The Hartford Financial Services Group has become a
support sponsor of the '98 EMC Golf Skills Challenge, a
skills competition held at Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in CA
November 8-10, which will be broadcast nationally on NBC
November 14-15. Hartford receives ad time, billboards, an
in-show instructional vignette featuring Casey Martin and
corporate hospitality. Martin will compete in the event
along with Nick Price, Ben Crenshaw and EMC spokesperson
Billy Andrade (Woolf). The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Andy
Bernstein writes Hartford's deal is a "six-figure package."
Bernstein adds that NBC -- a PGA Tour partner -- had "some
misgivings" about "offending" the PGA Tour with Martin's
participation, but the "fact that the event does not involve
the use of golf carts ... took some of the politics out of
the equation" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 10/12 issue).
ASKING RAINBOW FOR POT OF GOLD? In St. Paul, Charley
Walters reports that Rainbow Foods, which provided $80,000
for partial sponsorship of this year's LPGA event in MN, "is
being asked" to pay $830,000 to retain "major sponsorship
and keep" IMG from relocating the event to Chicago. IMG
"also is talking about a $910,000 sponsorship deal with
Rainbow that would provide" the chain more exposure. The
site will be determined next week (PIONEER PRESS, 10/15).
CHIP SHOTS: Air Canada was named the new title sponsor
of the PGA Tour's Air Canada Championship to be held August
30-September 5, 1999 in British Columbia. The company has
been a presenting sponsor of the tournament, formerly known
as the Greater Vancouver Open, since the inaugural '96
event. The deal ensures that the tournament will remain in
the Lower Mainlands of Canada and that the PGA Tour's
contract with the event will extend through 2002. The
event's purse will increase to $2.5M in '99 from $2M in '98.
The purse will then increase to $2.8M, $3.1M and $3.4M in
consecutive years starting in 2000 (PGA Tour). In Toronto,
Grant Kerr writes that the four-year deal means that
"organizers can begin recruiting top stars such as Tiger
Woods" (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 10/15).
