- January 2014
- HBS Case Collection
The PGA Tour (C)
Abstract
Having identified the crucial aspects of the Tour's business model, the case series presents numerous challenges the Tour's business model has faced. In 1994, at the end of the (A) case, the Tour was at a crossroads when professional golfer Greg Norman began publicly discussing the potential creation of a World Tour, a professional golf tour in which the best players would compete for very large purses at venues around the world. Norman's World Tour concept threatened to upend the Tour's system, siphoning away the top players. Could the PGA Tour and Norman's World Tour coexist? How serious a threat was the World Tour? What could the PGA Tour do to prevent the World Tour from gaining traction? At the same time, the Tour faced a governmental anti-trust challenge that could limit its control over players. How could the Tour respond to this challenge? How damaging would successful anti-trust action be to the Tour's model? The (B) case resolves the anti-trust and World Tour challenges. The (C) case allows an examination of the resilience of the Tour's business model in a severe financial crisis and recession in 2007/2008. After resolving this challenge in the (D) case, the (E) case examines the impact of a scandal involving Tiger Woods, one of the Tour's most prominent players. The (F) case resolves this scandal, and invites a forward-thinking analysis of future opportunities and challenges.