Michigan’s golfing loss has become West Virginia’s gain.
The Greenbrier luxury resort, a national historic landmark recently purchased by West Virginia coal magnate Jim Justice, will host a new U.S. PGA Tour event next season, replacing the Buick Open. General Motors Co.’s Buick unit ended its sponsorship agreements with golf’s top professional circuit yesterday.
The event, to be known as the Greenbrier Classic, will be played two weeks before the PGA Championship on the resort’s Old White course in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, July 29- Aug. 1, 2010. It will have a total purse of about $5.8 million, Golf Digest magazine reported, citing people it didn’t identify. The purse for last week’s Buick Open, won by Tiger Woods, was $5.1 million.
While next year’s tournament will be staged on the same dates that the Buick Open previously held, its spot on the schedule beyond 2010 hasn’t been determined. Justice, a former high school golf teammate of PGA Tour official Slugger White, told Golf Digest that he wants a spot among the season’s four FedEx Cup playoff events.
The Greenbrier, the 231-year-old Georgian-style resort which was once a staple on the social circuit for U.S. presidents and Hollywood celebrities, will have a six-year contract with the PGA Tour. The resort’s Old White Course, originally designed by C.B. MacDonald and Seth Raynor in 1914 and redesigned by Bob Cupp in 1999, will be stretched to 7,000 yards from 6,826 before next year’s tournament.
Sam Snead, who won a record 82 PGA Tour titles, was associated with the Greenbrier for 47 years until his death in 2002.
Before being purchased by Justice from CSX Corp. in May, the Greenbrier had filed for bankruptcy this year due to a drop in luxury travel.
Because of the Greenbrier event and “financial challenges,” the Nationwide Tour is canceling next year’s Nationwide Tour Players Cup, which was staged in June at the Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport, West Virginia.
(Source: Bloomberg)
