When one door closes, another opens. After months of speculation, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational is formally ending after 2018, leaving a gap in Akron, Ohio and the greater Cleveland area after a 65 years of the PGA Tour coming to Firestone Country Club's South Course in some fashion.
The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational will become the WGC-FedEx in Memphis starting in 2019. The PGA Tour is set to make that announcement on April 12. However, before that announcement was made, PGA Tour Champions -- the 50-plus circuit under the Tour umbrella -- announced its Senior Players Championship has both a new title sponsor and a new home through 2022.
The Bridgestone Senior Players Championship will be played at Firestone Country Club's South Course in Akron beginning in 2019, with a July 11-14 date in 2019 offering fans a chance to see many of the players who competed in the various PGA Tour events at Firestone over the years. Among the 78-player field last year at Caves Valley in Baltimore, 57 players competing at Firestone in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational or NEC World Series of Golf.
The winner of the Bridgestone Senior Players earns a spot in the next year's Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
Constellation Energy ends its run as sponsor of the Senior Players, which had moved around to great courses in the company's geographic footprint, including Philadelphia Cricket Club, the aforementioned Caves Valley and this year's host, Exmoor Country Club in Chicago.
