PGA says no to Trump National for 2022 major

January 12th, 2021 / Chris Williams

It was only a matter of time before it happened and now just days after the storming of the Capitol in Washington, the PGA of America has become the latest in a long line of corporations to pull the plug on Donald Trump.

The PGA of America President, Jim Richerson, announced the decision that the 2022 PGA Championship would be moved from the The Trump National Golf Club via a video posted on the association’s website.

Donald Trump Donald Trump (Credit: www.golffile.ie)

“It has become clear that conducting the PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster would be detrimental to the PGA of America brand,” said Richerson.

“Our board has thus made the decision to exercise our right to terminate the contract to hold the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster.”

CEO of the PGA of America, Seth Waugh, added:

“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. 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.”

A decision has yet to be made about a replacement venue, however, with just under 15 months to go the organisation is confident a replacement can be found in time.

“We’ve had a number of places reach out already…we think we’ll have a bunch of options,” CEO of the PGA of America, Seth Waugh, told the AP.

Predictably the move drew the attention of at least one Trump supporter and well-known troll in PGA Tour player, Grayson Murray.

“Hey @POTUS you should just host a tournament the same week as the 2022 PGA championship at your course. Put up a huge purse that players can’t turn down. Make the pga championship a weak field or force them to up their purse and cost them more money,” posted Murray, who currently sits at World No. 565.

Good luck with that….

This year’s PGA Championship is scheduled to be played at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course in South Carolina from May 20th.