Diamond Resorts® - Best Sporting Event

Company: Diamond Resorts®, Las Vegas, NV
Company Description: Diamond Resorts is a vacation ownership company headquartered in Las Vegas, NV. Founded in 1992, Diamond Resorts offers destinations, events and experiences to help our members make a habit of breaking from the routine. The company employs almost 10,000 team members worldwide and is a leader in the timeshare industry. Diamond Resorts is known for its flexible, points-based membership model.
Nomination Category: Event Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Art, Entertainment & Public - Sporting Event

Nomination Title: 2020 Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions

Between the party atmosphere, celebrity players and exclusive events, the 2020 Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions Presented by Insurance Office of America was the most unique LPGA Tour event to hit the course. Hosted from January 16-19, 2020 at Tranquilo Golf Course at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando, the tournament continually raises the bar for athleticism and excitement as a fully immersive experience for players and spectators. The nationally televised four-day event consists of 72 holes of stroke play with no cut for LPGA champions for a $1.2 million purse. Celebrities compete side-by-side with LPGA professionals for a separate $500,000 purse using a modified Stableford format.

Diamond Resorts has been hosting annual golf tournaments since 2013 (originally named the Diamond Resorts Invitational) as a celebrity charity event to support children’s health. In 2014, the event featured a live concert by Colt Ford, marking an evolution from a golf tournament to an innovative vacation experience on and off the course. In 2019, Diamond Resorts collaborated with the LPGA to create the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, an official LPGA Tour winners-only event with the unique aspect of celebrities playing alongside the professional women golfers. The event now draws national attention with television coverage on Golf Channel and NBC, and the 2020 Tournament of Champions was the most-watched LPGA season opener in 11 years.

Beyond the gameplay, the Tournament of Champions offered spectators an immersive experience, from eating and drinking their way around the course with a Taste & Travel Pass to a live DJ pumping up the crowd at the VIP suite on Hole 18. In the evenings, the Diamond hosted exclusive concerts from Counting Crows, Boyz II Men, Easton Corbin and more. Spectators had the opportunity to meet LPGA professionals, Hall of Fame athletes and award-winning actors and musicians throughout the weekend, creating once-in-a-lifetime memories for both the competitors and the audience.

At its roots, the tournament is about raising money for charity. Since 2013, Diamond’s golf tournaments have raised $4.3 million for charitable causes through annual auctions. The funds raised benefit a broad net of outreach, including supporting military veterans, furthering literacy, children’s health and disaster relief. The 2020 tournament debuted a new effort to continue this charitable mission through the @TheVacationDR Line, a merchandise line named after Diamond Resorts CEO Mike Flaskey’s social media handle. The line includes athletic wear and other branded gear with the promise that 100% of net proceeds go directly to charitable causes. In 2020, the line’s proceeds contributed to Diamond’s Team Member Relief Fund, providing COVID-19 relief to team members in need as the pandemic unfolded.

The 2020 tournament finished with a total viewership of more than 4.25 million individuals for 135 hours of live coverage. Per minute, the gameplay garnered 306,000 viewers across Golf Channel and NBC. The event’s hashtag had a total of 231 million social media impressions and over 7,000 news media mentions. The event also welcomed over 30,000 attendees to line the fairways. In 2020, the Tournament of Champions raised over $400,000 for charitable causes, finishing as one of Diamond’s most successful tournaments to date.

Optionally, list the appropriate creative and production credits for the nominated event, such as the following: Advertising Agency/City: Client: Art Director: Cinematographer: Creative Director: Designer: Director: Illustrator/City: Music Producer/City: Photographer/City: Printer/City: Producer: Production Company/City: Programmer: Writer: Web Development Firm/City:

Hosting partners: LPGA, The Four Seasons Orlando,Insurance Office of America
Media Partners: Golf Channel, NBC
Performance Partners: Counting Crows, Boyz II Men, Easton Corbin, Sister Hazel, Colt Ford, Jake Owen
Creative development, marketing, design and implementation for the event were handled in-house at Diamond Resorts.