On Grand Strand Golf: RBC Heritage officials focused on sponsor extensions
With the dramatic conclusion of the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing on Sunday, the five-year title sponsorship of Royal Bank of Canada and five-year presenting sponsorship of Boeing each officially have one year remaining.
Tournament director Steve Wilmot said his staff was hard at work all week in discussions to secure long-term extensions before the contracts approach their expiration next April.
Wilmot said tournament executives conducted meetings during tournament week with “the tour, we met with RBC, we met with RBC and the tour, we met with Boeing, we met with Boeing and the governor [Nikki Haley], we met with Boeing and the tour.
“It’s all very positive. We’ll continue to work.”
The original sponsorship contract was a partnership between the two primary sponsors. “They both want to stay engaged but they’re both here because of each other,” Wilmot said.
During closing ceremonies, both RBC and Boeing executives praised the tournament and professed to be delighted with their involvement on many fronts, reiterating what they said in an interview with The Sun News in late February.
Wilmot said the town of Hilton Head Island also contributes approximately $700,000 to the event in the form of a television buy that completes the TV contract. “Our intent all along was to have private dollars, not public dollars,” Wilmot said.
The PGA Tour has a team that focuses on corporate relationships, and tour chief marketing officer Ty Votaw said all members of the tour’s senior executive team become involved to some extent in discussions as individual tournament sponsorship agreements near an end.
“We have ongoing discussions with RBC and Boeing, and those things relate to what happens post-2016,” Votaw said.
Votaw said the tour is not speaking to any other companies or organizations about possible title or presenting sponsorship of the tournament, a possible indication they fully expect RBC and/or Boeing to extend agreements.
“I think the situation with RBC and Boeing and the support from both the state level and local level, and what everybody has experienced in the past few years gives us a lot of positive momentum coming out of the tournament in 2015,” Votaw said. “We’re just very pleased with the 2015 RBC Heritage. It had a great playoff, great champion and great crowds.”
Votaw pointed out sponsor extensions announced over the past 12 months by the PGA Tour of at least 10 years including Travelers Insurance, AT&T and Waste Management all extending tournament title sponsorships, and Charles Schwab and Rolex extending corporate and marketing partnerships. He said another long-term extension was going to be announced Tuesday.
“These are all long-term sponsorships that reflect a confidence level that these relationships are working,” Votaw said.
When will Wilmot become antsy without an extension, considering the tournament went a harrowing year without a title sponsor prior to its contract with RBC beginning with the 2012 tournament?
“Knowing what we went through before, we don’t want to get to that point,” Wilmot said. “But there’s no indication it’s not going to happen, we’re just trying to put the pieces together. How long it takes I don’t know. I could say sooner than later but I don’t know when later is.”
Tough call on times
The decision to move RBC Heritage final-round Sunday tee times up to between 7:30-9:30 a.m. from a schedule that had leaders teeing off around 2 p.m. for live TV broadcasts was made around noon Saturday for planning purposes.
Wilmot said the decision, resulting in the tournament being broadcast on a tape-delay basis after most viewers likely knew the outcome, was a joint call between sponsor RBC, the PGA Tour, CBS and tournament executives.
“It was difficult [Saturday], particularly with RBC,” Wilmot said. “Nobody wins getting into the Monday scenario. From the tournament side it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to run the event one day, then you get into the volunteers, concessions, catering . . .. Nobody wants a Monday, though we all want 72 holes of competition.”
RBC president and chief executive officer Dave McKay was scheduled to fly from Toronto to Hilton Head on Sunday in time to make an afternoon appearance in the CBS booth with announcers Jim Nance and Nick Faldo, but the schedule change didn’t allow his air time.
“We all want it live. The real loser is RBC in this,” Wilmot said. “Nowadays with modern technology everybody knows what’s happening.”
The owners of Kenya Airways, which provided the plane for a promotional flyover of the 18th hole during the second round on Friday, were also scheduled to fly into Hilton Head from Charleston on Sunday but canceled the trip.
Television numbers up
Wilmot was relieved to discover Monday that despite the final round of the Heritage being shown on tape delay, its broadcast on CBS surprisingly drew a 2.6 overnight rating, according to Sports Business Daily, for the tournament’s best overnight Sunday number since 2004.
The presence of Masters champion and rising star Jordan Spieth in the field and on the leaderboard – he began the final round tied for eighth and five shots out of the lead – certainly played a significant role in the increased ratings.
Tournament director Steve Wilmot told the Island Packet of Hilton Head that the ratings improved 63 percent over last year, and that’s despite there being a well known and popular champion crowned in Matt Kuchar, with former world No. 1 Luke Donald finishing a stroke back.
Jim Furyk held off Aiken native Kevin Kisner with a 12-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole Sunday.
In comparison to other weekend sports broadcasts, the RBC Heritage was the fourth most watched, according to Sports Business Daily.
It trailed a Sunday NBA playoff game between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers (4.5), a Saturday NBA playoff game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Golden State Warriors (3.2) and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Food City 500 (2.9) at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The tournament also did well with ticket sales this year, as some of the largest galleries in recent memory followed Spieth around the course.
The increased viewership Sunday included some angry residents of Hilton Head Island. The local CBS affiliate WTOC out of Savannah, Ga., cut away from the three-hour broadcast for a weather update just as Furyk was lining up his winning putt on the second playoff hole, and when the broadcast resumed Furyk was being interviewed on the 18th green.
No replay of the winning putt and Furyk’s reaction to it was shown after the broadcast resumed. WTOC meteorologist Dave Turley, who cut in to announce that a weather threat had passed, posted an apology on the station’s Facebook page and said he was unaware what part of the tournament was airing at the time.
Open qualifying announced
Five golf courses in the Carolinas are hosting 18-hole local qualifiers for the 2015 U.S. Open, which is being played June 18-21 at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash.
The closest qualifiers to the Grand Strand in North Carolina are Pinewild Country Club in Pinehurst and River Landing in Wallace, both on May 18. The two in South Carolina are The Patriot Golf Club in Ninety Six on May 11 and Oldfield Club in Okatie on May 20.
There are 111 local qualifying sites in 43 states. A select number of qualifiers from each site will advance to sectional qualifying.
In 2014, the USGA accepted a record 10,127 entries for the Open at Pinehurst Resort.
Spectator tickets to the 2015 U.S. Open’s four competitive rounds are sold out for the 28th consecutive year.
This story was originally published April 20, 2015 at 9:57 PM with the headline "On Grand Strand Golf: RBC Heritage officials focused on sponsor extensions."