Although success was hard to measure with no fans and no corporate hospitality, two Korn Ferry Tour events in a row played in Jacksonville, Florida, over the last two weeks might be a signal that the tour could return to the area on a permanent basis.
Korn Ferry president Alex Baldwin is open to the idea.
“We’re not going to rule anything out,” she said on Saturday as Chris Kirk was on the course wrapping up a one-shot victory over Justin Lower in the King & Bear Classic, at the World Golf Village course. “We are open to it. We’re still evaluating how 2021 looks like and we’re open to various scenarios.”
Baldwin said a more likely possibility is that if the Korn Ferry Tour returns to the Jacksonville area, it would be in 2022.
But first, a title sponsor would have to be found who would willing to put up at least $400,000 per year for a multi-year deal.
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“We would love to see it … we would like to see more Korn Ferry tournaments across the country,” said Adam Renfroe, the executive director for the King & Bear Classic and the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass, which was won the week before by Luke List at the Dye’s Valley Course. “It requires the right partner [title sponsor] with the right motivations to be sustainable in this market. It doesn’t have to be local but it would have to have a market presence here. We’ll talk to anyone who’s interested.”
The Korn Ferry Tour was last played on the First Coast in 2018, with the season-ending Tour Championship at the Atlantic Beach Country Club. It was played there twice (losing one year in 2016 because of a hurricane cancellation) and before that was at Dye’s Valley from 2013-2015.
The Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open was played at the Valley from 2010-2012 and morphed into the Web.com Tour Championship when the local corporation, which was started by Jacksonville native Dave Brown, signed on to be the umbrella sponsor for the entire tour.
About a month after the last Web.com Tour Championship, Brown sold the company to Siris Capital Group, a private equity firm. Even though there were three years remaining on the title sponsorship contract, Siris told the PGA Tour it was not interested in renewing and they mutually canceled the contract, with Korn Ferry stepping in as the umbrella sponsor.
The Tour Championship was moved to Victoria National in Newburgh, Indiana, and United Leasing signed a 10-year presenting sponsor deal.
The two tournaments were played at the Valley and King & Bear as part of the revamped schedule in which five new tournaments were added on an on-off basis to give players more opportunities to ply their trade, after losing three months because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Two events will be played at the TPC San Antonio next month and the 2020 calendar year will end with an event at Orange County National near Orlando.
Both tournaments in St. Johns County were played without fans (as will be the case with the next four) and there was no corporate presence. In that way, financial success wasn’t a consideration.
However, the golf was scintillating. List had to make difficult two-putts from long distance at the Valley to ensure a one-shot victory over Joseph Bramlett and Shad Tuten; and Kirk shot 26-under to hold off Lower, who birdied four of his last five holes.
The field carved up the King & Bear on a week of light wind and sunny skies, with Vince India setting a record at 25-under through 54 holes and the course record being broken twice and tied five times.
In addition, Bramlett locked up a tie for third when he made the first albatross in history at the par-5 18th hole of the King & Bear.
The other measure of success is that the Korn Ferry Tour got through two weeks without a player, caddie or tournament staff member testing positive on-site for COVID-19.
Baldwin had high praise for the TPC Sawgrass and Honours Golf staff (which manages the King & Bear and Slammer & Squire at the World Golf Village) for getting their courses and clubhouses ready for tournament golf in a short window — plus two the gated communities, which also supplied dozens of volunteers.
“We can’t thank these communities and clubs enough for their support in welcoming us,” Baldwin said. “They went to extraordinary measures to bring this to fruition.”
Renro said one thing working to the advantage of bringing the Korn Ferry Tour back to the First Coast is the number of golf courses available.
“That’s the easy part,” he said. “This market has to many great courses and we could have played these events at any number of sites. That’s certainly not the issue.”
But he said in addition to a title sponsorship, local corporate hospitality packages and support for a pro-am would be necessary.
It would seem a natural for the PGA Tour to have a tournament from each of its major tours, in its home market. Next year, the Furyk and Friends Classic at Timuquana returns the PGA Tour Champions to the First Coast for the first time since 2002.
Renfroe said that would be an ideal situation but said much of the corporate dollars for golf tournaments flow into The Players Championship, the Tour’s “Gold Standard” event.
It also remains to be seen how fast the economy bounces back from the coronavirus pandemic.
“Of course you’d love to have a tournament from all three tours here,” he said. “The area is growing more and more and eventually might support three events.