PGA TOUR Urged by RBC to End Instability in Golf

One of its long-time sponsors is urging the PGA TOUR to end the instability in the game of golf or potentially lose its status as a key nameplate for two historic events.

RBC is unwilling to sign a multi-year and potential deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the RBC Heritage and RBC Canadian Open. Deals as the nameplate for both events expire this year, and due to the unstable and unpredictable landscape in professional golf currently, the company is not sold on the idea of signing up for another deal.

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— RBC Canadian Open (@RBCCanadianOpen) May 13, 2024

ScoreGolf first reported the story.

Mary DePaoli, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of RBC, explained the company’s lack of commitment to a future of sponsoring TOUR events:

“We’re all experiencing some frustration, whether we’re a sponsor or a fan or the players. We are all watching the PGA Tour right now, trying to sort through a business model that has been under some significant strain and has still not fully resolved itself, and that’s still TBD. It’s required a lot of patience from the players and it’s required a lot of patience from sponsors and fans.”

RBC is not the only TOUR sponsor with doubts, as others have acted on their skepticism and withdrawn from future events.

Honda withdrew from its Honda Classic event, which it had sponsored for several decades. Wells Fargo, which just hosted this past weekend’s Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, also announced late last year that it would not renew its deal with the PGA TOUR. Next year’s event will seemingly be its last under that name.

For RBC and DePaoli, there is too much uncertainty, and based on her statements, the TOUR is doing too much on the fly for it to be comfortable with the idea of sponsoring more events moving forward:

“It’s like they’re flying the plane and building it at the same time…Golf might be at this moment in time where, unlike a lot of other professional sports, it’s going through change, it’s going through transformation.”

However, a complete disassociation is not something the company is willing to commit to at this time. There are still a lot of things to be worked out, but DePaoli believes there is the potential to resolve the issues at hand:

“If some of these outstanding questions can resolve themselves in the short to medium term, and we can start to put some of the static and changes that a lot of people were not too pleased with behind us, professional men’s golf can get back on track and going in a positive direction again.”

Cover Image via Golfweek