Tiger Woods’ PGA Tour event in jeopardy

Tiger Woods’ PGA Tour event terminates contract with Congressional, currently has no sponsor

THE Tiger Woods Foundation is in for a mad scramble if it wants to continue hosting a PGA Tour event.

Woods’ foundation — which has hosted the AT&T National turned Quicken Loans National, mainly at Congressional Country Club in Washington D.C. — is out of a sponsor ahead of the 2017-18 season.

“With a great deal of disappointment, we want to inform you that the Tiger Woods Foundation (TWF) currently has no title sponsor for their PGA Tour golf tournament,” Congressional president Rick Sullivan wrote in the letter obtained by The Washington Post. “Because of that circumstance, the PGA Tour has exercised its right to terminate our Facilities Agreement with them for 2018 and 2020 while they seek a title sponsor for The National.”

Rick Singer, president and chief executive of the Tiger Woods Foundation, would like the tournament to remain in Washington D.C.

“We’ve been here for so long, and the tournament is an important fundraiser for the foundation,” Singer said. “We have a lot of important people looking at this. Selling a title isn’t a simple task, but it’s really important that we’re here in D.C. We have a history here. Having a tournament cements our presence here.”

The Post’s report said that Woods’ team is in talks with Quicken Loans to extend the contract that ended this year. However, according to the report, Quicken Loans owner Dan Gilbert has displayed interest in bringing a PGA Tour event to the Detroit area.

Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, remained optimistic the tournament would find a sponsor willing to keep the event in D.C.

“This is one of our highest priorities,” Steinberg said. “The event, at this point, is not going away. I want to be clear about that. We are looking for a title sponsor in the D.C. area. Where that event would be played is still up in the air. We don’t know the answer to that. We have to work on the economics and finances. But we’re actively looking, and we have a number of good leads and sponsors and are talking to them daily.” – sportingnews.com