USGA Downsizing: Where Has The Money Gone?

It’s a question that will ruffle the feathers of Executive Committee members and USGA groupies, but after the news reported by Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com that downsizing in Far Hills is a thing, the question must be asked: where has the money gone?

From $37 million a year in NBC/ESPN money to $93 million under Fox through 2026, and yet, as Hoggard writes, the organization confirms 63 employees 55 and older have been offered a benefit plan closed to new participants in 2008. So far, he reports, 50 have taken the offer, kissing goodbye to oodles of institutional knowledge, insight and wisdom at a time the organization needs it more than ever in its history given issues the game faces.

From Hoggard’s report the USGA confirmed the program:

“As the USGA continues to evolve its organizational structure in an effort to drive greater impact and sustain a strong financial future, we have offered a voluntary retirement incentive plan to a segment of our staff,” the USGA said in a statement provided to GolfChannel.com. “It provides eligible employees with enhanced pension and retiree health benefits, with no obligation to participate.”

The deadline to accept the plan was Tuesday, and although employees still have a window of seven days to decide if they want to participate, sources have told GolfChannel.com that at least 50 have volunteered.

Costs for all businesses rise and the USGA has done its part to up purses for the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open, while better compensating host venues to pick up costs that come with the U.S. Open. They’ve improved Golf House, protect golf history when it’s called for and invest in some “grow the game” programs, it’s still hard not to wonder where the Fox money has gone.

Hoggard writes:

The move is surprising for an organization that appeared flush with cash from a 12-year television deal the USGA signed with Fox Sports in 2013.

According to various reports, the television rights deal is worth $93 million per year and the association reported $214 million in total revenue in 2017 according to tax forms.

Since we can’t really pick apart the budget, the news of layoffs and reorganization provide a wonderful opportunity to revisit where the organization was supposed to be with the Fox millions. That means re-reading Ron Sirak’s definitive Golf Digest story on the deal and what it would do for the USGA.

Of course, it’s cringeworthy reading given proclamations in Sirak’s story by the deal’s visionaries Glen Nager, Gary Stevenson, Tom O’Toole, Mike Davis, Casey Wasserman and Sarah Hirshland. Four of those names have all moved on to leave the mess behind to Davis.

Let’s catch up with them!

While this review is no comfort to those who are taking early retirement to help the USGA keep the lights on, it’s hard to say anyone but Wasserman has landed in a better place.

Nager is representing a dreadful Chinese company suing the United States and looking even more miserable than ever, Hirshland is dealing with the unfixable US Olympic Committee mess and stepping in it early on, while Stevenson has an MLS job and Pac-12 network launching on his resume, a notch above “former Enron executive” in the current sports business world. O’Toole, meanwhile, has not turned up in a green coat at the Masters but has been seen driving around carts with Fox logos at recent U.S. Open’s. I’m not sure if he’s working as Joe Buck’s go-fer, or just a friend of the network, but it’s not a great look for all involved.

Wasserman’s highly successful and generally well-regarded agency is still collecting USGA consulting checks as the engineer of the deal, but I can’t imagine his word in the golf world carries the weight it once did given Fox’s failure to deliver the USGA to the promised land of increased prominence and Masters-level ratings dreamed of by Nager.

The U.S. Open became golf’s lowest rated major in 2018.

Furthermore, Fox Sports 1 has not provided what was predicted by Hirshland in the Sirak story, and the organization has consolidated its exposure to a smaller audience. Maybe the documentaries portion is true:

"Financials are absolutely important, but that was not the only factor," says Hirshland, neither confirming nor denying the monetary terms of the deal. "First, we get the opportunity to expand our exposure and tell our story to a broader audience. We also get the opportunity to create some distinctiveness about the role we play in the game through ancillary programming like previews of major events, wrap-ups of lesser events and documentaries that use our archival material."

While Fox Sports 1 has finally stabilized in terms of programming, ratings and vision for the future, this AP story by Joe Reedy today mentions many things, but no plans to expand its place in golf.

Which brings us back to those who have devoted their lives to the sport serving the USGA and have institutional knowledge to share, but now face early retirement: if the Fox money and massive revenues of the U.S. Open—plus nearly $500 million in the bank according to the latest tax filings—are not enough to keep the USGA from needing to downsize, then where is the money going? What has happened?

Sadly, the folks who made the decisions possibly leading to this day have all moved on to other jobs while many of the folks they left behind are giving up theirs. It’s hard to see how this could possibly be good for the good of the game.