The PGA of America announced on Sunday that it is cancelling its contract with the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. that was due to host the 2022 PGA Championship.
The announcement came just days after a large group of Trump supporters forcibly stormed the U.S. Capitol in protest of the recent presidential election.
“The PGA of America Board of Directors voted tonight to exercise the right to terminate the agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster,” Jim Richerson, PGA of America president, said in a statement.
In the video posted on the PGA of America’s website, Richerson added, “It has become clear that conducting the PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster would be detrimental to the PGA of America brand and would put at risk the PGA’s ability to deliver our many programs and sustain the longevity of our mission.”
Added PGA CEO Seth Waugh in an interview with The Associated Press: “We find ourselves in a political situation not of our making. We’re fiduciaries for our members, for the game, for our mission and for our brand. And how do we best protect that? Our feeling was given the tragic events of Wednesday that we could no longer hold it at Bedminster. The damage could have been irreparable. The only real course of action was to leave.”
The PGA’s decision to move its major championship away from a property owned by the President, whose four-year term is set to end in less than two weeks, isn’t unprecedented. The PGA Tour moved what is now the WGC-Mexico Championship from Trump Doral to Mexico City in 2017, ending a 50-plus-year run of Tour events at the Miami club. The year prior, the PGA cancelled the Grand Slam of Golf on the basis that the event no longer fit “today’s golf landscape.” The event was set to be played at Trump’s club in Los Angeles.
Trump Turnberry, which Trump purchased in 2014, has hosted four Open Championships, though it’s held none since 2009 and has no future Opens secured. It did host the Women’s Open in 2015. The. R&A has announced that it does not plan to host any events at the Trump Turnberry, even though no events are planned for the course currently.
The Trump Organization said that they are “incredibly disappointed.”
