Sponsorship Exemptions Are Starting to Get Ridiculous

It’s become the norm for some very high profile athletes to be provided a sponsorship exemption for a Web.com Tour event.  In fact, Steph Curry, who plays to a +0.7 handicap, participated in the Ellie Mae Classic, where he shot a pair of 74s and failed to make the cut.  Likewise, Tony Romo, who allegedly holds a +0.3 handicap, will be competing in the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship during the weekend of March 22-25.

I mean, if their handicaps are authentic, these guys are pretty damn good golfers.  But herein lies the dilemma.  While the sponsors are obviously trying to promote events and there’s no doubt that bringing in high profile athletes like Steph Curry and Tony Romo will certainly attract an audience, the Web.com Tour is known as the Minor Leagues for the PGA Tour, and you’ve got tons of guys are killing themselves to make some money and make it to the PGA Tour.

For reference point, the top Web.com winner in 2017 made under $375k.  As a professional athlete.  Meanwhile, the 25th golfer—who’s the last to receive one of the 25 PGA Tour cards awarded to the top Web.com winners—brought home just over 150k.  Moreover, Justin Thomas—the top PGA Tour player in 2017—managed just under $10 million.

A post shared by SkratchTV (@skratchtv) on Sep 24, 2017 at 2:22pm PDT

So naturally, a lot of these guys really aren’t too thrilled when a sponsor invites “one of their guys” into the mix who, theoretically, could screw up someone’s shot on the PGA Tour.

Fortunately, nobody needs to worry with another recent Web.com Tour sponsor exemption recipient.  Julio Bell, a 52-year old and former boxer, was provided with a sponsorship exemption in the Club Colombia Championship.  And I hope Julio enjoyed his time out there because it might be his last chance at becoming a pro golfer.

You see, Bell scored a—wait for it—93 in his first round, which put him 26 shots behind the leader.  Furthermore, this shouldn’t really be a surprise considering Bell shot 99 (R1) and 92 (R2) in the Colombia Classic back in October 2016, which put him at 49 strokes above par.  It’s also worth noting that Bell’s performance was the worst score turned in by anybody who hadn’t withdrawn or been disqualified, and 31 strokes separated him from the next closest golfer.

So while a lot of guys were pissed off when Curry and Romo showed up, this is just icing on the cake.  But Bell’s former-boxer spirit wasn’t going to take the backlash, so of course he fired back on social media:

A post shared by Julio Bell (@lamaquinajcb) on Feb 9, 2018 at 2:25am PST

Translation: “4 years of work in golf there is still a long way to go.  I ask a question that you have been practicing for a lifetime and that you are so good, that you have done for yourself, or even better than you have done for others.  If you have no answer, don’t criticize.”

Now, the first step here is that Mr. Bell needs to have his phone taken away and reminded that he’s interfering with these guys’ livelihoods.  Every year, only 50 PGA Tour cards are awarded with 25 cards going to the leading money winner from the Web.com Tour and the other 25 awarded to players who earn the most cumulative money in the four Finals events.

I mean, the Sponsorship Exemption was never intended to be the “Featured Celebrity Invite,” instead it was to provide someone with the opportunity to launch their career?  Yes, statistics demonstrate that a sponsor exempt player has never won, but on the Web.com it’s just as important to have a quality performance that could hopefully lead to sponsorship deals.

The first place price at a normal Web.com event is just shy of $10k, and they’re asking these guys to write off a couple grand for the registration fees, pay for their living and transportation costs, and expect them to be okay with a sponsor throwing.  Mind you, I’m all for things like the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where people like Bill Murray, Justin Verlander, Tom Brady, Kelly Rohrbach, Justin Timberlake, Aaron Rodgers, Larry Fitzgerald, etc. can get out there and play with the Pros, but that’s a specialty event.

Bottom line, lots of golf’s higher-ups have been complaining about the golf ball going too far and that’s it’s bad for golf, despite the fact that data reveals that the average male golfer is only driving it ~220 yards.

So for all these people who’ve inserted their foot into their mouth, allow me to give you something else to focus on: stop handing these sponsorship exemptions to your friends, and instead give them to people who truly deserve that opportunity.

Cover Image via Instagram