Nike Tour Likely to Lose Its Footing

David Duval, John Daly and Tom Lehman graduated from the Nike Tour and became stars on the PGA Tour, so what’s the future for this future-star tour?

Lights out.

Next year is the final year of Nike’s deal with the PGA Tour, and although talks are going on about extending the agreement, Nike already has made its decision. Nike is getting out.

The main reason? According to one insider: “It doesn’t move product.”

That might not have mattered as much when Nike assumed title sponsorship of the three-year-old developmental tour in 1993, when Nike was flush and dollar bills were flooding from its swooshes.

But these days are different. Nike has had several rounds of personnel layoffs, it has trimmed its endorsements with athletes and also watched the price of its stock plummet.

Although Nike stock has started to get its legs back, you have to wonder if the Beaverton, Ore., company is getting what it wants--and needs--from its Nike Tour sponsorship.

In 1990, the Hogan Tour was a 30-event project offering purses of $100,000. This year, the total Nike Tour prize money is $7.63 million.

Nike spends an estimated $5 million a year on the Nike Tour, and that’s money that probably could be better spent elsewhere.

Now, the once beleaguered Nike Golf division has spun off by itself and made huge strides with Bob Wood as its director and Chris Zimmerman as its director of marketing. Zimmerman, who developed the popular “Where’s the beef” advertising campaign for Wendy’s, met with PGA Tour officials recently and probably found himself asking the same thing.

In the meantime, the PGA Tour has agreed to contribute an additional $100,000 to Nike Tour purses, raising them to $350,000 an event, but that’s still less than what a PGA Tour tournament winner makes and won’t affect Nike’s decision to back away.

“[You are] pretty correct the odds are we are not going to [renew],” said Kel Devlin, Nike Golf’s director of sports marketing. “But the final decision has not been totally made that we are going to walk away.”

PGA Tour officials say they don’t expect a problem getting a new sponsor to replace Nike.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

What price success? Well, the going rate for commercial spots is $150,000 for 30-second ads for the Tiger Woods-Duval made-for-TV event Aug. 2 on ABC.

If that sounds steep, it’s because it is. The price tag for 30-second spots for the U.S. Open on NBC are $130,000.

ABC apparently has guaranteed a 6.3 rating to potential advertisers.

Neither Nike, which has Woods as a client, nor Tommy Hilfiger, which has Duval, is buying ads. They don’t need to, since Woods is a walking swoosh and Duval also has logos all over the place.

SHOW ME MORE MONEY

June is the first month in LPGA history in which there are four $1-million tournaments. Meanwhile, the four PGA Tour events this month offer purses totaling $10.55 million.

AND MORE MONEY

Insiders say Se Ri Pak’s deal with Maxfli to play the Revolution ball and wear the logo on her headgear calls for her to receive as much as $300,000 a year.

IT’S A SOD STORY

Does this sound like good news? Pinehurst No. 2 has been closed to give maintenance crews time to get it ready for the U.S. Open June 17-20--and pay special care to the Bermuda grass around the greens.

According to officials, the grass was chemically treated in February but has grown slowly. Pinehurst has had to splice sod in several areas.

Unless the situation improves quickly, there are going to be some areas as ground-under-repair at the Open. You can bet the USGA doesn’t want any part of that.

“I’m a little concerned about all the sodding they’re doing down there,” said Tom Meeks, director of the USGA’s rules and competition staff, who arrives at Pinehurst on Thursday. “If I get down there and don’t like what I see, we’ll have to go to the white paint.”

COVER GUY

Woods is the cover story in the June 14 edition of ESPN the Magazine, accompanied by the headline “TIGER TEES OFF.”

Really?

The story includes such hard-hitting information as:

ESPN: Boxers or briefs?

Woods: Both.

ESPN: Baggy?

Woods: There’s room.

Admittedly, this is terrific stuff. Imagine what Woods might say if he were really teed off. Such as:

ESPN: Which sock do you put on first?

Woods: I leap into both at the same time.

ESPN: And your toes fit?

Woods: Perfectly.

DUVAL UPDATE

Duval, by the way, is playing the Memorial this week--his first tournament since he missed the cut three weeks ago at New Orleans. Duval said he needed a mental break after winning four times before the Masters.

