Memorial faces possible Wall Street fallout

Enjoyed Bob Baptist's article in The Columbus Dispatch today about how Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament could possibly lose Morgan Stanley as its television sponsor after this year's event. It would appear the fallout of the 2008 stock market crash continues to have ramifications that could change the landscape of the PGA Tour for years to come.

The tour has produced a lot of interesting stories this year with Dustin Johnson winning at Pebble Beach, Ian Poulter winning for the first time on American soil in the Match Play Championship, Anthony Kim winning in Houston with a bum thumb and Rory McIlroy winning in stunning fashion at Quail Hollow. Mix those youthful success stories with feel-good victories by marquee players such as Steve Stricker, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott and you would have to say 2010 has been a good year. But television ratings -- perhaps because of Tiger Woods' extended absence -- have not been what TV networks expect for the money they are dishing out.

Over the course of the next 17 weeks there will be three majors played, one more World Golf Championship event and the four FedEx Cup series events. During this time, television networks and the PGA Tour are going to start looking more closely at future contract talks. By this time next year, they will be seriously considering how the TV landscape will look after 2012.

The PGA Tour's ability to extract big money from the TV networks is likely to become more difficult in the future. The FedEx Cup card that helped PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem land some sweet deals in 2006 probably won't work next time around. The FedEx Cup, much like NASCAR's Sprint Cup format, hasn't been a rousing success in building more fan interest. It's possible the PGA Tour will find ways through the internet or iPad applications to generate new money, but the future remains murky.

If Morgan Stanley, which has acted as the principal sponsor for the Memorial for the past seven years, decides to end its relationship with Nicklaus' event, the tournament has a $5 million sponsorship hole to fill.

In Baptist's story, tournament director Dan Sullivan wasn't ready to hit any panic buttons, saying:

"We're going to spend the summer trying to (discuss a renewal) with Morgan Stanley. and if they're not (interested), then we'll look to ensure we have (another) relationship in place sometime in the fall."

Oldgolfdawg is going to go out on a limb and say Morgan Stanley will end its relationship with the Memorial tournament because it no longer is cool for Wall Street firms to be associated with golf. Ten years ago that might have been the case, but the fallout from Wall Street's and the banking industry's over-leveraging ploys that created a mortgage bubble and eventual stock market crash remains a public relations concern.

Baptist's article pointed out that an economic impact study in 2002 estimated the Memorial at that time brought about $35 million a year into Columbus-area businesses. Two companies that come to Oldgolfdawg's mind that could score a lot of goodwill points locally by becoming the tournament's title sponsor are Scotts Miracle-Gro headquartered in Marysville and Cardinal Health based in Dublin.

I'm sure Sullivan and his staff have those companies and others on a list to pursue if Morgan Stanley walks. Or, as Baptist's stories pointed out, it might require a collection of companies to come together to make sure the tournament continues. We can only wish Sullivan and his staff much success in their future endeavors. Having a world-class event like the Memorial in our own backyard is a plus for the community in more ways than can be measured in dollars and cents.

Information from GolfObserver.com contributed to this post.