There’s business, there’s golf, and then there’s the business of golf.
Kemper Insurance withdrew its sponsorship after 34 years as title sponsor of a PGA tournament, and the event will proceed this year as the Capital Open at Avenel.
Residents will notice few differences in this year’s tournament beyond the new signs, organizers say.
“The only change this year is going to be the name,” said Ben Brundred, chairman of the tournament’s board of governors. As a joint venture of the PGA Tour and Kemper Management, the tournament can proceed without a title sponsor. “This year is all covered, and it will be exactly the same.”
KEMPER SPORTS Management, which is not affiliated with Kemper Insurance, has operated the tournament since 1979.
“It is our intention to remain at Avenel,” said Steve Lesnik, president of Kemper Sports Management. “It’s owned by the PGA Tour. … We’re very comfortable there, and they’ve done a great job hosting the event.
However, Lesnik added that Avenel is not a definite site for the event after this year. “Other venues in the capital area may be considered,” he said.
Lesnik would not speculate on alternatives to Avenel, but mentioned several features necessary of any future sites.
“It has to be able to accommodate the spectators, and has to be a course the players would want to play [and] a challenge for the players,” he said.
Brundred says the tournament will continue to be played at Avenel for the foreseeable future, and any change would be a one-year stopgap. “There is a possibility of them redoing the [Avenel] golf course for a year,” he said. During any such renovations, Brundred said, “hopefully we’d move back to Congressional.”
The event was held at Congressional from 1981 to 1986.
LESNIK EXPRESSED no concern about the financial impact of losing the event’s title sponsor. “The tournament remains on sound financial footing,” he said. The tournament’s $4.5 million purse remains unaffected, as does its broadcast by USA/ABC.
Seven or eight PGA tournaments do not have title sponsors, said Brundred, but after this year’s Capital Open, the event is likely to have a new sponsor.
There will be no eleventh-hour title sponsor for this year’s tournament, Lesnik said. It is the Capital Open at Avenel, but a new sponsor should have its name on next year’s tournament.
“The new title sponsor will start next year. … We are in active discussions with a number of companies. This is [an event] that everybody is excited about,” said Lesnik. “Everybody recognizes how excited the community gets for this golf tournament.”
The next sponsor could even be announced this year, according to Brundred. “Our purse is up there with the best of them,” he said. “The fact that we’re [in the D.C. area] is one of the main attractions to a title sponsor.
A typical PGA tournament title sponsorship lasts for four years, and Kemper Insurance was in the first year of this cycle. Any title sponsorship in the near future would last for the remaining three years of this cycle, as would any event site, said Lesnik.
COMMUNITY LEADERS in Avenel do not anticipate significant change to this year’s event.
“The people who are doing it, regardless of who the sponsor is, are the same excellent people,” said Robin Warsaw, general manager of Avenel Community Association. “It’s a beautifully run event. … Things go like clockwork.”
“It’s been pretty much the same people running the event year in and year out,” said Frank Menditch, president of the Avenel Civic Association.
Residential needs during the tournament include traffic management that enables residents to travel to and from their homes during the weeklong event, which has attracted more than 180,000 spectators.
“They put guards on each of our streets to make sure people park in the designated lots,” said Mendich. “You come through our neighborhood to get to their lots. … It’s a small price to pay.”
On the residents’ part, Warsaw said the key is to make the Avenel area look attractive to visitors.
“Landscaping is rolling along now,” she said. “We do have a big push to make the area beautiful. … It’s definitely a time for people to have all their friends over.”