The planned PGA Tour event to be hosted by Golden State Warriors superstar guard Steph Curry has been scrapped -- at least for its intended premiere in the 2019-2020 PGA Tour season.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports the event, which was set to be announced by the Tour in as soon as two weeks, will not happen after all because of unexpected sponsorship issues.
The report from Ron Kroichick doesn't explain specifically what caused Workday, the potential title sponsor, to walk, but their exit makes the logistics of putting together a new event for September 2019 impossible.
The PGA Tour said in a statement for Kroichick's story that the rapid turnaround from announcement to balls in the air was the issue, not Workday's sponsorship issues. The eight-month window itself could have been a dealbreaker for Workday.
Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, Calif., had signed up to host the event after a member vote affirmed willingness to spend $3.6 million in upgrading the course to prepare it for hosting the PGA Tour -- after it hosts the LPGA Tour's second-year Mediheal Championship in the early spring. Management firm Octagon, which has been working with Curry on developing the event, agreed to subsidize the requisite upgrades to tune of $2.8 million. The timeline for completing the work was ambitious given the club's LPGA commitment.
Curry told the paper he and Octagon still have intentions of bringing this PGA Tour event to the schedule. It could happen in fall 2020 or fall 2021, and that would open up more available places to host the event. The initial thought was Curry could host the event at the recently renovated Corica Park South Course in Alameida, which has been lauded for the upgrades to the heavily trafficked public course. However, Curry could look at TPC Harding Park as a potential host now. The public course hosts the 2020 PGA Championship that May, and it could potentially welcome the PGA Tour 16 months later in fall 2021.
