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Afternoon Edition

May 6, 2025

It’s not the Open Championship he’s lobbied for, but one of President Donald Trump’s courses has added a significant tournament to its schedule—a positive sign for his ultimate golf ambition.

— David Rumsey [[link removed]], Amanda Christovich [[link removed]], and Colin Salao [[link removed]]

Trump Gets Another Golf Win With Euro Tour’s Scottish Championship [[link removed]]

European Tour Group

U.S. President Donald Trump has notched another victory in his efforts to host premier professional golf events at the courses he owns across the world.

As momentum seemingly builds for Trump Turnberry to potentially host a future edition of the Open Championship (also known as the British Open), the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) has added a tournament at another Trump-owned property in Scotland to its 2025 schedule.

Trump International Golf Links Scotland in Aberdeenshire will host the Scottish Championship on Aug. 7–10. Featuring a $2.75 million purse, the event will be played directly following the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship—a tournament for men age 50 and above—at the same venue.

Trump International Golf Links Scotland opened in 2012. The Scottish Championship has been played only once previously, in 2020 at Fairmont St Andrews.

August’s tournament will be played the same week as the first leg of the PGA Tour’s playoffs, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, and LIV Golf Chicago event, so not many of the world’s top-ranked and most popular players will be available for the Scottish Championship.

One Small Step

R&A CEO Mark Darbon, whose organization is the governing body for golf outside of the U.S. and Mexico and operates the Open Championship, recently shifted his stance [[link removed]] on returning golf’s oldest major to Trump Turnberry, which last hosted the Open in 2009. “It’s a course we’d love to return to at some point,” Darbon said last month.

Multiple British outlets then reported that Trump had asked U.K. government officials [[link removed]] about whether Turnberry will be able to host another Open Championship, and those officials in turn inquired with the R&A about that potential.

Sealing the Scottish Championship on the DP World Tour won’t guarantee anything for Turnberry, but it is a positive sign for Trump’s relationship with golf stakeholders across the pond.

SPONSORED BY PROFESSIONAL FIGHTERS LEAGUE

Exploring Sports’ Next Power Players

The days of attention being overly focused on the big four U.S. leagues are long gone.

The WNBA had its most successful season in history. The NWSL is expanding into new markets. Olympic viewership renewed interest in sports like track and field, rugby, and cricket. And ESPN airs esports.

Tune in May 14 at 1 p.m. ET for Future of Sports: Leagues of Their Own [[link removed]], presented by Professional Fighters League, as Baker Machado, Front Office Sports Today cohost and producer, sits down with experts from emerging leagues and the brands that support them to discuss what these leagues are doing to keep growing.

Register now [[link removed]].

Big 12 Re-Ups With Brett Yormark As Chaos Reshapes College Sports [[link removed]]

Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

In an era of unprecedented change in college sports, the Big 12 is doubling down on its leader.

Big 12 presidents and chancellors have agreed to a three-year extension on commissioner Brett Yormark’s contract, a source confirmed to Front Office Sports. Yormark originally signed a five-year deal when he was first hired in 2022, but now, his contract will run until 2030 rather than 2027.

ESPN first reported the news.

Financial terms of the deal were not reported, though the source noted the contract was an extension of the previous deal, rather than a completely new one. Yormark earned $1.2 million in 2023, according to the Big 12’s most recently available tax filings, with about $75,000 in extra related compensation.

Challenging the Status Quo

Yormark arrived in 2022 as an outsider in college sports—his previous postings were with Roc Nation and the Brooklyn Nets. In his three years at the helm of the Big 12, however, Yormark has steered the conference through innumerable changes, becoming known as an aggressive leader unafraid to lean in to the professionalization of college sports.

He secured stability with a media-rights extension with ESPN and Fox in the fall of 2022, leapfrogging the Pac-12, whose media-rights deal was up one year before the Big 12’s. Then, in the summer of 2023, he pounced on the Pac-12 breakup, adding Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State to the conference. Yormark also picked up the work of previous commissioner Bob Bowlsby in helping realize the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Yormark has reportedly been considering other innovations, including a league naming-rights deal and taking private equity capital. He’s also considered more radical expansion ideas, like adding basketball powerhouse UConn.

Now he’ll lead the conference through the upcoming revenue-sharing era (if the House settlement is approved) as well as the next iteration of the CFP.

