The BMW Championship, the second event of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs, is now just over a month away, and Monday, June 28, was the highly anticipated Media Day at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, MD to help officially welcome the event to Baltimore, marking the TOUR’s first stop in town in nearly six decades. As the local Agency of Record for the event, Maroon PR was on-site, working with the Western Golf Association (WGA) team and the staff at Caves Valley, to assist with media relations throughout the course of the day. Being selected as the local Agency of Record for this year’s BMW Championship, Maroon PR helped to coordinate the rollout of invitations to the media, oversaw the set up for Media Day, and facilitated media coverage with guests and dignitaries related to the championship and its sole beneficiary, the Evans Scholars Foundation, as the event was attended by over 20 media members. In addition, the information from the event and Digital Media Kit developed by our team helped garner stories, both print and online, with multiple entries logged in the Baltimore Business Journal, The Baltimore Sun, all local TV’s including, WBAL TV, WJZ CBS Baltimore, WMAR, FOX45, as well as WBAL Radio, WYPR and others. As Maroon PR oversees advertising buys to promote ticket sales and spreads awareness for the event, ticket sales are currently 40% higher than for the 2019 championship at this time. As the countdown to the event ticks closer to tee time, the Baltimore community is excited to welcome this tournament and its fans, as 2019’s championship was the last with fans in attendance.
The media conference kicked off at 10 a.m. featuring high profiles guests such as local Baltimore legend and Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and three-time major winner Jordan Spieth, who participated in an engaging Q&A session. Cal, a member at Caves Valley Golf Club and a close client of MPR, spoke about the importance of a playoff golf event coming to the Baltimore region for the first time in 60 years and the excitement of the event being held at his home course. “I couldn’t be more excited for Baltimore, I couldn’t be more excited for the region. This is going to be a wonderful event and I wanted to express my gratitude on the event being here at Caves Valley and in Baltimore,” Cal said.
Spieth was the PGA Tour speaker via Zoom for the Media Day event, and spoke about playing the course before. “I’ve played a lot of fun rounds there, I haven’t really played any real competitive rounds there, just when I’ve come up to visit Under Armour, we typically try to make at least a trip to play one or two rounds at Caves. I would say I’ve probably played it close to ten times now,” Spieth said.
Tony Kornheiser, host of “The Tony Kornheiser Show” and ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption,” spoke about the event on his personal show. Kornheiser raved about the course and its Chairman, Steve Fader. “He is the president of Caves and in charge of the BMW… and he is in the right business. He is charming, he is competitive, he is aggressive. And he is all of these things,” Kornheiser said.
The event also highlighted the beneficiary of the tournament, the Evans Scholars Foundation. The proceeds from the event provide hundreds of full scholarships to caddies across the country who are looking to advance their educational careers. Since 2007, the foundation has donated more than $36 million to fund caddy scholarships for students.
Local recipients of the full scholarships were in attendance at the Media Day event. Samantha Lannon, who recently graduated from Ohio State University, received an Evans Scholarship in 2017, which helped set her course to receive her bachelor’s degree in Zoology. She spoke of the very real impact that the scholarship had on her education and life.
“The Evans Scholarship meant that I could attend my dream school without incurring student debt. I remembers tears immediately flowing from my eyes and hugging my sister the second that I read that letter with the realization that I would get the college education I always dreamed of,” Lannon said.
The event also featured lunch and a round of golf for media members and Western Golf Association representatives. For more information on the BMW Championship, visit https://bmwchampionship.com/.
Key Social Media Coverage Included:
John Harbaugh/Ravens tweet welcoming BMW Championship to town
Baltimore County Government (Johnny Olszewski’s office) tweet
Baltimore Business Journal tweet here, here and here
Baltimore Sun Sports tweet (photos)
Joe Yasharoff tweet
WBAL TV 11 tweet, Pete Gilbert WBAL TV tweet
Max McGee WJZ tweet
WJZ CBS Baltimore tweet
Shawn Stepner WMAR tweet
105.7 The Fan here, here and here
Gene Wang Washington Post tweet
FOX45 tweet
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