CHARLOTTE (AP) – Truist Financial Corp. is taking over as title sponsor for the PGA Tour’s signature event at Quail Hollow Club with a seven-year commitment, which includes a one-year detour in 2025 to Philadelphia Cricket Club.
The deal secures top-level golf in Charlotte, North Carolina, after Wells Fargo decided not to renew its sponsorship.
The Truist Championship will be the fourth name of the tournament that began in 2003 and immediately grew into a top tournament mainly through word-of-mouth from players who raved about Quail Hollow Club.
Quail Hollow is holding the PGA Championship for the second time next year. Truist and the PGA Tour chose to take the tournament to Philadelphia Cricket Club and its century-old Wissahickon Course.
The tournament went to Eagle Point in Wilmington, North Carolina, when Quail Hollow hosted the PGA Championship in 2017. It went to the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Maryland in 2019 when Quail Hollow had the Presidents Cup.
“Securing this event and keeping it here in Charlotte has been really, really important and needs to be celebrated for Truist and Quail Hollow Club and the overall greater Charlotte region. This event has a strong reach,” said Bill Rogers, chairman and CEO of Truist Financial.
Truist is the result of the largest bank merger since the 2008 recession, combining BB&T and Sun Trust.
The seven-year deal assures the PGA Tour having a signature event at Quail Hollow, the club run by Johnny Harris, who has spared no expense over the years.
“The PGA Tour cannot host our events without a title sponsor that makes a multiyear commitment,” Commissioner Jay Monahan said. “When you’re building a championship, when you’re building a presence, when you’re constantly looking to improve, to have that certainty with … the golf course so that the Harrises can continue to plan and know that they have their respective commitment, that’s exceedingly important.”
He said the seven-year deal was a term Truist and the tour felt was the right start and “the right statement to make to the Charlotte community.”
The Truist Championship now is among the eight signature events that offer a $20 million purse, with $3.6 million going to the winner, and a limited field with no cut. Rory McIlroy won last year over Xander Schauffele.
The signature events get the strongest fields, though they are not mandatory. Quail Hollow last year fell one week before the PGA Championship on the PGA Tour’s schedule. The 2025 schedule has not been released.
Wachovia was the inaugural title sponsor in 2003 through 2008. The tournament did not have a title sponsor until Wells Fargo took over in 2011. The bank chose not to renew late last year amid reports it was not interested in the rising cost. The purse went from $9 million in 2022 to $20 million as a signature event the next two years.
The PGA Tour also is taking over management of the tournament from Pro Links Sport. Now it goes to the Championship Management arm of the tour, which also runs events like the Presidents Cup, The Players Championship and the Tour Championship.
The announcement is the second in the last few weeks on replacing title sponsors. Procore is replacing Fortinet as the title sponsor of the Napa, California, tournament that starts the fall portion of the PGA Tour schedule.
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