a brain as well as soul, you can come out of these things better than you went in.”

Below is the complete list of industry employees who may apply for a grant at https://relief.golf:

  • PGA of America professionals (includes members, students and associates)
  • LPGA professionals (includes members and students/apprentices)
  • Golf Course Superintendents Association of America members
  • Employed or contracted as a caddie of one of the following caddie companies (qualifying employers and their subsidiaries): Caddienow, Caddiemaster, 4C Caddies, Premier Caddies, ClubUp, CaddieU, Circuit Caddie and Caddy King
  • Association of Golf Merchandisers members
  • Players in developmental tours operated by the PGA Tour (Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamérica, Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour China Series)
  • Players in developmental tours operated by the LPGA (Symetra Tour)
  • Employees of United States Golf Association authorized allied golf associations
  • Employees of PGA of America sections
  • National Golf Course Owners Association members

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Coronavirus: Callaway’s Chip Brewer joins CEOs foregoing salary

Callaway’s Brewer earned $900,000 in base salary in 2019, according to an SEC filing.

Callaway’s Chip Brewer joined the list of high-profile corporate leaders — among them PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan — who have opted to forgo salaries as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc with the global economy.

According to public records, Brewer earned a base salary of $900,000 last year. (His total compensation, including stock incentives, amounted to $5.8 million.) He will forgo any base salary beginning with the next pay period.

Callaway’s 8K filing on March 25 noted that it was “proactively taking actions to significantly reduce costs and conserve cash in order to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on its business.”

The Carlsbad, California-based equipment maker’s filing on Monday also said that other executive officers, including Brian Lynch, executive vice president and chief financial officer, had joined Brewer in voluntarily taking pay cuts of their base salary of 20 percent. Callaway’s board of directors also elected to waive its annual cash retainer fees for 2020. In addition, members of senior management and other employees had their base salaries “reduced in graduated amounts.”

Callaway’s stock price has been slashed in half since February when it was trading for more than $21 per share and closed on April 6 at $10.58.

Golf Channel’s nine major moments in its 25 years

Golf Channel’s first 25 years have included many significant moments, but none more so than these nine.

As Golf Channel celebrates its 25th anniversary, here’s a look at nine major moments that stand out or shaped its future.

Golf Channel launches

Jan. 17, 1995 — At the time, Joe Gibbs, a Birmingham entrepreneur, and co-founder Arnold Palmer, had an audacious idea that drew plenty of skepticism. But it would prove to be a stroke of genius and change the way the game is consumed. Its first televised event was the 1995 Dubai Desert Classic.

Peter Kessler interviews Arnold Palmer about controversial Callaway ERC driver

Dec. 2001 — Kessler’s criticism of Palmer, Golf Channel co-founder and chairman, for his endorsement of the unconforming driver led to the popular talk-show host, who had become the face of Golf Channel, being let go.

Golf Channel televises complete live coverage of Solheim Cup for first time

Sept. 2003 — This is an underrated moment that opened a lot of eyes to what Golf Channel was capable of doing.

Comcast acquires full ownership

Dec. 2003 — This gave the network deep pockets to pursue PGA Tour rights, which they may not have been able to do otherwise. The merger with NBC Universal in 2011 provided wonderful synergies and access to live “weekend golf” and properties such as the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup.

Golf Channel becomes exclusive cable home of the PGA Tour

Jan. 2006 — This unprecedented, 15-year rights deal beginning in 2007 took GC next level and turned out to be a sweetheart deal for the network.

GolfNow joins Golf Channel portfolio

April 2008 — For better or worse, GolfNow changed the way golfers book tee times while offering courses a more advanced suite of products to run their business for little to no cost. Given that GolfNow has evolved into Golf Channel’s cash cow, this deal proved to be critical for future financial success.

Mike McCarley becomes fourth president

Feb. 2011 — No one has been a bigger cheerleader for the network both in the public eye and privately in board rooms. Despite losing the USGA bid under his watch, he has guided GC to new heights and made GolfNow a focal point and more successful that anyone could have dreamed.

Carries the inaugural Drive, Chip & Putt Championship National Finals

April 2014 – On Sunday prior to the Masters, Golf Channel shows the inaugural Drive, Chip & Putt Championship National Finals live from Augusta National Golf Club. Any time you have rights to broadcast an event at Augusta National, it is a big deal.

Golf Channel televises its first men’s major championship

July 2016 — All that seemingly had eluded Golf Channel was a major. But that ended when it acquired early-round coverage of The Open from Royal Troon. What once seemed like a pipe dream became reality.

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