"The political environment in Washington is too strong, and our brand is not strong enough to give them cover."

Bob Baptist looks at the likelihood of Morgan Stanley ending its sponsorship of the Memorial and features an interesting take from Joe Ogilvie on why the tour is still viewed as controversial instead of a contributor to charitable causes.

By "cover," Ogilvie means a message that portrays sponsors in a better light than they are now.

"It has to become a brand that says, when our players tee it up, not only are we showcasing the best players in golf (but) we're the only sport that has the model that our tournaments' direct beneficiary is the community," he said.

The tour and its tournaments have long trumpeted their charitable giving. After it dipped last year to $109 million, the tour expects its contribution to rebound to more than $115 million this year, Votaw said. The Memorial Tournament donates more than $1 million per year.

"We're leaving money in the community, we're supporting good things, we're educating kids, we're buying equipment that finds cancers in people. Charity dollars are doing some good things," Ogilvie said. "But we're not getting that story out well enough, so we need to try a different tactic."

Ogilvie said the current strategy of using star players to promote causes does not resonate with the average person.

"I've never seen a successful campaign that didn't have third-party verification," he said. "You need whoever you're helping to actually say, 'Look, the money that was raised at the Memorial Tournament helped to buy the piece of equipment that identified my kid's cancer early and saved his life.' That's pretty powerful stuff, and I just don't think that we get that across enough."