The 2021 PGA Championship tees off this Thursday from The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, a golf course known for its beauty and difficulty. 

When the South Carolina course last hosted the PGA Championship in 2012, Rory McIlroy won by a record eight strokes and took home $1.45 million in winnings from the $8 million purse. 

This year’s purse has increased to $11 million and the winner gets $1.98 million.

McIlroy, who’s earned more than $56 million on the PGA Tour since 2008, is a favorite to take home this year’s PGA Championship after winning the Wells Fargo Championship earlier this month. 

The Ocean Course, which was featured in DreamWorks’ “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” has forever changed the local economy on Kiawah Island. 

• The island, once desolate, has been developed into a vacation destination with visitors from around the world. 
• Last year, Kiawah saw its highest home sales volume ever with $807 million in sales across 656 transactions.

Designed by Pete and Alice Dye, the par-72 course first made headlines as the site of the legendary 1991 Ryder Cup, commonly known as the “War by the Shore.” 

At the time, the tournament’s opening day coverage on USA Network was the longest stretch of continuous golf coverage in history, introducing golf fans of all walks to the now-iconic location.

The Centers for Disease Control issued new guidance last week stating that vaccinated people may go maskless indoors — an announcement with huge implications for sports leagues as they emerge from a tough year. 

The NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and NCAA lost more than $14 billion in combined revenue due to fans being unable to attend games. Now, many teams are already experimenting with wider capacity.

• MLB: The Phillies, Twins, and Brewers laid out plans to increase to 100% capacity by June or July. The Braves, Diamondbacks, Nationals, and Rangers were already at or on the path to full capacity.
• NBA: The Bucks and Mavericks will allow around 9,000 fans — roughly 50% capacity — for the playoffs, which begin May 22. The Jazz will double capacity to around 13,000.
• NHL: The Blues and Predators will increase playoff capacity to 9,000 and 12,135, respectively. 
• NFL: The league had already planned for full-capacity stadiums at the start of next season.

The Chicago Cubs and White Sox are going up to 60% capacity by the end of the month. Both allow fully vaccinated fans to sit closer together in a special section, as do the New York Yankees and Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and several other teams, some of which partner with the tech company CLEAR on a vaccine verification system.

Many businesses, including Starbucks, Costco, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, and Publix, said they would drop their mask requirement for vaccinated people, and use an honor system in lieu of verifying vaccination status. Most casinos on the Las Vegas Strip have dropped mask requirements, too.

The Yankees had a recent outbreak in which eight staff members and shortstop Gleyber Torres tested positive for COVID-19, despite all being fully vaccinated. The CDC said that a small number of these “breakthrough” infections are to be expected.

The company behind NBA Top Shot is facing its first notable legal challenge in a U.S. court. 

Vancouver-based Dapper Labs and its CEO, Roham Gharegozlou, were listed as defendants in a lawsuit that alleges NBA Top Shot “Moments” — short highlights that are sold as NFTs — violate securities law.

The NBA Top Shot marketplace has been open to the public since October and has netted nearly $600 million in sales. Dapper Labs was valued at $2.6 billion after closing a $305 million funding round in March.

The legal complaint was filed in a New York state court on May 12 on behalf of Virginia resident Jeeun Friel. The lawsuit seeks class-action status, unspecified monetary damages, and a jury trial.

Attorneys from The Rosen Law Firm argue in the complaint that NBA Top Shot Moments should be regulated like traditional investments since Dapper Labs controls the new release of NFTs.

A blockchain-backed LeBron James dunk highlight sold for $208,000 on NBA Top Shot in February, and another James “Moment” sold for $179,000 in March.

“NBA Top Shot Moments are securities because they constitute an investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the efforts of others,” the complaint alleged.

Dan Lust, a sports law attorney at Geragos & Geragos, told FOS that Dapper Labs would likely seek dismissal of the lawsuit since the terms of service for NBA Top Shot state legal disputes must be handled via arbitration.

Citing company policy, a spokesperson for Dapper Labs declined to comment on the lawsuit when reached by Front Office Sports.

The Pac-12 Conference could be headed in a radically different direction with the hire of George Kliavkoff, the president of sports and entertainment at MGM Resorts, as its new commissioner.

The decision to go with someone with extensive media rights and entertainment experience — from Las Vegas, no less — speaks volumes in terms of the Power Five conference’s priorities and long-term vision.

Power Five conferences — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC — made more than $2.9 billion in combined revenue for their 2019 fiscal years, according to federal tax records. The Big Ten brought in $781.5 million compared to $530 million for the Pac-12.

“The Pac-12 is leaning hard into the Vegas scene, and probably the sports wagering world that comes with it,” said Matt Fortuna of The Athletic.

One of Kliavkoff’s first big tests will be negotiating a new media rights deal beginning in the 2023-2024 season. The Pac-12 once had the most lucrative media rights deal in all of college sports, but it has since been surpassed. 

• Back in December, the SEC announced a 10-year deal with Disney worth $3 billion.
• All of the conference’s games will air on ESPN and ABC starting in 2024.

Kliavkoff was previously the executive vice president of business at MLB Advanced Media, the chief digital officer at NBCUniversal, a board member and interim CEO at Hulu, and was also a board member for A&E.

“He’s being fashioned as the ‘prototype’ of college commissioners of the future,” John Canzano of The Oregonian writes of Kliavkoff.