It’s a year-round effort. It costs $12 million to run. It donates $650,000 to two regional charities and requires thousands of volunteers to run. And if top PGA Tour golfers — like Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods — tee up at the Travelers Championship Golf Tournament at the TPC at River Highlands in Cromwell, the crowds will come.
And so do the sponsors — some 500 of them — who are more than happy to pay up when big name golfers participate in the region’s PGA tournament.
But getting those top players isn’t easy. It can make or break a golf tournament as its organizers try to stand out among the 40 or so tournaments held throughout the country.
With all 40 competing for the big names in golf, the Travelers Championship is doing what it can to convince the PGA Tour’s top players that Hartford should be a part of their schedule.
“Obviously, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are important because those are players that move the dial,” said Nathan Grube, director of the Travelers Championship.
Though there is no definite word on Woods, Mickelson has made his intention clear that he would like to play in the tournament after missing the 2007 edition due to injury.
There needs to be a strong motivation to attract the most recognizable golf pros to the region, and money talks. Attracting top players has a lot to do with the monetary prizes awarded. Last year, Tiger Woods raked in nearly $11 million in PGA Tour winnings. Below him, Mickelson pulled in nearly $6 million.
Bigger Purse
The goal of PGA Tour organizers is to produce the most competitive field, and raising the Travelers Championship purse to $6 million has boosted its rank to 16 among the 40 tournaments. That’s up from $4.4 million in 2006, when it was near the bottom and 38 other tournaments doled out more money to the winners.
At $6 million, the Travelers Championship still has a way to go to compete with the Players Championship, which awards a $9 million purse, or the $8 million purses for the four World Golf Championships. At the bottom of the ladder are tournaments like the John Deere Classic in Wisconsin with a $4 million purse.
Money isn’t the only factor that lures top golfers. The tournaments with extensive history or prestige, like the Masters Tournament or the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, have little to no problem getting the top players.
While the Travelers’ purse has been increased to make it worth the trip for the big names in golf, Grube notes that they do not treat them differently, although their communication with the pros’ agents may be different. “We may spend more time talking with Phil’s agent or Tiger’s agent in an effort to get them to play here,” he said.
That was evident in September when Grube and other tournament officials were in Atlanta for the Tour Championship, a select field of the PGA tour’s 30 best players in 2007. Each player, Woods and Mickelson included, got the same small gift from the Travelers’ tournament officials — a hand-signed letter extolling the virtues of the Travelers Championship.
Notably, PGA Tour players make their own schedule and there are no requirements to play in any particular events.
So far, Woods has never played in Hartford.
Timing A Factor
The timing of the Travelers Championship and the location of where other major golf tournaments are held is another factor that influences where the golf pros play. In 2008, the Travelers Championship will be the first of four consecutive PGA Tournaments played in June following the U.S. Open, one of golf’s four major championships. That can either hurt or help the Travelers’ efforts to recruit a world-class field.
“If you look historically, one of our best fields was in 2002 when the U.S. Open was played at Bethpage [Black] on Long Island,” Grube said. “I think, moving forward, we’re going to have more of the European players because they like to play in tournaments when they come over for the U.S. Open.”
However, the U.S. Open is scheduled in California, not exactly a chip shot away from Cromwell. The solution: charter a plane to bring the pros and their families to the region. And that’s exactly what the Travelers’ organizers did this past summer when the U.S. Open was held in Pennsylvania.
It was an initiative that helped attract more players to the Travelers Championship, a tactic that will be employed next summer as well.
“Anything you can do to make it easier for them is a huge plus,” Grube explained. “They are always traveling, they are always playing in these tournaments, so anything we can do to stand out and make it better for them we have to be proactive.”
The response from players was overwhelming and several players have already informed Grube that they plan to hop on that charter next year.
More Than The Pros
While one of the most pressing issues to golf fans is which pros show up, Grube and his staff know that their job is to put on a world-class event, regardless of who steps up to the first tee.
Tournament officials continue to pour over the 2007 survey results from players, volunteers and media members, as well as a detailed report from the PGA Tour.
“It probably takes us three to four months to go through all the data,” he said. “We have about 500 companies and small businesses that sponsor us in some way and we have to know how their experience was.”
So far, the overwhelming opinion of the first Travelers Championship, after a brief association with Buick, has been positive.
Response to the tournament hasn’t always been favorable. In 2006, the tournament drew 80,000 spectators, a figure so low it nearly caused the tournament to be bumped from the PGA Tour’s main schedule. It rebounded astonishingly well to 250,000 in 2007. Television ratings were also up, as CBS reported a 33 percent increase for third round coverage and a 75 percent increase for final round coverage.
“There was a buzz about this year’s tournament that hadn’t been there the past couple of years,” Grube said. “Part of that is the unique relationship that we have with Travelers.”
Travelers has taken an active, year-round role in the tournament. “It’s unique because this is a local company, though it’s a [global] corporation, sponsoring a tournament in their own area,” he said. “That’s very rare today.”
The Greater Hartford Jaycees, which started the tournament in 1952 and manages the 1,500 daily volunteers during the tournament, is very happy with Travelers.
“We’ve had awesome sponsors in the past, but Travelers really has stepped up tremendously,” said Amy Anderson, president of the Jaycees’ board of directors. “They put a huge amount of effort in, not just in terms of cash, but involvement from employees and executives.”
