Andrew George was in Belle Glade delivering food from the Palm Beach County Food Bank to the Glades Initiative on Tuesday when his phone started blowing up.
The Honda Classic executive director began scrolling and, like the rest of the golf world, was stunned.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, announced a merger between the Tour, PIF and DP World Tours after meeting in secret for seven weeks.
“It’s an exciting time,” George said. “I think it’s a pivotal moment. Look at the last 24 months in the sport and how challenging it’s been and the exhaustion around the legal side of this, where you got some of the best players going to LIV and some staying on the Tour side. It’s a good day when you can bring those guys back together and find a pathway forward.”
George and his staff are in the midst of the final Honda Classic Cares week — American Honda is ending its 42-year relationship with the event — and is distributing a record $7.2 million to local groups. But the seismic announcement has George, and every executive, thinking about their event moving forward.
“I think it’s an opportunity for us,” George said. “We’re in a really good market. A strong performance in past historical and charitable giving and attendance and the buildout, the time of year we’re playing this event …
“We’ve got a lot of things going for us. It’s kind of similar to the title search in that this is a huge opportunity for us.”
The PGA Tour-LIV union will affect Honda in various ways.
One of Honda’s biggest supporters through the years has been Palm Beach County native Brooks Koepka. The five-time major winner, including last month’s PGA Championship, was ineligible for last year’s Honda Classic after joining LIV. If Koepka was healthy, he was at PGA National every year for the event. Now, the merger means Koepka and others eventually will return, not only to the Honda Classic but to the PGA Tour.
“Bringing the top players in the game back together is exciting in its own right, whether it’s this tournament or the entire tour,” George said. “You look at where these guys live, a lot of them being right here in Palm Beach County. I know it was tough on them not being able to participate this year.”
George believes clarity on the merger will affect the search for a new title sponsor. American Honda was the longest-running sponsor on the tour and the event continued to thrive when it came to charitable donations, attendance and buildout.
“From a player field standpoint, it is exciting when you see the groups coming together for a partnership,” he said. “Now it goes into the next conversation around what is the future with the event here with the title search, it’s a huge opportunity.”
The Tour continues to seek a new title sponsor, and those talks should ramp up now that the heavy lifting for the merger is complete.
George has “full confidence” the event will have a title sponsor in 2024.
“We remain very confident,” George said. “This news brings some new questions and answers in the next two, three, four weeks to really understand what the new landscape looks like. If I’m a title sponsor getting ready to write a check and support the PGA Tour and (sign) a seven- to 10-year deal, you want to have those questions answered.
“The PGA Tour went out of its way to set the date without a title in place; that doesn’t happen very often. I think that’s a testament to what they think of this marketplace and this tournament.”