On August 31, 1981, ahead of the final round of the World Series of Golf, PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman announced that the tour had officially changed its name to the TPA Tour – the Tournament Players Association Tour.
The New York Times wrote:
The PGA Tour, with a membership of 355 professional golfers, changed its name today to the Tournament Players Association, to be known as the TPA Tour.
Deane R. Beman, the tour commissioner, announced the change here just before the final round of the World Series of Golf. He said the goal was to help expand the tour’s long-range marketing program and to contribute to the growing junior golf movement.
To develop new sources of revenue, the TPA Tour will license and endorse commercial products and services but not golf equipment like clubs, balls and bags, which remain in the province of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America.
About six months later, on March 19, 1982 – ahead of the second round of the Tournament PLAYERS Championship, Beman announced that the TPA Tour brand had been shelved and that the tour would once again be called the PGA Tour.
Four years later, in 1985, Coca-Cola introduced New Coke, taking Beman off the hook.
