Carolina Think Tank: “This is the state helping Pinehurst Resort with something that was probably gonna happen anyway.”

North Carolina’s John Locke Foundation “believes in free markets, limited constitutional government, and personal responsibility” and clearly holds no affinity for the state’s governor, Roy Cooper. The organization’s founder Art Pope, was the budget director for former Republican governor Pat McCrory, who lost to Cooper.

Some political stuff to keep in mind in Kari Travis’s story talking to two of their researchers charged with monitoring the state’s government and no fans of the legislative deal to bring more USGA to the Tar Heel State.

In a nutshell: they are not fans of deal re-written legislation passed and hastily signed this week securing 35 $80k+ USGA jobs, the move of various departments from Far Hills, and future majors for North Carolina.

“I’m so tired of these things, I can’t even work up fire for it,” Joe Coletti, JLF’s senior fellow for fiscal and tax policy, said after the USGA announcement. “This is the state helping Pinehurst Resort with something that was probably gonna happen anyway.”

Coletti has spent countless hours tracking North Carolina’s economic struggle through the governor’s COVID-19 shutdown. In short, he’s exhausted. And now, despite the state’s significant tax losses and slumping economy, the legislature managed to scrape together enough money for a golf deal. 

As with many states in the COVID era, North Carolina’s hospitality industry is in trouble and Colletti takes issue with the lack of any immediate effort to help the sector.

The project will yield $2 billion for North Carolina’s economy over 25 years, USGA estimates. 

“None of these numbers are real, except for what’s being paid out by the state,” Coletti said. 

Another Locke Foundation researcher pointed out the not-so-subtle handout for lawmakers and one other oddity.

USGA is legally required to spend just $5 million of its own money on the project, while North Carolinians remain on the hook for $18 million, said Jon Sanders, JLF’s director of regulatory studies. The Championship NC Act carves out a benefit for the state, too, ordering USGA to provide the Commerce Department a “hospitality pavilion” at each men’s championship. 

“Defining it as a ‘gift’ lets the governor and legislators do a statutory Jedi hand wave and say it isn’t a form of quid pro quo,” Sanders said. “We (Lawmakers) gave them (USGA) $18 million, and out of the goodness of their hearts they just up and let us enjoy this large, catered gathering place at a major championship sporting event for free. Oh, but just men’s championships, for some reason.”

Anyone who has been to a U.S. Open in normal times can envision a huge economic impact number. Maybe not $2 billion over the life of the deal—unless the Executive Committee holds every future annual meeting at Pinehurst and pays the rack rate—but certainly between the Opens and those 50 $80k minimum jobs, there will be legitimate revenue for the state.

Meanwhile the question remains for golf: what are the USGA’s priorities? Given that the organization joined with the R&A in carving out a case for a sustainability threat to the sport first recognized in 2002, subsequently postponed the next phase of discussion this summer due to the pandemic, and are signaling an interest in growing the business of golf with the North Carolina deal, it’s hard to fully comprehend the urgency of this week’s effort.