Sponsor Bailout... Much like, well pretty much most of America, the PGA Tour is really starting to feel the sting of the Economic Downturn. Sponsors are bailing out of Tournaments...fairly quickly. It no longer seems to be economically feasible to a company to pay Millions of Dollars to sponsor there own tournament.
The latest casualty...the FBR Open in Phoenix. Believe it or not, this is one of the more popular...at least from a spectator perspective, tournaments on the tour. They draw very large and are known for there very loud galleries. However, FBR Capital Investments can't apparently afford to be a sponsor after the end of their current contract which ends in 2010.
((photo courtesy: Cheryl Evans/Arizona Republic))
The story from the Arizona Republic is right here .
In light of Memphis losing there main sponsor (although for a "slightly" different reason) and now this, there is evidence that golf may have a bit of a problem here in the very near future. With the amount of banks and other "Large" investment types of business involved with Sponsorship deals, there may be a significantly smaller pool of successful ones for the PGA to pull from here in the very near future.
Honestly, the PGA could use a somewhat smaller schedule and maybe this will be the impetus for them to realize that after the PGA Championship in August, nobody really cares what they do.
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