General Motors will end its sponsorship of the US PGA Tour’s Buick Open after this year, according to a report on Golfweek Magazine’s website.
The PGA Tour will announce a new sponsor and venue the week after the end of this year’s tournament, which runs July 30 to August 2 in Michigan. The GM-Buick Open partnership is the tour’s longest running.
“Buick doesn’t have the finances; GM (Buick’s parent company) can’t afford it,” Tom Pernice, a member of the Tour’s Player Advisory Council told Golfweek.
“From a perception standpoint, you can’t lay off all those people and then sponsor a golf tournament.
“They’ve supported us forever. It’s been a huge part of the Tour. I think a lot of people knew the writing was on the wall.”
GM has been a big supporter of the PGA Tour, at one point sponsoring four tournaments and being the presenting sponsor of another. The financial crisis has hit the company and its sponsorship portfolio hard. Golfweek reports that Larry Peck, Buick-GMC’s national promotions manager said the latest news has also called into question the future of the Buick Invitational, held in San Diego, and sponsored by the company since 1992.
