PGA Tour Has Mixed History of Success And Mistakes
The PGA Tour enjoys a reputation as one of sport’s best-run and most upstanding organizations, but a look at its history shows it hasn’t been all peaches and cream. Like any other entity, the Tour has had its share of missteps and occasional downright blunders.
1968 Breakaway
Revenue from televised golf started escalating throughout the 1960s, and by 1968 the players started to wonder why they weren’t getting a share. The PGA of America ran the tour, and it was putting much of the increased revenue into its general coffers instead of larger purses. A sizeable group of players, led notably by Gardner Dickinson,
Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, were also unhappy that the PGA of America was doling out many spots in its tournaments to club professionals instead of touring professionals, who depended upon tournament golf to make their living.
The players formed a breakaway group called the Association of Golf Professionals, and took control of the tour. A compromise was reached with the PGA of America, and
the modern-day PGA Tour was formed.
Marketing Dispute with the PGA In 1981, the Tour decided to market its own soft goods, such as souvenirs, clothing, visors, etc., with the name “PGA Tour.” However, the PGA Golf Company, an equipment manufacturer that had acquired the name through a prior agreement with the PGA of America, refused to relinquish its rights to the initials PGA. As a result, the Tour changed its name to the Tournament Players Association Tour (TPA Tour) in August 1981. The name change confused many fans, and club professionals were also unhappy because they benefi ted from having the initials PGA on television each week. Eventually, in March 1982, an agreement was reached allowing the Tour to market its own products under the name PGA Tour, and the tour’s name was once again the PGA Tour.
Ping Grooves Controversy
Mark Calcavecchia wielded his Ping Eye-2 8-iron on the 70th hole of the 1987 Honda Classic from the thick rough, took a mighty swing, and sent the ball towards the green. It hit and spun backwards – something you weren’t supposed to do from the heavy stuff. Although this isn’t considered one of the greatest shots in golf history, it is undoubtedly one of the most important. The USGA quickly moved to redefine what constituted proper distances between square grooves on a clubface, a move that rendered Ping Eye-2s illegal. Karsten Solheim, founder and owner of Ping, sued both the USGA and PGA Tour. The USGA quickly settled, grandfathering in the old grooves while Ping agreed to manufacture clubs under the new rules. The PGA Tour went one step further, moving to ban all clubs with square grooves. Just six days before the lawsuit was to be heard, the PGA Tour and Ping came to a “settlement,” one in which Ping could declare complete victory, as the Tour’s ban on square grooves was never enacted.
Greg Norman vs. Tim Finchem
Greg Norman proposed in 1994 to bring the world’s top players together in a series of eight tournaments worth $3 million each at a time when most tournament purses were just over $1 million. Tour commissioner Tim Finchem threatened to suspend any player who played in one of the new events. Most players, not wanting to jeopardize their Tour status, did not support Norman’s idea, and he dropped it. However, just two years later, Finchem announced that PGA Tours International Federation, an umbrella group of the world’s major tours, planned to hold a series of world championship events bringing together the world’s top players for extremely high purses – the very idea Norman came up with. Norman angrily confronted Finchem, who later said about his exclusion of Norman’s input, “I just didn’t make the right call. It was bad judgment. Hopefully, Greg and I can work through this.” Eighteen years later, they still haven’t.
Casey Martin vs. PGA Tour
Casey Martin was born with a debilitating condition in his right leg that did not permit proper blood circulation. Despite this, he was able to become an outstanding golfer, playing for Stanford. Upon turning pro, his leg condition was to the point that he needed a cart to play. The Tour denied his request, saying it would provide him with an unfair advantage. Martin sued, and despite overwhelming public support for Martin and bad publicity for the Tour, the Tour stood firm in its position. The case eventually reached the US Supreme Court, which ruled in Martin’s favor, saying the Tour’s stance that Martin should not be allowed to use a cart was illegal.
Lack of Minority Players on Tour
When Tiger Woods burst onto the professional scene in 1996, it was thought that minority participation on the Tour would increase dramatically. Yet, in 2014, Woods remains the only player on the Tour with African- American heritage. One of the reasons is that a player trying out for the Tour for the first time has to shell out a minimum of $2,500 to go through pre-qualifying, and another $2,700 to continue if successful at pre-qualifying. Andy Pazder, the Tour’s chief of operations, defends the high fees, saying it assures only wellqualified applicants try out. What Pazder failed to say was that the Tour’s restrictive entry fee also prohibits well-qualified candidates who may not have the financial resources from trying to qualify. Because minorities as a whole have less net wealth in the United States, the Tour’s stance on maintaining a high entry fee has the added effect of suppressing minority participation in the professional game.
Non-Profit Status of the Tour
US Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma recently introduced legislation that would strip the PGA Tour, the NFL, and other sports organizations of their non-profit status. Coburn claims the Tour has avoided paying $200 million in federal income taxes over the past 20 years because of this status. He also noted that the Tour’s highly selftouted charitable giving record is actually very poor, given the small percentage of money raised by each tournament that actually goes to charity.
A Case of Trademark Bullying?
The PGA Tour recently has set its sights on another target – the World Golf Association. This trademarked entity, wholly owned by the United States Golf Teachers Federation, serves as a social media site for golfers. The Tour claims that it, not the USGTF, owns the phrase “World Golf” (because of the World Golf Hall of Fame and the World Golf Championships) and that the USGTF must relinquish the name World Golf Association to the Tour. However, the USGTF registered and used the names “World Golf Teachers Federation” and “World Golf Teachers Cup” well before the Tour even trademarked any World Golf names. The Tour, oddly, is not contesting the USGTF’s use of the two latter names, saying “World Golf” is distinct from “World Golf Teachers.” Several legal experts disagreed, saying if the Tour was correct that it owned “World Golf,” then the USGTF could not legally use “World Golf Teachers.” But, since the Tour is saying it’s okay for the USGTF to use these names, the legal experts said the USGTF, in fact, owns the rights to the name “World Golf” – something that, if a court hopefully and correctly rules in the USGTF’s favor, would prove our trademark laws do in fact work, and would provide yet another David and Goliath story.
