Our go to source for the skinny on golf's governing organizations remains, of course, Geoff Shackelford, and he gets all choked-up over the hold-your-hands-together and sing Kumbaya that the typically feuding U.S. PGA's held in San Francisco yesterday. It's certain true that the PGA Tour and PGA of America haven't cooperated on much these last few decades since their acrimonious split.
But the two PGA's actually managed to come together to jointly schedule a series of events at San Francisco's Harding Park, specifically the 2020 PGA Championship, the 2025 Presidents Cup and the 2015 Match Play event with a sponsor to be named later.
Here's how PGATour.com trumpeted the announcement:
"Today is an announcement of a lot of firsts," Finchem said during Wednesday's ceremonies."The first time that the PGA TOUR and the PGA have announced a series of events that are coordinated in this kind of fashion. It's the first time that these three particular events will be played at the same venue."
“TPC Harding Park is a world-class facility and San Francisco is a mecca of the best sports, cultural and entertainment events the world has to offer, so today’s exciting announcement only serves to further the City’s stature in that respect, and is a wonderful extension of our long-standing partnership with the PGA TOUR,” Lee said.
Sorry, almost nodded off there... Boy they could use some help with those press releases, couldn't they?
Everyone's favorite moment at the press conference was this:
Today’s news conference survived one awkward moment, during Mayor Ed Lee’s opening remarks. He referred to the “Players Championship,” not the PGA Championship, coming to Harding in 2020. Casual fans might not realize the difference, but Lee’s misstep caused PGA of America president Ted Bishop — standing only a few feet away — to squirm.
Seems only fair, since every time Ted Bishop opens his trap I involuntarily squirm...pot, kettle.
So, what have we actually learned from this Era of Good Feelings? A couple of things, actually... First, per this piece from the Charlotte Observer, scheduling of the match play in May has required a date change for the Wells Fargo event at Quail Hollow:
The Wells Fargo Championship’s 2015 dates have been temporarily moved to May 14-17 to accommodate a scheduling change for the PGA Tour’s World Golf Championships Match Play.
That puts it the week after The Players Championship, as opposed to the week before. The result of this move is a logjam of important events in May, including the European Tour's flagship BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, and since most players haven't yet conquered the time-space continuum, we should anticipate some no-shows, especially amongst Euro Tour members.
The other takeaway is that the Harding Park date for the match play is most definitely a one-off, per Jeff Rude:
The WGC-Match Play, in Marana, Ariz., the past eight years, has a one-year deal at Harding. The Tour is said to be close to getting a "yes" or "no" from an unnamed prospective title sponsor.
The one-year agreement enables the Match Play to remain on the schedule and gives the Tour time to figure out when and where to stage the event starting in 2016. It has been held on Week 8 of the Tour schedule, ending the West Coast Swing. The Tour is said to want to return to that date again starting in 2016.
Shackelford attributes this to Commissioner Moonbeam's desire to use the Match Play as the anchor for the West Coast swing. Kind of Geoff to impute such sensible motives to the Commish, considering that his wraparound schedule is a strong kick in the teeth to that very part of the schedule. The reality seems more likely to be that he hasn't got room in May, except as a one-off, so he's stuck with a late February date, which is severely limiting as to locations. Unfortunately Dove Mountain is likely to be available....always.
Like Shack, I saved the best for last, that being this Ron Kroichick SFGate piece on how the deal all came together through candlelight and mood music:
They joined tour executives for dinner in May at Epic Roasthouse, along the Embarcadero. The group sat outside on a warm, glorious night and talked about Harding’s revival. Pete Bevacqua and Kerry Haigh, high-ranking officials from the PGA of America, had seats facing the bridge. The mayor stopped by to say hello.
Meetings the next day included views of the Golden Gate Bridge on another sparkling spring day. Then came a drive on the Great Highway, to take a first-hand look at the course.
What would you guess the per diem is for a PGA Tour or PGA of America exec on the road? Irrelevant would be my guess...these guys don't do Denny's. Then there's this:
The PGA has tilted toward the East and Midwest in recent years, usually in oppressive Augustweather, but Bishop and his cohorts have been seeking a West Coast venue for the past year. One motive was pushing weekend telecasts into prime time in the East; that produced higher-than-usual ratings for U.S. Opens in 2008, ’10 and ’12.
PGA officials approached the Olympic Club, one source said, but were rebuffed because Olympic is in the Open rotation. Still, they were intrigued enough by Harding to send out four executives last fall – they used pseudonyms, paid in cash and played the course as two separate twosomes.
I guess you could say that Atlanta Athletic Club, Kiawah Island, Valhalla and Quail Hollow are in the East...though wouldn't South or Southeast be a tad more specific? It seems especially important to them that the viewing public experience The Duf or Brendon de Jonge in a dripping wet golf shirt, for reasons I'd rather not speculate upon.
And while Shack passed on this bit, I have more space and less self-control:
Soon thereafter, Bishop called Finchem and asked about collectively reaching out to city officials. It was the latest example of collaboration between the PGA of America and PGA Tour, two entities not historically known for working together.
That changed when Bishop took over in November 2012 – he and Finchem quickly clicked.“We share a lot of information and a lot of thinking,” Finchem said. “Ted expressed his strategic view of what going to the West Coast would mean for the PGA Championship, and it fit quite well with some of our thinking about Harding.”
Yes, I can see where those two would get along famously, though I'll just leave it there.
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