NY Times: "No Fans at the U.S. Open Changes Golf’s Revenue Picture"

Paul Sullivan of the New York Times considers what the loss of normal U.S. Open revenue means for the various initiatives receiving USGA support. The story, as with others on the topic, mentioned a general number of $165 million in tournament revenue with $70 million in profit.

The two entities mentioned that got my eye:

Girls Golf, which works with girls to teach them golf and life skills, was hit with a double whammy in March. It receives $1 million from the U.S.G.A. and the L.P.G.A., the governing body for women’s golf, which halted its season in March.

“We didn’t really know what was going to happen,” said Nancy Henderson, chief teaching officer and president of the L.P.G.A. Foundation. “Our initial focus was our Girls Golf sites weren’t able to do programming in person, so we moved a lot of it online.”

While grants from both organizations came through, Ms. Henderson remains worried about next year. “That’s the big question,” she said. “You don’t know if you’ll be back to a new normal.”

Regarding the new normal and the sites hosting, there is a startling change in fees for 2020 host Winged Foot. According to Bryan Marsal, the chairman of the 2020 U.S. Open, the club will see only about 10% of what was expected.

“Our compensation was based on the number of fans that came to watch the tournament, plus the amount of merchandise that was sold in the merchandise tent, plus the corporate tents that were sold and the rental of the property,” he said. “We’ve had a 90 percent reduction in the revenue going to the club.”