KAPALUA, Hawaii >> PGA of America severed ties with President Donald Trump when it voted on Sunday to take the PGA Championship event off its golf course in New Jersey next year.
The vote comes four days after the Trump-fueled riot on the nation’s Capitol, while Congress certified President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory. This is the second time in just five years that America’s PGA has removed one of its events from a Trump course.
PGA President Jim Richerson said the board voted to exercise its right to “terminate the agreement” with Trump National in Bedminster, NJ
“We are in a political situation that was not ours,” said Seth Waugh, CEO of PGA of America, in a telephone interview. “We are the fiduciary of our members, the game, our mission and our brand. And how can we best protect this? In view of the tragic events of Wednesday, we had the feeling that we could no longer hold her at Bedminster. The damage may have been irreparable. The only real course of action was to leave. “
The PGA of America, which has about 29,000 golf professionals who mainly teach the game, signed the agreement with Trump National in 2014.
He canceled the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in 2015 at the Trump National Los Angeles Golf Club, after Trump’s derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants when he announced that he was seeking the Republican nomination for president. The event was definitely canceled the following spring.
Wednesday’s shocking uprising shook the country, and in golf circles, attention quickly focused on whether the PGA of America would maintain its main championship – and one of the top four golf championships – at Trump’s course in 2022.
The Trump Organization said in a statement that it has “a beautiful partnership with the PGA of America and is incredibly disappointed in its decision.”
“This is a breach of a binding contract and they have no right to terminate the agreement,” said the statement. “As an organization, we invested many, many millions of dollars in the 2022 PGA Championship at the Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster. We will continue to promote the game of golf at all levels and remain focused on operating the best golf courses anywhere in the world. “