Caitlin Clark Is Still Must-See TV, Even in the WNBA Preseason [[link removed]]

Iowa City Press-Citizen

It had been more than seven months since Caitlin Clark played an organized game on national TV, and fans clearly missed her.

The preseason game between Clark and the Indiana Fever vs. the Brazil women’s national team drew 1.3 million viewers Sunday on ESPN [[link removed]], the network announced Tuesday. The exhibition contest, the first time ESPN televised a WNBA preseason game on its lead channel, drew more than the 1.2 million viewers ESPN averaged [[link removed]] for all its regular-season WNBA games in 2024. Last season was the most-watched WNBA regular season on record.

According to The Athletic, only two NBA preseason games since 2010 eclipsed the viewership number of Sunday’s WNBA preseason game [[link removed]], both of which featured LeBron James. The most watched was in 2018 when the Warriors faced the Lakers, James’s first game with Los Angeles, which drew 2 million viewers. In 2017, James, who was still with the Cavaliers, drew 1.4 million viewers in a preseason contest against the Bulls.

While the outcome of Sunday’s game had no bearing on the regular season, the viewership was even more impressive considering the Fever blew out the Brazil women’s national team, 108–44, and Clark played just 19 minutes.

The game, which was played at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa, was the first game back for the 22-year-old at her alma mater since she entered the WNBA last year. The average resale ticket price for the game was $440, the most for any game Clark has played in [[link removed]], professionally or collegiately, according to data provided to FOS by ticketing technology company Victory Live.

The Fever will have a league-high 41 of 44 of their regular-season games nationally televised or streamed [[link removed]] this season. Indiana’s season opener is May 17 against Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY Hulk Hogan’s New Wrestling League; NHL Nixes All-Star Weekend

FOS illustration

Hell yeah, brother: Hulk Hogan has a new wrestling league. He joins us in the studio alongside Eric Bischoff and Izzy Martinez to discuss.

Plus, the NHL has canceled All-Star weekend in 2026, NBC is using AI to recreate its ’90s nostalgia, and we hear from a familiar voice … in Germany.

Watch the full episode here [[link removed]].

STATUS REPORT Three Up, One Push

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Matthew Stafford ⬆⬇ The Rams quarterback will earn $44 million in 2025, with his contract now finalized. In February, Stafford agreed to stay in Los Angeles [[link removed]] on a restructured deal that pays him more than initially planned this year, but it also leaves his long-term future with the team unsettled.

CBS ⬆ The network drew 2.91 million viewers for Sunday’s final round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson—in which Scottie Scheffler set a PGA Tour scoring record, marking its highest audience for the event in eight years. PGA Tour coverage on CBS so far this season is up 26% compared to the same point in 2024.

Todd Golden ⬆ Florida agreed to a six-year, $40.5 million deal [[link removed]] with its men’s basketball head coach just months after he led the Gators to a national championship. Golden’s $6.75 million per year deal makes him one of the five highest-paid coaches in college basketball. The 39-year-old became the youngest coach since 1983 to lead a team to the national title.

St. John’s ⬆ The school is about to begin construction on a new basketball practice facility following a $32.5 million donation from William J. Janetschek, a school alumnus, the university announced. About $25 million will go to the practice facility, while the remaining $7.5 million will be for student scholarships. Led by head coach Rick Pitino, the Red Storm are coming off a historic season that included their first conference tournament championship and NCAA tournament win since 2000. They were upset in the round of 32 by No. 10 Arkansas.

Conversation Starters Gregg Popovich was escorted by current and former Spurs players to his first press conference since suffering a stroke in November. Watch it here [[link removed]]. Nike is introducing Nike Studios strength, training, and running clubs in California and Texas. Take a look [[link removed]]. Following the NFL Draft, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie thanked the team’s front office members for their role in helping the team win the Super Bowl last season. Check it out [[link removed]]. Editors’ Picks After Getting Sixers to Stay, Comcast Putting Its Own Name on Arena [[link removed]]by Eric Fisher [[link removed]]Comcast will spotlight its mobile business at the South Philadelphia venue. Trump Administration Proposes $8 Million Cut to Brain Injury Research [[link removed]]by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]The budget still needs to be passed by Congress. Before the Villanova Knicks, There Were the Kentucky Celtics [[link removed]]by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]Three decades ago, Boston tried its own version of the college-teammate experiment. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Shows [[link removed]] Written by David Rumsey [[link removed]], Colin Salao [[link removed]], Amanda Christovich [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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