Pace Sterling is deciding whether to continue their 12-year sponsorship of a Champions Tour golf tournament hosted at the Dover Hill golf club, which has a male-only membership policy. The Women's Rights Organization is pressuring the tournament organizers to stop holding the event at Dover Hill due to its discriminatory membership rules. The document outlines reasons both for continuing and discontinuing the sponsorship and ultimately recommends that Pace Sterling end its sponsorship to avoid negative publicity from being associated with a club that engages in discrimination.

1. Keeping It To The Fairway - Harvard
Business Case
Category: Business
Autor: victor 17 January 2010
Words: 1223 | Pages: 5
Keeping to the Fairway
The Keeping to the Fairway case study is a complex situation that needs to be handled in the
correct manner. At issue, is whether or not a company named Pace Sterling should proceed with
their sponsorship of a Champions Tour golf tournament. The reason why their support is being
questioned has to do with the host golf club’s (Dover Hill) membership policies. Dover Hill
has been around for a hundred years and is a male only membership club. The WRO or
Women’s Rights Organization has been pressuring the Dover Hill golf club to change their
membership policies regarding women for years. Since nothing has been done they are now
challenging the Champions Tour to stop holding their most prestigious golf tournament at Dover
Hill. As a result, sponsors of the tournament such as Pace Sterling must decide if they want to
continue their sponsorship amid this ongoing dispute. Cases can be made for both continuing and
discontinuing the sponsorship and both options will be presented in the following report.
Following the evaluation of both views, a recommendation will be given as to what Pace
Sterling’s decision should be considering the evidence that has been presented.
Reasons Why They Should Continue to Sponsor the Tournament
• A good long lasting sponsorship of a top event is hard to find and always has its benefits.
You can really build your brand with a good sponsorship through high profile recognition.
• 12 years is a long time to have a sponsorship and it will be hard to replace. The familiarity
that has been gained through the two parties will be hard to rebuild with a different sponsorship.
• It’s hard to find events that offer the same ability to entertain clients. By taking clients
and fellow employees to this event important relationships can be made. Personal time can be
had with the client in a grandeur setting with the Pace Sterling logo taking centre stage. It is
obviously a huge attraction for clients, as it was stated that each year there is a fight to get the
tickets that are put aside for the company.
• The WRO is making a big deal over what many people feel is a non issue. Dover Hill was
built in 1936 and has had the same membership policy regarding women the whole time. It has
only now become a huge issue because some women feel slighted by the rule.
• Legally Dover Hill has done nothing wrong and its choice to be an all male golf club should
be respected. It is the members own choice how the membership and the rest of the club are run
and if they choose to be an all male club then so be it.
• The demographics of the tournaments viewers fits perfectly with Pace Sterling’s brand
and the company could market themselves to a group with real customer potential.

2. • Pace Sterling have many female customers that they reach through other sports and cultural
sponsorships. Many probably aren’t even aware of the problem now, except for dedicated
followers of the WRO.
• To pull out now would seem hypocritical considering they have sponsored this event at
Dover Hill for many years. They have always been aware of the membership rules in the past
and it was never a problem. It’s hard for a company to change its focus every time a different
group has another complaint.
• How fair would it be to the Champions Tour and Dover Hill to pull out now and leave them
in a difficult situation? After such a long successful relationship it would be hard to cut ties so
quick and without consequence.
Reasons Why They Should Discontinue the Sponsorship
• By associating themselves with what some feel is a sexist organization, Pace Sterling would
basically be saying something about their own beliefs. This could alienate many customers and
potential clients.
• Clients might not even want to go to an event with so much controversy built into it. Every
Clients decision to attend can affect their companies or image as well.
• The company’s reputation could take a serious hit with all the media scrutiny that would
surround it. It would be much easier to answer why the sponsorship was discontinued compared
to why it was maintained.
• Times have changed quite drastically from the year of 1936. Nowadays it is socially
unacceptable to ban anyone from a club based on any type of discrimination. Any type of
discrimination is looked upon very seriously now and to support a golf club that practices
discrimination in any manner is wrong.
• More media pressure is mounting with the call for the top golfer not to participate in the
tournament. If newspapers start singling out golfers that play in the event as discriminatory, then
you could see many golfers pulling out of the tournament.
• For a company that is preaching diversity, sponsoring this event would not look good. It
could affect the potential to attract new female employees and could hurt the chances of retaing
the current female employees with great leadership and potential.
• To make enemies with a leading rights organization in the country would end up being
disastrous. They would always be waiting for an opportunity to hurt the company and diminish
its importance.
• It has been a long sponsorship already and maybe it is time to move on. To sponsor one
thing for so long could become boring and routine. This could be an opportunity to go in a
different direction.
• Following through with the sponsorship could effect the hiring of future female employees
and could hurt their chances in retaining female workers. If the company truly believes in
diversity then supporting Dover Hill would give the wrong impression.
Recommendation for Pace Sterling
We believe Pace Sterling should discontinue their sponsorship of the Champions Golf
Tournament at Dover Hill. There is just too much negative exposure that goes along with
sponsoring this event. In today’s day and age, discrimination in any form is severely frowned

3. upon. The members of Dover Hill may think they are doing nothing wrong but for a major
company such as Pace Sterling to support such a sexist stance is reprehensible. The damage the
company could suffer in the public view and opinion could be devastating. Important clients and
possible future clients could easily be turned off from a company with a bad public image. Most
clients seeking to do the right thing probably wouldn’t even attend the event due to the
extenuating circumstances. The main golfer on the tour is being called out because of his
participation in the tournament and it would only be a matter of time before Pace Sterling is
raked over the coals. Sponsorships of events generally do not last longer then ten years anyway
so this is great opportunity to go in a new and exciting direction. The most important reason
sponsorship should be discontinued is due to the fact that Pace Sterling doesn’t need a
leading women’s rights group making them look bad in the media. We recommend Pace
Sterling steps away from the sponsorship and looks for a new event to display their brand and
image to clients.