The financial stability of the Golf.com World Amateur Handicap Championship has been secured for another two years, as the Sports Illustrated Golf Group has agreed to continue its title sponsorship of the tournament in 2012 and 2013.
The 29th and 30th editions of the tournament will again have the Golf.com World Am title.
SI Golf Group, a media company with the primary assets of Golf Magazine, Sports Illustrated Golf Plus and Golf.com, became the title sponsor in 2010. The 2012 event was written into the sponsorship contract with tournament operator and marketing cooperative Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday as an option year.
“We’re thrilled. We love our relationship with Myrtle Beach and Golf Holiday, we have our history there, and it is the destination for people who love to play golf,” said SI Golf Group publisher Dick Raskopf. “We’re looking to do all we can to make the World Am bigger and better.”
Though negotiations extended several months beyond the conclusion of the 28th Golf.com World Am on Sept. 2, Golf Holiday president Bill Golden said he had little doubt SI Golf Group would extend its sponsorship and he never sought another potential title sponsor.
“We felt comfortable we would be able to work this out,” Golden said. “We have a great longstanding relationship with the Sports Illustrated Golf Group and felt comfortable all along.”
Golden said the deal is worth an estimated $500,000 per year in cash and promotional value, which is similar to the agreement of the past two years. While the promotional aspects are a bonus, the cash infusion is required. “The event could not succeed without sponsor funding,” Golden said. “At the price point it is, it wouldn’t work.”
SI Golf Group’s involvement will continue to involve promotion of the event in its publications and website – comic actor Will Farrell was used in ads – and coverage of and participation in the event by the company’s high-profile writers.
“The editorial staff comes down and they bring the power of the SI Golf Group’s brand here, which is not only good for the tournament but great for the whole destination,” Golden said.
SI Golf Group is the tournament’s fourth sponsor. Rawlings was the tournament’s initial two-year sponsor, DuPont titled the tournament for 19 years through 2004, and PGA Tour Superstore’s name was on the event from 2005-09.
“In this economic environment selling sponsorships to anything is a challenge, so we’re lucky to have a partner that is not only committed to the event but is committed to the promotion of the event and promotion of Myrtle Beach,” Golden said.
The five-day World Am has been played the week before Labor Day since its inception in 1984.
Participation dipped to about 3,000 in 2009 on about 60 Grand Strand courses, and has remained there the last two years. Both parties will work to raise that number. The tournament sold out with 5,000 players in 2000, dipped after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and generally continued to decline through the recession that began in the late 2000s.
“Having the event stagnant is not what we’re trying to do,” Golden said. “We need to see that thing grow.”
The prospects of the 2012 tournament are promising, according to the results of a survey emailed by Golf Holiday in the fall to 30,000 people in its database who did not play in 2011. Of 3,500 respondents – 61 percent of whom have never played in the tournament – Golf Holiday tournament director Dave Macpherson said 1,025 said they intend to play in 2012, including 500 who have never played, and another 1,862 are undecided.
“[SI Golf Group] has certainly exposed us to a lot of new players, it may just take a couple years,” Macpherson said. “If some of these numbers come through from the survey we did, that’s a huge jolt.”
The tournament may experience some changes this year to create additional interest. Ideas being considered include the reinstatement of a gross champion and possibly a separate gross division in addition to the handicap champ, and addition of a team component. “In the end, the event works,” Golden said.
Golf Holiday is also considering having a special competition or special events for subscribers of SI Golf Group products.
“We’ll probably have some new wrinkles,” Raskopf said. “We’re digging into all the details now to come up with some additional sponsors and look at new stuff this year.”
Raskopf expects Callaway Golf and Goslings Rum to return as supporting sponsors, and GolfTEC to return with private lessons. “We’re working on a couple other sponsors and maybe a new charity wrinkle, but none of that is fully flushed out,” Raskopf said.
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