UNHAPPY TRAILS

Ocean Trails, a new Pete Dye-designed high-end public course in Rancho Palos Verdes, was supposed to open July 16--but that was before part of the 18th fairway and green dropped about 150 feet toward the ocean in a landslide Wednesday morning.

Geologists are investigating the incident, and it’s not yet clear when the course will be ready for play.

“The opening is obviously delayed at this point,” said Mike Hoye, a spokesman for Ocean Trails. “We’re just not sure how long the delay is going to be.”

CONTINENTAL DIVIDE

For what it’s worth, Woods’ victory at the Deutsche Bank SAP Open at Heidelberg, Germany, meant he now has won on three continents--Europe, Asia, North America.

That means Woods is halfway to the record of six continents, held by Gary Player and Bernhard Langer--North America, South America, Australia, Europe, Asia and Africa.

OPEN AND SHUT

Larry Nelson won the U.S. Open in 1983 and tied for third as recently as 1991, but that doesn’t help him at Pinehurst. So Nelson will try to qualify for the Open on Monday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, where 63 players will try for four spots.

Casey Martin will try to qualify Monday at Sand Ridge Golf Club in Cleveland, where 38 players are going for three spots. The same day at the Lakes in Palm Desert and Brookside in Pasadena, Chip Beck and David Howell of England are trying to qualify. Howell was No. 1 on the European PGA Tour money list until two weeks ago, but he has lost that status now.

At El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana on Monday, Joel Kribel of Stanford and Johnny Miller’s son Andy will be among those trying to qualify. On Tuesday, Kemper Open winner Richard Beem will try to qualify at Memphis National.

THEY’RE GAME

So what do you call these guys? Cyber Seniors?

Just to show that there is room for everyone in computer golf, sports gaming giant Electronic Arts has a Senior PGA game for the PC.

The players featured are Al Geiberger, Gil Morgan, Ray Floyd, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Walter Morgan, Bob Murphy and Dave Stockton.

It’s pretty realistic--Rodriguez stages his trademark sword fight--but only one of the three courses used in the game is part of the Senior PGA Tour schedule.

IT’S PARFECTLY WONDERFUL

Have a craving to play some of the top golf courses in the world--such as Ballybunion, Valderrama and Royal Dornoch?

Have $33,800?

Well, if you have both, there’s something just right for you. It’s PerryGolf’s 2000 European Golf by Private Jet Tour.

In 15 days beginning June 9, 2000, the world is your golf course. Only 44 travelers can join the trip, but they will play 15 courses, stay in luxury hotels and travel in a B-737.

By the way, the green fees have been taken care of.

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

Temple Aliyah’s charity tournament will be held June 28 at Braemar Country Club. Details: (818) 346-3545.

For anyone interested in taking charitable activities abroad, the St. Andrews Charity Open--yes, that St. Andrews--will be played June 28. The event benefits the St. Andrews Rotary Club. Details: 011-44-1-334-474-371.

The St. Francis of Assisi tournament will be held July 19 at Vista Valley Country Club in Vista. The event benefits the St. Francis Youth Program. Details: (760) 757-9364.

A group of 21 PGA Tour players joined with the tour to donate $31,996.34 to Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating for the state’s tornado relief program.

Will the players on these teams be talking afterward? Jack Nicklaus teams with his son, Mike, in the $500,000 Champions Challenge, June 28-29 at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah, where the other two-man teams include Johnny Miller and Johnny Miller Jr., Hale and Steve Irwin, Billy and Bobby Casper, Lee and Tony Trevino, Jim and Mike Furyk and Craig and Kevin Stadler.

Ground has been broken for Cimarron Golf Resort, a 36-hole public golf facility near the Palm Springs Airport and scheduled to open in January. The 200-acre site is being developed by OB Sports of Kirkland, Wash.

The Reserve, located in Palm Desert and Indian Wells and designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish, has been recognized by Golf Digest as one of the 10 top environmental leaders in the U.S.

Clyde Blake, course manager at Rancho Park for 30 years, died Sunday of a heart attack. He was 77. Blake retired in 1994 and moved to his hometown of Cocoa, Fla.