Morris making PGA Tour history

John Morris brought to his 800-acre Branson resort last week a governor, PGA commissioner, Hall of Fame golfers and a live television viewing audience to announce his company’s five-year title sponsorship for the PGA Tour’s Legends of Golf tournament.

Months after Liberty Mutual dropped its longtime sponsorship rights and following negotiations with PGA officials, Morris struck a deal to hold the Champions Tour event at Big Cedar Lodge.

Dubbed the Big Cedar Lodge Legends of Golf Presented by Bass Pro Shops, the tournament is scheduled June 2–8 with play across two golf courses: the recently acquired Branson Creek Golf Club, which Morris has renamed Buffalo Ridge, and Top of the Rock, the longtime dormant par 3 course adjacent to Big Cedar.

The site marks the first time a PGA-sanctioned event would be played on a par 3 course, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said.

“It’s a real opportunity and an honor to be able to host some of the greatest golfers of all time,” Bass Pro founder Morris said of the golf professionals ages 50 and older playing the Legends tour. “It will bring a lot of exposure to our Ozarks. We can’t think of a grander way to introduce the Top of the Rock golf course.”

The Top of the Rock golf course and restaurant have been closed since a 2005 kitchen fire.

“Yeah, it may have taken a little long to make it happen, but it’s there,” said Legends player Tom Watson, of Top of the Rock’s redevelopment.

Watson has spent time on the grounds designing a Himalayan-modeled putting course at Top of the Rock. Other golfing greats, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, have their fingerprints on the course – Palmer recently designed the practice area and driving range, and Nicklaus designed its original nine holes.

Watson described the course’s cart path with natural crevices, waterfalls, a cave and suspension bridges. “Then you’ll all of a sudden come to the view. You’ll see Table Rock Lake, then another bridge and another waterfall. It’s just spectacular. Where else in the world would you have something like this? Well, the guy right over there sitting in the green shirt, that’s where it came from,” he said, pointing to Morris.

Morris has not released the amount invested in Top of the Rock or the acquisition costs for two Branson courses he picked up last year: Branson Creek in November and Murder Rock Golf and Country Club in late October.

While Champions Tour President Mike Stevens said the title sponsorship value is confidential, the financial investment for Morris and company likely amounts to about $3 million a year. According to Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, Champions Tour title sponsors cost between $2 million and $3 million a year.

After researching Champions Tour events in an effort to bring a tournament to the Payne Stewart Golf Club in Branson, Branson Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Ross Summers said the chamber discovered the cost is upward of $4 million.

Branson, a billion-dollar tourism town with 6 million annual visitors, is expected to experience a boon.

Summers said the high-caliber tournament should attract a new type of visitor.

“We know how much our visitors spend,” he said, referring to the $975 spent per party in 2013. “This is really a whole different ball game. The golf community is more affluent.”

Stevens said events on the tour, including Legends of Golf, carry an economic impact of $16 to $24 million.

Gov. Jay Nixon said the PGA event would provide a platform to expand southwest Missouri’s brand of the outdoor economy.

“We look at this as not only a one-week impact which will be significant in the millions of dollars, but ultimately a long-range view of this area so that folks and their families can come back,” Nixon said.

According to the agreement, Legends of Golf play will air on the Golf Channel to some 145 million households in more than 200 countries.

During the event, Big Cedar Lodge also will be home to fishing, archery and shooting competitions, drawing to the Ozarks celebrity fishermen and outdoorsmen, including NASCAR driver Tony Stewart. At Buffalo Ridge, near the Branson Airport and a few miles east of Big Cedar, Morris said herds of free-ranging buffalo would roam the outskirts of the course.

“Leave it to Missourians and Johnny Morris to make it possible for you to play a round of golf, hit a ball into a buffalo herd and still manage to finish the hole,” Nixon joked. “This is a great day for Branson and Missouri.”

Big Cedar and Bass Pro are following up the longest running title sponsorship in golf, according to Golfweek magazine. Boston-based insurance company Liberty Mutual had sponsored Legends of Golf dating back to 1980, and the tournament was held in Savannah, Ga., the last 11 years. Golfers such as Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino will compete for a steep $2.75 million purse at the Branson-area tournament.

“Morris is a visionary. He and Bass Pro Shops know sports marketing,” Finchem said.[[In-content Ad]]