Not Everyone Has A Price

Greetings Golfers,

How about Michael Block’s week at the PGA Championship?

A PGA club Pro - a 47 year old club Pro - makes the cut … then is on the leaderboard after the 3rd round … and then makes an Ace while playing with Rory McIlroy during the final round of a major championship.

How can that be true? But it is … and that’s why we love tournament golf. It’s not fixed. It’s real. And it’s good - really good.

I get asked about the LIV Tour all the time. I’ve written about it … I don’t like it … I think it’s dirty money … and I don’t like the cheesy format. It’s just throwing money at guys to make it look like it’s a real tour. It’s just a series of exhibitions. Who cares? It’s like P.T. Barnum came back and decided to start a golf tour.

Am I against competition? Not at all. In fact I think the PGA Tour could use some real competition. About the only golf tournaments that interest me are the Majors. 

Why? Because the Majors are special. Special because they feel like they’re played for honor - not for money.

Do you care about the FedEx Cup? I don’t. But I can see why the players care - it’s a ton of dough - good for them … but I don’t care.

So who’s calling the shots? Obviously it’s the sponsors. 

What if the Masters became … the Cadillac Masters? How cheesy would that be? The Masters controls their sponsors - not the other way around.

I wish the PGA Tour had enough confidence in its product that sponsors felt fortunate to sponsor - to be a part of something really good.

Here’s another example - the Burger King US Open … how awful would that be?

That’s the LIV Tour in a nutshell.

Don’t think that I’m anti-marketing … marketing is really important - it better accurately represents the business … make clear who they are.

If your business is a basic commodity … then you’re just basically selling price. Your marketing will be mostly about price and convenience - not why you’re special.

But if you’re special, that’s what your marketing should be about. Otherwise you look desperate.

The PGA Tour looks desperate when they let businesses tell them what to do.

All non-commodity businesses need to be special … otherwise - what’s the point?

News is a business … though we like to think that journalism is about reporting the truth. Learning that newspapers and television news stations are puppets of their advertisers is depressing. 

You’d hope that any business that needs sponsors and advertisers would keep their integrity and focus on being so good that they could pick and choose sponsors and advertisers.

I’m glad that golf’s Majors have stuck to their guns. And wish other sports and other businesses would too. 

The Michael Block story is so appealing because it’s real - it’s not part of an agenda. It was about a club Pro beating most of the best players in the world in a major championship. And sharing the joy of a Hole-in-One with Rory McIlroy. Good as it gets.

Cheers!

Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com