The Golf Watch

"Not only have we recovered, but we’re open for business"

Despite an ailing economy, Larry Dorman writes that the Zurich Classic in New Orleans is in strong financial health.

Tournament director Tommy Fonseca said tournament ticket sales are up this year and that all 63 corporate skyboxes are sold out. 

Dorman also writes about the impact the tournament is having as a result of it's charitable contributions. 

While working on a documentary, I visited several of the New Orleans housing projects, including St. Bernard.  Zurich and their guests will work on repairing houses in that area during tournament week.

The closing quote from Fonseca says it all:

This is a great story about the kind of things that can happen because of golf when great partners come together.

Ginn terminates sponsorships immediately

It was U.S. Bank earlier in the week, and now Ginn Resorts is cutting off its sponsorship of its two remaining tournaments, the LPGA's Ginn Open and the Champions Tour Ginn Championship.

I think tournament directors could all learn something from Tommy Fonseca of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.  As Brian Allee-Walsh of the Times-Picayune writes, Fonseca has targeted and approached new businesses in the community that haven't been affected as badly by the economy.

The purse size of the Zurich has increased by $100,000 this year. 

Zurich Classic has fine marketing people

While driving on 10-West in New Orleans earlier today, I couldn't help but notice an extremely large billboard with Zach Johnson on the front promoting next week's Zurich Classic.  The billboard has a great location (across from the Superdome) and is seen by hundreds of thousands of people each day.  Clearly, the tournament does a tremendous service for the community with all of the money raised for charity, and there is a push for the people of New Orleans to come.  It must be satisfying for the organizers that the top players in the game continue to come back, including Johnson, Jim Furyk, Padraig Harrington, Retief Goosen, and Justin Rose. 

Zurich extends sponsporship of tourament in New Orleans

According to Brett Martel of the Associated Press, "Zurich Financial Services Group has agreed to a two-year extension as title sponsor of New Orleans' annual PGA event, giving the long-running tournament solid financial footing to continue rebuilding itself in the wake of Hurricane Katrina."  Zurich will remain the title sponsor until 2010.