I.M.G. Wants In On Mondays
Monday, March 7, 2005 at 09:32 PM They don't call 'em IM Greedy for nothing! Golf World obtained IMG’s letter to tournament directors offering to set up Monday outings similar to the recent Ford-Doral event. Naturally, IMG has been beaten at their own game (the backdoor appearance fee) and is simply trying to do what is best for the product, err, clients.
GW’s Ron Sirak notes that the Tour brass may have a hard time making its case against IMG since it so ignorantly tolerated the Ford outing, and because the Tour “runs an outing the day after the Players Championship at the TPC at Sawgrass, in which UBS, a sponsor of the tour's premier tournament, pays 11 players to participate.”
"That's apples to oranges," the Tour’s Bob Combs said of the UBS event. "That's much different than being paid before a tournament with the implication the player will stay on." It is? Actually, the Monday after sounds more enticing than the Monday of tournament week. Oh, this is going to be fun to watch!
If you want to read a great story on IMG pre-Fortsman purchase, check out John Huggan's Nov. 2003 piece for The Scotsman.
***Update 3-10: Golfweek's Jeff Rude has the Tour's response to IMG, while policy board man Davis Love says that appearance fees won't happen (even though they already are).