"Exacerbating the dilemma is that IMG, the most powerful sports marketing firm in the world, is now managing more events worldwide"
/Tim Rosaforte wonders if there will ever be a better time for the PGA Tour to institute a 1-every-4 years rule for tournament appearances after the Hope drew a weak field and longtime La Quinta resident Anthony Kim passed for a chance to play in Abu Dhabi.
At the core of this dilemma is that the global axis has tilted to the point where a majority of the players in the top-30 are from Europe, Asia and South Africa. Exacerbating the dilemma is that IMG, the most powerful sports marketing firm in the world, is now managing more events worldwide, such as Abu Dhabi and the HSBC Champions, which at the end of last year became a World Golf Championship event. While HSBC had to cut out appearance fees to get the sanction, there are ways around it week-to-week. Abu Dhabi is one of those full-on European Tour events, like Torrey Pines, representing the first big-field start of the year, and with a purse of just $2 million there's a good chance there was some enticement to make the trip halfway around the world for just one tournament, as is the case with Kim, who is represented by IMG. The fact is, it's just greener in Abu Dhabi.
Say Kim gets $300,000 to make the trip. He pays IMG the commission, pays his taxes, his caddie and expenses, he probably nets $80 grand out of that. By the way, this is the same Anthony Kim who said he traveled too much last year, but that's another story. First place for the Hope is $900,000, and there's less wear and tear.
But IMG doesn't benefit from that, now do they?