Corporate hospitality at the PGA Championship held at
the Winged Foot Country Club in Mamaroneck, NY, is examined
by Richard Wilner of the N.Y. POST. Two dozens corporations
have paid $125,000 each for VIP tents and one business
"anted up $250,000 for a double-sized super-tent." On top
of the fee for the tent, corporations are spending "up to
$50,000, or more, on furnishings." Texaco, for one,
decorated its "chalet" to look like a classic Texaco gas
station. Other corporate tents at the PGA Championship
include AT&T, CBS, Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, NYNEX,
PepsiCo, Trump Hotels and Xerox. One source close to the
event said, "We could have sold twice as many corporate
chalets." Also, around 80 companies paid $18,000 for a
table inside a 20,000-square-foot corporate mall. In all,
the PGA Championship generates approximately $18M in
revenues for the PGA of America (N.Y. POST, 8/15).
THE NO-SPONSOR BLUES: In K.C., Howard Richman reported
that the Senior PGA Tour's St. Luke's Classic "has struck
out in its attempt to find someone other than itself willing
to step in and pay" the $1M-plus it will take to become
title sponsor of the event being played this week. PGA Tour
Dir of Business Development Jon Podany said that "four to
six proposals are on the table, but there are no gung-ho
takers." St. Luke's CEO Rich Hastings said the company
plans to keep the tournament through '98 (K.C. STAR, 8/15).
