The tour in its Jan. 9 letter said it would give Westchester $1 million to terminate the existing six-year contract between the two sides. That contract had Westchester on the receiving end of $3.6 million from the tour—$800,000 for already hosting the Barclays last summer, and then another $2.8 million over the next five years.

The value of that agreement alone suggests Westchester feels it deserves more than $1 million to let the tour walk away. And there’s also the issue of leverage. Westchester may have more of it seeing how the tour has already begun negotiating with another venue, Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., so it may be trying to squeeze as much money out of the tour as it can.

Why would an inordinately wealthy club, home to CEOs and celebrities, care so much about a termination agreement? Sure, some of it is the money—every little bit helps for a club that doesn’t want to raise dues again—but the more important part may be saving face.

These haven’t exactly been heady days for Westchester, both externally and internally, so to be able to at least say it got a good deal out of the tour would be a minor victory.Of course, there’s also another remote possibility…

The issues above might have a say in that. For instance, if the tour thinks Westchester is asking too much to terminate their agreement, then the only option other than litigation is to honor the contract and bring the tournament back.

If you want to take it a step further and say that the tour never really wanted to leave Westchester in the first place and this was all posturing for better cooperation from the club, that’s an argument at least worth entertaining. But I have a hard time believing that given the hard feelings between the two both over the past few years and specifically the past few weeks.

My bet is the tour really wants to go to a less complicated venue that might better entice Tiger Woods. But for reasons that still aren’t clear, it has yet to wrestle itself free.

Stay tuned….