As Vancouver prepares for its biggest golf tournament of the year this month, many golfers are dreaming of the day when the city again hosts a PGA Tour event.
Metro Vancouver used to be a regular PGA stop, but has hosted the tour only intermittently in recent years – the last time Vancouver was home to a PGA Tour event was in 2011 when Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club hosted the Canadian Open – a lapse that has deprived the area of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of economic activity, advocates say.
Hosting the event in Vancouver, however, has always meant clearing money and scheduling hurdles.
The Greater Vancouver Open became part of the tour when it launched in 1996 at Surrey’s Northview Golf & Country Club. Its timing was bad, though, because it was competing against the World Series of Golf and was unable to land many of the top golfers.
The tournament gained a better date on the golf calendar in 1999, when Air Canada (TSX:AC) came on board as the title sponsor.
PGA Tour veterans Payne Stewart and Sergio García putted on the links at what was renamed the Air Canada Championship.
Future Masters Tournament winner Mike Weir won his first PGA Tour event at the Air Canada Championship in Surrey in 1999.
Financial troubles forced Air Canada to pull its sponsorship in 2002 and the airline filed for bankruptcy protection the next year.
“The Canadian dollar went down to US$0.63 and we had to pay our bills in U.S. dollars so it made fundraising impossible,” explained former tournament chairman Martin Zlotnik. “Getting that kind of event again would be difficult because, in the intervening years, the PGA Tour has dramatically increased the size of its purses. To get a title sponsor today, somebody would have to put up US$10 million or US$12 million.”
The Air Canada Championship’s 2002 purse was US$3.5 million. Zlotnik believes a better fit for Vancouver would be a tournament that is part of the PGA Tour Champions, where purses are often less than US$2 million.
Even being on the PGA Tour Champions, as Victoria is this year, would be a step up for Vancouver. That tour is often dubbed the “seniors tour” because golfers must be at least 50 years old.
Victoria was chosen to host a PGA Tour Champions event in September after the tournament was moved out of Tianjin, China, because of chemical explosions that hit that area last year.
Zlotnik said many of the people who helped him land the Air Canada Championship have been trying for the past seven or eight years to get a title sponsor for a PGA Tour Champions event in Vancouver, but that they have come up dry.
“One of the problems with Vancouver is that the city doesn’t have a lot of head offices of any account,” Zlotnik told Business in Vancouver.
“Getting somebody to look at Vancouver from a corporate point of view if they don’t have a head office here is very tough.”
Former Vancouver Canucks owner Arthur Griffiths agreed but said that there is an art to finding sponsors.
“It’s not always about putting your brand where you’re known,” Griffiths said.
“Potential sponsors may want to put their brand where they are not necessarily known and where they want to create a market for themselves.”
Griffiths was able to get General Motors (NYSE:GM) to agree in 1995 to pay $20 million for 20 years’ worth of naming rights on Griffiths’ arena in downtown Vancouver.
Nicknamed the Garage, the GM Place name stood for 15 years.
New owners at the Aquilini Investment Group (AIG) then released GM, which was going through financial difficulties, from its contract.
AIG then signed a new pact with Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI.B) and the venue became Rogers Arena.
“GM could put its name on pretty much any building that they wanted,” Griffiths said. “So, with sponsorship, it’s always a question of the right ask at the right time with the right people.”
Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour has three B.C. tournaments in the next month
The closest thing that Vancouver has to a PGA Tour event is the Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour’s Freedom 55 Financial Open, slated for May 26-29 at Point Grey Golf & Country Club.
(Drew Weaver won last year's Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour tournament in Vancouver, which was then named the PC Financial Open | Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour, Chuck Russell)
The tournament is in its third year and has a $500,000 budget, including $175,000 in prize money for golfers – $31,500 to the winner.
“Our goal is to raise $50,000 for our charity, the Canucks for Kids Fund,” said organizer David Lee-Fay.
His tournament’s budget is a far cry from those on the PGA Tour because the Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour is like a minor league for the parent PGA Tour.
Its 12 tournaments across Canada also include stops at Victoria’s Uplands Golf Club June 2-5 and, for the first time, in Kelowna, at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf & Country Club June 9-12.
“We’re where younger players start out their careers, and the best ones move on to the next level,” said Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour spokesman Brian Decker.
That next level is the Web.com/tour – PGA Tour, which hosts events across the Americas but has nothing in Canada. Successful golfers in those tournaments move up to the PGA Tour.•
