The day after the PGA of America voted in the aftermath of the violence at the U.S. Capitol to move the 2022 PGA Championship from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., the R&A announced that it would not plan to hold a British Open at the Trump course in Turnberry, Scotland “in the foreseeable future.” Seth Waugh, the PGA’s CEO, expressed confidence that a new site could be readily found for the 2022 Championship. “We’ve had a number of places reach out already,” he said.
The PGA of America cut ties to President Trump when it voted on January 10th to take the 2022 PGA Championship event from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., CBS News reported.
The vote came four days after the violence at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. as Congress was certifying the election victory of President-elect Joe Biden, and marks the second time in just over five years the PGA of America removed one of its events from a Trump course.
PGA President Jim Richerson says the board voted to exercise its right to “terminate the agreement” with Trump National-Bedminster, CBS News reported.
“We find ourselves in a political situation not of our making,” Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America, said in a telephone interview. “We’re fiduciaries for our members, for the game, for our mission and for our brand. And how do we best protect that? Our feeling was, given the tragic events [at the Capitol] that we could no longer hold it at Bedminster. The damage could have been irreparable. The only real course of action was to leave.
“Our decision wasn’t about speed and timing,” Waugh said. “What matters most to our board and leadership is protecting our brand and reputation, and the ability for our members to lead the growth of the game, which they do through so many powerful programs in their communities.
“This is not because of any pressures we feel. We’re not being forced into a decision,” Waugh added. “We had to make a business decision. It’s a perpetual institution. My job is to hand it off better than when I found it. One hundred years from now, we still want to be vibrant.”
Waugh said the PGA of America already had a team in place in New Jersey to start work on selling the events to the public and local sponsorship, CBS News reported. But now it will set about finding a place to play the 2022 PGA Championship, after it is held at Kiawah Island in South Carolina in 2021.
“We’ve had a number of places reach out already,” Waugh said. “We think we’ll have a bunch of options.”
The Trump Organization responded with a statement that said it has “a beautiful partnership with the PGA of America and are incredibly disappointed with their decision.”
“This is a breach of a binding contract and they have no right to terminate the agreement,” the statement said. “As an organization we have invested many, many millions of dollars in the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster. We will continue to promote the game of golf on every level and remain focused on operating the finest golf courses anywhere in the world.”
Waugh declined to say whether the PGA of America expected any legal challenges from the Trump Organization.
The PGA of America signed the deal for the 2022 Championship with Trump National-Bedminster in 2014, CBS News reported. In 2015, tt canceled the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at the Trump National Los Angeles Golf Club, after Mr. Trump’s disparaging remarks about Mexican immigrants when he announced he was seeking the Republican nomination for president. The event was canceled for good the following spring.
The PGA of America previously held the Senior PGA Championship at the Trump course outside Washington, D.C. in 2017. That was the same year the USGA staged the U.S. Women’s Open at Trump National in Bedminster.
The Trump Organization also owns Trump Doral outside Miami, for years a stop on the PGA Tour schedule and most recently a World Golf Championship site. But Mr. Trump’s presence made it difficult to find a corporate sponsor, and the tournament moved to Mexico in 2017.
Mr. Trump also owns Turnberry in Scotland, one of the most picturesque links in the British Open rotation, most famous for the “Duel in Sun” between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus in 1977, and most recently Stewart Cink beating a 59-year-old Watson in 2009. The R&A, which determines the British Open rotation, has not returned to Turnberry since Mr. Trump took over, and the day after the PGA’s announcement about not holding the 2022 Championship at Bedminster, the R&A announced that the Open Championship would not be held at Turnberry “in the foreseeable future.”
“We had no plans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do so in the foreseeable future,” said R&A Chief Executive Martin Slumbers. “We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances.”
Host venues for the Open Championship have been chosen up to 2024.
Speaking in 2017, Slumbers had said Turnberry remained as a possibility in the Open rotation. “I think it’s very important that we’re clear about what our business is, which is making sure that the Open Championship is one of the world’s greatest sporting events, and staying out of politics,” he said then.
“We are clearly now in uncharted territory,” he added. “Sitting presidents have attended U.S. Opens. We have not had a sitting President of the United States at an Open Championship.
“We’re all learning as we go through this,” Slumbers said. “But I think it’s important for us that we understand where the game is and make sure we keep to that without ignoring all the other factors that go around it.”
Slumbers added that he believed Trump had been “good for golf” in terms of the renovation of a number of his courses, and that he would accept an invite to play golf with him.
In February of 2020, Slumbers said infrastructure was “one of the key issues we need to solve at Turnberry”, adding: “I am sure it will stage an Open there in the not-too-distant future.”
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