Donald Trump's call to ban Muslims from entering the United States did not sit well with the PGA Tour back in December. The organization said it would explore all possible options in regards to changing the venue for the WGC-Cadillac Championship, which is hosted at Trump National Doral each year.
However, PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem said Sunday that the PGA's relationship with Trump is "good" and that the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination has "done a lot of good things" for the game.
At this point it's unknown if there will be a PGA event at Doral next season, but GolfChannel.com reported that Finchem met with Trump yesterday to discuss the future of the 10-year contract between the PGA Tour and Trump, which was reportedly signed in 2013. Cadillac withdrew its sponsorship of the event last week and apparently there's a stipulation in the contract that a new sponsor would have the right to host the event at another course.
It's evident Trump doesn't want that to happen (even though he said he would "make more money" if that were the case), and perhaps Finchem may not want that either. Doral has hosted a PGA Tour event every year since 1962 and ending that longstanding relationship with the course probably wouldn't look good for the game of golf. The players love playing there, too.
Trump has said some stupid things, but why does that mean the fun has to be ruined for everyone? The PGA already said it doesn't support any of his comments and I'm sure many golf fans don't either. That's all it needed to do.
In order to avoid an ugly break-up, the separation of golf and state might be the best way to go about this.
"We work very hard to not be involved in presidential politics, not be involved in partisan politics generally," Finchem said during his new conference yesterday. "We don't think it's in the interests of what our fans want to see us do or be. The same thing with our players and candidly, we don't think it's smart."
Additionally, as Rory McIlroy said, the PGA Tour "would be silly" to not maintain a relationship with Trump if he were to be elected the President of the United States.
This is a difficult situation for all involved, but there's plenty of time to resolve the issue. Yes, Trump's comments regarding certain groups of people were unsettling and almost everything he says is questionable and/or offensive to many, but it may not be responsible of the PGA Tour to get involved in the political discussion, especially since Trump has yet to wield any power. That's just simply not the PGA's job. The PGA actually already did its job by openly acknowledging that it does not support Trump's comments. The PGA organizes golf events, it doesn't endorse political candidates and who it does business with does not reflect what it believes. Trump just happens to be the new owner of the historic Doral resort (he purchased it in 2012), so that shouldn't be the reason a longstanding relationship between the PGA and Doral is tarnished.
Additionally, if Trump were to become president and the PGA Tour severed ties with the controversial businessman, it'd be a terrible look for the game of golf if it turned the cold shoulder to the President of the United States, depending on how you look at it.
This argument is from a business standpoint, of course, and it's an entirely different issue because the PGA's relationship with Doral was 50 years old before Trump acquired the property. If the PGA is concerned that it will lose fans, supporters or viewers because they're hosting an annual event at a course owned by Trump, then I guess it should cut the cord.
However, it's hard to believe PGA fans (most of which are likely conservative), or any fans in general across all sports for that matter, are going to care about one of 50 events still being hosted by Doral. If an NFL owner said something regarded as racist, you can bet the stadium will still be sold out that Sunday. And the average viewer shouldn't care either because it's not like Trump is an integral part of the event, or of the PGA Tour for that matter. The guy owns the course, takes a few pictures, maybe speaks for a minute and has absolutely zero influence on anything.
Well, I guess aside from jinxing McIlroy and Dustin Johnson, but that's about it.
