The PGA Tour has insisted finance and not politics was the key factor in one of the main events on the golf calendar being moved away from Donald Trump’s Doral property in Miami.
It was confirmed on Wednesday that the former WGC-Cadillac Championship, which carried a prize fund of $9.5m this year and typically attracted the world’s best players, was being taken from Doral to Mexico City with immediate effect on a seven-year contract. Golf has endured an uneasy relationship with the US presidential candidate since his outspoken remarks regarding Muslims and Mexican immigrants, primarily because of the number of course and hotel sites the tycoon owns.
Trump was not slow in castigating the PGA Tour for the WGC decision, but Tim Finchem, the Tour’s outgoing commissioner, has defended the switch and laid out the reasons for it. “As we anticipated, some of the reaction revolves around the feeling that somehow this is a political exercise and it is not that in any way, shape or form,” he said. “It is fundamentally a sponsorship issue. We value dollars for our players. We have a strong sense of fiduciary responsibility. So we make decisions that are in the best interests of our players, short term and long term.
“The decision made here was based on the reality that we were not able to secure sponsorship for next year’s WGC at Doral, or for other years for that matter. At the same time, we had an opportunity to build what we think is going to be a spectacular event in an area that is strategically important to the growth of the sport and the activity of the PGA Tour that has been focused in South America and Central America for the last good number of years.”
He added: “From a golf standpoint, we have no issues with Donald Trump. From a political standpoint, we are neutral. The PGA Tour has never been involved or cares to be involved in presidential politics. I had an involvement in presidential politics, but that was over 30 years ago, and this is not a political decision.”
Finchem refused to rule out a PGA Tour return to Doral – which had hosted tournaments since 1962 – under a different guise. Trump spent $250m redeveloping the Florida property on purchasing it in 2012. However, with incessant background noise around his involvement with the sport, it cannot be denied that the current ending of relations is useful from a public relations standpoint.
“We are keen on coming back to Doral,” said Finchem. “We need to find the right property to resume our long-term involvement in the community. We’re proud of being there for over 50 years and we’d like to come back. We have looked at certain kinds of properties that might work on our schedule, and we’ll continue to do so with an eye toward bringing sponsorship, appropriate sponsorship, to whichever property we decide upon.
“We explained all this to Donald in New York. He is clearly disappointed that the World Golf Championship will be leaving. But I think that with the proper property we can resume our involvement in Miami, which we would be more than pleased to do.”
Finchem’s pragmatic words were in contrast to Trump, who said he hoped the Tour “has kidnapping insurance” for Mexico City. The commissioner replied: “One of our people told us this morning that we already have kidnapping insurance. I haven’t inquired about the details but I made a point it’s something we might not want to advertise.”
