The new, revamped US PGA Tour schedule is set to be released in the upcoming weeks. Most of the major changes – the US PGA Championship moving to May, the Players to March, the FedEx Cup finishing before American football gets underway, TPC Southwind taking over Firestone’s WGC event – are known. Overnight, an additional piece was added to the puzzle, with another possibly revealed.
The Colonial officially confirmed reports that it has secured long-term sponsorship, with Charles Schwab signing on to the event. After Dean & DeLuca backed out of a six-year deal just two seasons into the agreement, there were worries that the tour’s oldest tournament still at its original host site may fall victim to the schedule overhaul. Thanks to Schwab, which is located in San Francisco but is building a new campus just north of Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, the Colonial is safe for the foreseeable future, with the two sides agreeing to a four-year deal.
Meanwhile, the Detroit News reports the tour is close to sending a tournament to Michigan. According to the outlet, the event would be held at Detroit Golf Club, with Quicken Loans shepherding the event. The company, based in the Motor City, hosted the National from 2014 to 2017.
As of 8:30am (AEST), the US PGA Tour had not responded to a Golf Digest request for comment.
The tour has been considering pitches from a Detroit group, while organisers who run the Champions’ 3M Championship at the TPC Twin Cities have made their attentions known of gaining a regular tour event. If the Detroit proposal comes to fruition, it will mark the tour’s first return to the area since the 2009 Buick Open, held at Warwick Hills G&CC. It was won by Tiger Woods (above), who captured the event three times in his career.
A Detroit tournament likely means the demise of the National, which is playing without a sponsor this year. The Houston Open is also without endorsement, and with the Valero Texas Open expected to take Houston’s pre-Masters spot in 2019, its fate is ominous. The Dell Technologies Championship, a FedEx Cup event since 2003, may be another casualty, as the tour hopes to condense the playoffs from four events to three.
