The Trump Tempest

My morning started with this depressing post from Shackelford at The Loop, speculating on The Donald hosting all three rotating majors over a short period.  Obviously he's conceding an Open Championship on Turnberry's Ailsa, but what about the others?

Meanwhile, the United States Golf Association is taking the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open to

Driving towards major dominance?

Trump Bedminster, 36-holes of private golf only six miles from USGA headquarters in Far Hills, New Jersey. This is also an audition for the U.S. Open, an event the USGA would enjoy bringing to its neighborhood and to a course where some of their higher-ups have lockers. The first available U.S. Open date comes in 2022 (Torrey Pines hosts the prior year). Penciling in Trump Bedminster as a legitimate option for 2023.

Then there’s the PGA of America. In 2020 they have a major scheduling conflict with the Summer Olympic Games, a nightmare scenario we’ll see play out in 2016 when the calendar is stuffed full of major events and the lesser-known baggage arriving with golf in the Olympics (sponsor blackout periods for players, to begin with). Ideally the PGA of America will use this as an opportunity to take the event abroad in early spring after the NFL season and to a golf-loving country like Australia. But should that scenario seem too daunting, a PGA Championship in early March opens up the possibility of Florida. Only one course has the design, location, cache and space to handle a spring PGA: Trump National Doral.

OK, I feel a little better since that's all he's got.  Let's unpack each of these, shall we?

As for our Open, Bedminster is a fine club, though of course with all the expected Trump excesses, from the Trump-branded bottled water to the plaques and trophies everywhere bearing the name of Baron Trump.  Yes, he named a son Baron.  But probably the most over-the top feature is that Bedminster's club features an Old and New Course, the Old dating all the way back to circa 2004.

The Old is a fine Tom Fazio track, though not one that immediately screamed U.S. Open to me.   But if holding home game U.S. Opens was a high priority, wouldn't they have exerted more effort to keep Baltusrol in their rota?  The Women's Open is a hard sell for the USGA, so it typically involves a wink and a nod about a U.S. Open, though the Amateur is a better fit for seeing how the course will really play for the big sticks.  And the issue, as always, is whether the USGA wants to share the stage with Trump... my guess remains that having pocketed the Fox television contract dollars, this is one indignity they can avoid.

As for Shack's thinking on Glory's Last Chance™, there goes that brilliant marketing campaign.  The thing about the PGA of America is that, well, Ted Bishop does a lot of talking, but it is The PGA of AMERICA, and I'm really skeptical of plans to take their premiere event overseas.  And, by the way, does that include the 20 club pros?  

Turnberry's iconic lighthouse, with a portion of Ailsa Craig on right.

Shack is spot on about the scheduling issues, as it's quite difficult to fit the PGA, Bridgestone WGC, four weeks of the FedEx playoffs and the Olympics into the allotted time frame.  The problem was solved for 2016 by moving the PGA, to be held at Baltusrol, into late July, barely two weeks after the Open Championship.  The sad part of all this is that we're jerking around the schedule for events that matter, to allow maybe thirty world-class players to participate in an event that will be a pebble so small and insignificant we won't notice the ripples in the water.

But even the major that he has, he doesn't have as of now, as Turnberry has not been awarded a future Open Championship.  Joe Passov confirms in a conversation with Trump that the deal for Turnberry Resort is real, for consideration of £35 million ($59 million).  The Donald had this to say to Passov about the opportunity:

“Some of the greatest championships in the history of golf have taken place at Turnberry,” Trump said. “And the golf course itself is considered one of the greatest in the world. Some rate it as the best in the world. I’m not going to touch a thing unless the Royal and Ancient ask for it or approve it. I have the greatest respect for the R&A and for Peter Dawson. I won’t do anything to the golf course at all without their full stamp of approval.”

Not the usual bluster from the Mouth that Roared, wouldn't you agree?  Though it is as factually challenged as is typical, exactly one of the greatest championships can be remotely attributed to Turnberry (the 1977 Duel in the Sun between Jack and Tom Watson), and I'll venture that Turnberry has never topped a greatest golf course list, at least one admissible in polite society.  The other Opens there have been middling affairs at best, and the R&A stayed away for 16 years between the most recent Turnberry Opens.

I'm not in position to know the status of any discussions between the R&A and the resort, and at the very least there's no membership policy issues to deal with.  But the resort is quite isolated, some thirty-five miles down the coast from Troon, and its typically the Open venue with the lowest attendance.  It's not a stretch to call it the most vulnerable of the nine courses in the rota (excluding membership policy issues), and the R&A could logically find it not worth the bother.  And I suspect that the unusually solicitous language from Trump indicates his agreement with that premise.