Golf

For Chrysler, answers few, far between

The event at Innisbrook is among many PGA tournaments in limbo about its future.

By BOB HARIG
Published January 3, 2006

Another PGA Tour season is set to begin Thursday in Hawaii, the first of 45 consecutive weeks that run through the beginning of November.

But while the players tee it up for millions of dollars, it is those who provide the venues and opportunities for such wealth who are wondering what the schedule will look like a year from now.

That is especially true at the local Chrysler Championship, which is not even assured of being played in 2007, or could see a date change from October to March.

Although that is 15 months away, it is a short period for those who run the Westin Innisbrook Resort, where the tournament is played at the Copperhead course in Palm Harbor.

"Every day that goes by shortens our opportunity of booking it successfully," said Jay Overton, Innisbrook's director of golf. "Whether it's members pulling their condos for personal use, whether it's a convention booking our conference center, whether it's golf packages being booked ... not hearing makes it that much harder to accommodate them."

Since PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem announced last year that significant changes were in store starting in 2007, the Chrysler Championship has been rumored to be on the move to March.

He has strongly hinted for months that the Players Championship might move from March to May, opening a spot among the Florida swing of tournaments. And when he announced two months ago a plan to institute a seasonlong points system in 2007 called the FedEx Cup that would conclude in September with a series of big-money events and a huge bonus pool, the jockeying for position was on.

No tournament - including the Chrysler Championship - wants to be left out of the January to September points-earning events.

But for this plan to be finalized, Finchem and his staff at tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach had to negotiate with the various television networks.

It is a complicated process that involves rights fees from the networks along with how much money is required of title sponsors. And because the process - which in the past has been completed 18 months before the contract is to begin - is not finished, many tournaments have been left to wonder where and when they will be played, or if they will exist at all.

"It makes it extremely difficult on our staff in planning for the possibility of having two tournaments within 15 months, one of them being at a time of year we've never experienced before," Chrysler Championship tournament director Gerald Goodman said. "It's not only us, but our local sponsors. And with our offices being here at the resort, we understand that it's very difficult for them (Innisbrook) to plan, to have the weeks available to have a PGA Tour event.

"However, I don't think for one minute the PGA Tour is doing any of this on purpose. I feel they are trying to do the best for professional golf and for the way our business model is set up around the country."

The tour typically negotiates four-year contracts with the networks, and the current one is scheduled to end after this season. Concerns about ratings and the length of the season resulted in the FedEx Cup idea, with the hope that interest and drama would be heightened.

While the tour negotiates with sponsors and the networks, it is up to the individual tournaments to negotiate with the venues.

As for the Chrysler Championship, nothing is assured beyond 2006. Chrysler also sponsors the Bob Hope tournament in California, plus tournaments in Tucson and Greensboro. Chrysler officials have declined to comment.

In the case of Innisbrook, the Copperhead course is one of the tournament's selling points. For the past three years, PGA Tour players have raved about the condition and difficulty.

"I would say I'm very sympathetic toward Gerald," Overton said. "He has exactly the same thing going on on his side. I'm every bit on pins and needles. I've got a lot of logistical things that would have to be altered (if the tournament got a March date)."

Tour officials have offered few hints, saying only that television negotiations for the 2007-10 schedule continue.

"Nothing has been finalized at this point in time," said Tim Crosby, a PGA Tour director of business development. "We've told the tournaments as soon as we have something to convey, we will do that. Sure there are a lot of tournaments who are anxious to get stuff solidified. We know that planning does not work in a 12-month window. We want to get information to them as soon as we can."

[Last modified January 3, 2006, 02:00:48]