US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has slammed the PGA Tour over a decision to dump Trump Doral as venue for the annual WGC – Cadillac Championship.
Instead, the $10m event, and where Rory McIlroy hurled a club into the water last year, is headed to Mexico City.
Trump released a statement saying:-
“It is a sad day for Miami, the United States and the game of golf, to have the PGA Tour consider moving the World Golf Championships, which has been hosted in Miami for the last 55 years, to Mexico. No different than Nabisco, Carrier and so many other American companies, the PGA Tour has put profit ahead of thousands of American jobs, millions of dollars in revenue for local communities and charities and the enjoyment of hundreds of thousands of fans who make the tournament an annual tradition. This decision only further embodies the very reason I am running for President of the United States.”
Donald Trump slams the PGA Tour moving from Trump Doral to Mexico. (Photo – AP)
Butch Buchholz, brought in last year as the tournament chairman to help promote the event, told the Miami Herald that the tour is leaving for Mexico because it couldn’t find a title sponsor. Cadillac’s sponsorship ended this year, and it chose not to renew.
The tour has spent a year trying to find a replacement, and it became more difficult as Trump gained notoriety with his caustic comments during his presidential campaign. That began with Trump’s announcement that he was running, when he said Mexico was sending its unwanted people to the United States, and that in many cases they were “criminals, drug dealers, rapists.”
Trump purchased Doral in 2012 and poured $250 million into renovations. He also brought in Gil Hanse, the architect chosen to design the Olympic course in Rio, to redo the course long known as the “Blue Monster.”
The PGA Tour signed a deal with Trump Doral to host the event through to 2023, but with a provision in the contract that a new title sponsor had the option to move it elsewhere.
The news comes a day after the excitement of playing a ‘reborn’ Trump Turnberry where Trump is believed to have spent £200m on
