No question Shell has been part of exposing the masses to golf and it's great venues over the years, some of those matches from the 60's were great for the game.
Unfortunately the world changes and so do companies, following is some insight in to what Shell has become.
I was very fortunate to have been one of Shells largest independent dealers in the Boston/ Providence district for 31 years. Through that business relationship I was treated to V.I.P. guest status at the Shell Houston Open for many years, the SHO week was always a highlight of the year for my wife and I. We were able to play and dine with golfs best players and we still enjoy friendships with many of the pros we met over the years. Shell was a great company to do business with and I wouldn't trade those years for anything.
Unfortunately in July 1998 Shell merged with Texaco and they went from a performance based dealer oriented company to a company operated retail presence and strictly jobber distribution in the smaller markets. I have no problem with companies evolving and changing to preserve their own existence, it's as neccesarry as oxygen to mammals, but their methodology was inexcusable.
The carnage in the dealer sector was monumental,bankruptcies,divorces,health problems, suicides, it wasn't pretty, many 50 and 60 old year family businesses went down the drain.
The way Shell implemented the change in their marketing strategy was just brutal, a certified letter was sent with 10 days notice to the dealers to sign a new agreement with no performance incentives and an average rent increase of between 100 and 500% coupled with three year instead of five year leases was just beyond belief. The alternative was non renewal and immediate termination. The value of the franchises became virtually non existent overnight.
A group of long term dealers sued and won, the case is in appeal now and the case is in it's 8th year, with the plantiffs (dealers)attorneys 3.5 million dollars wealthier, God knows what Shell (Motiva) has spent. All a drop in the bucket to this behemoth.
Exxon/Mobil has been moving in the same direction as well,in some markets dealer operations are not profitable for them, the difference is that Mobil has been changing it's station census gradually, honoring existing contracts and giving their dealers plenty of notice of their plans and in many cases buying the franchises back from the dealer or offering jobber contracts.
I seriously doubt if Shell cares about the opinion of a small segment of golfers and what courses they would like to see on Wonderful World of Golf, at one time, say even 10 years ago they might have. They have fallen a long way from the old "Shell with platformate" commercials and Slammin' Sammy Snead picking up those checks.