Photo: PGA.com
BY AAGD STAFF |
(January 10, 2019)
Stephen Curry, American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, usually makes things happen when he is involved, however, this is not the case for the golden one, this time. A new PGA event scheduled to be played Sept. 19-22 at Lake Merced Golf Club has effectively been canceled. The tournament was planned to be added to the schedule for Northern California, but on Tuesday, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that negotiations with potential sponsors Workday Inc., a Pleasanton, Calif., based financial management company, unexpectedly crumbled.
In a statement the PGA Tour said, “While it has been reported that sponsorship was the primary factor, this is untrue.” The bottom line is the short timeframe for creating an event in early fall of 2019 created the biggest obstacle.”
For the last several months, golf fans have eagerly awaited details of the Curry-hosted fall event, but with this unexpected news of the Tour being unable to find a replacement sponsor, and the short length of time, their hopes seemed dashed.
In anticipation of hosting the grand event, Lake Merced had planned to make $3.6 million in course upgrades, according to the report, and perhaps it is still possible that officials could find a sponsor in time for the start of the 2019-20 season.
In an effort of producing a PGA Tour event in the Bay Area, a Tour statement read: “We look forward to continuing discussions with Stephen Curry, his family’s foundation and other parties with the hopes of ultimately bringing a PGA Tour event to the Bay Area in the future.”
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“Sponsor dollars back all PGA Tour events and without their hefty support, tournaments simply would not happen,” said AAGD Publisher Debert Cook. The impact is clearly seen here. Curry, is one of the best players in the National Basketball Association. Many players and analysts have called him the greatest shooter in NBA history. Curry was the No. 1 golfer on the Charlotte Christian team in high school and is now a near-scratch golfer — a 1.2 index, according to Golf Digest. He is also the best golfer among current NBA players, and the No. 14 athlete overall, according to Golf Digest’s most recent ranking of pro athletes on the golf course. He even once shot 70 at the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links. In 2017 he received an exemption to play in the Web.com Tour Ellie Mae event.
