Jay Monahan Talks Financial Impact On Tournaments, Charity

Doug Ferguson talks to Jay Monahan about the PGA Tour’s return at this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge.

Now that golf is returning, Monahan couldn’t predict when spectators would return. He said the tour has worked with tournaments the last several years on building a reserve fund for a crisis such as this.

“If you’re not selling tickets, and there’s not hospitality, you don’t have the pro-am experience or the honorary observer program for the sponsor ... that’s a significant financial impact on those tournaments, and the impact on the way tournaments connect with their communities,” he said.

Tournaments and their title sponsors still have managed to raise money for their local charities. The Zurich Classic matched last year’s donation of $1.5 million to a children’s services foundation. The John Deere Classic expects $10 million in donations, even though it canceled its July event.

Who knew that the folks in khakis awkardly walking down the fairway helped make a significant financial impact!

Either way, given that the Tour’s non-profit tax status is dependent on tournaments operating as drivers of charitable giving and that purses have not (apparently) changed, we will learn soon what plans the Tour has to maintain giving or help to events.

Meanwhile, the tournament announced featured groups earlier than normal and they are mighty strong.

Not so good: bad signs on the COVID-19 front for the good people of Texas, with surging rates of hospitalizations.