Northern Trust Bank received $1.6 Billion from the government as one of the many, many companies to receive TARP money. The money, as the government put it, was to jump start the economy by getting the money to flow again. Last week, the money started flowing, except this time to professional golfers.
Last weekend Northern Trust Bank hosted the PGA tour's "Northern Trust Open". That fact isn't all that new since Northern Trust bank has hosted the tournament for quite a few years. But it's not about what the bank, the 4th largest bank in the country, and what they did during the good times; it's about what the bank does during the bad times.
According to pgatour.com, Phil Mickelson eventually won the PGA tournament, The Northern Trust Open, where the sponsor's purse was $6.3 million and the winner's share was $1.1 million. Northern Trust said no TARP money was used for the tournament either to pay for purses or for the lavish entertainment (Sheryl Crow was one of the artists that appeared). It doesn't really matter if the money was used or not; a perception is out there. The perception is of a bank taking bailout money from hand and paying millions of dollars in tournament purses with the other hand. No wonder people are crying afoul (link).
According the Northern Trust's CEO Fredereck Waddell: "We came to the conclusion that no public purpose would be served by canceling the Northern Trust Open and related events".
Really? No public purpose? How about the impression or message it sends to the public? How about the message that the government gives you a bailout because, if you didn't receive the money, you'd fail like your other competitors. Or how about ethics; don't they count anymore in the new way of doing business?
i don't begrudge a company hosting tournaments to improve their image, market their services and raise money for charity (PGA tour event raise millions of money each year for local and national charities). But at time like this to even give the hint of doing business as usual is just irresponsible.
Golf is the only sport where you police yourself; where you call penalties on yourself and there's something called golfer's etiquette. A true golfer doesn't take mulligans but i guess Northern Trust Bank didn't understand that golf is grounded in ethics. What a shame.
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