Palmer’s ambush marketing sees Coolum will never be PGA event again
Long had the Australian PGA Tour officials considered Clive Palmer, the mining mogul, and his millions in potential investments to be the answer to golfing woes of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. They were wrong.
Left to Palmer, the fairways and greens of the resort end up painted with signage that ambush markets his companies to the players and crowd.
Slogans like “Freedom of Speech!” reveal little more than which way his political musings sway (he has reportedly donated $400,000 to the politically-left Liberal and National parties).
Officials were infuriated with Palmer’s antics. They demanded the signs be taken down and the Tour’s neutrality be respected. Palmer had not made his millions being nice: as was expected, he refused. Tour officials were left with but one course of action:
to move the event.
However, that could not be done to a tournament already underway. It would have spelled doom for the whole season.
Palmer knew that, which was why he had stood his ground. Tour officials had to back down. The tournament will go ahead as planned. However, it will be for the last time at Coolum.
The PGA Tour and Palmer had a rocky relationship in the past and it was no surprise that things played out leading to the events on Sunday. There had been stalemates on venues, funding and what not.
The Open at Coolum has long been a place where players, by season’s end, come to unwind. Palmer’s antics have made certain that will not be happening again, with the PGA Tour having decided to take the resort off of its season’s stops.
It really is a shame. Coolum has been the sight of some of Australia’s most nostalgic golf.
Palmer took less than a year to destroy what took more than a decade to make. This event was the most important one to date to create jobs and help jumpstart Sunshine Coast’s tourism.
Antics like these clearly disturb people’s lives and make doing honest business seem a great deal harder than it really is.
All this is probably some gambit that he has played to get his beach hotel and casino up and running.
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