For Trump, like other course owners, the tournament itself is unlikely to be a big moneymaker — at least not right away.
Neither the PGA nor the Trump Organization would give details of their financial arrangement. Experts on the golf business said that, in general, the host club may get a share of the revenue from ticket and concession-stand sales — or perhaps a flat “site fee.” In some cases, the course gets nothing and the PGA keeps it all.
For the tournament’s corporate sponsors, the benefits of supporting the tournament could extend beyond the four-day event itself.
A sign for one sponsor — Telos Corp., a cybersecurity contractor that does millions of dollars in business with the government — was placed at the first tee in April, weeks before the tournament began. Trump has visited the course twice since then, once stopping in the clubhouse restaurant at the same time Telos chief executive John B. Wood was having lunch.
A Telos spokeswoman said the company signed the deal with the PGA in February, after Trump had taken office. She said that the sponsorship was intended to honor military veterans, who are working as volunteers at the tournament.
Eric Trump said corporate sponsorshad signed on to support the competition years before his father ran for president and were deals with the PGA, not his company. He said the event — and the club — would be successful because of the quality and location of the facilities, not his father being president.
“This tournament is a validation of everything that we’ve done,” Eric Trump said. “This course will stand against any course in the world at this point and that’s why this event is here.”
He said he doubted that his father’s election had much effect on whether people were willing to sign up as members, its main source of revenue.
“I don’t think you do that because somebody holds a political office,” he said.
For Trump himself however, any visit to the tournament on Sunday would bring new questions.
Already, he has brought the presidential spotlight repeatedly to his for-profit businesses. He welcomed visitors at the Mar-a-Lago Club, which is taking new members at $200,000 each. He golfed at Trump National in Bedminster, where it’s at least $75,000, according to documents sent recently to prospective members. Trump ate at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, where the cheapest steak costs $52.
The idea that Trump might show up in person seems to have intrigued some potential ticket-buyers. Kurt Knapper, a PGA official, said before the tournament began that he’d heard the question repeatedly. Will the president show?
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