Aon backs new PGA Tour, LPGA competition

Professional services firm Aon has signed a multi-year partnership with the PGA Tour and the Ladies Professional Golf Association to sponsor a new season-long competition that will be contested across the men’s and women’s schedules.

The Aon Risk Reward Challenge will highlight golfers as they tackle strategically challenging holes on the PGA Tour and LPGA calendars.

The first-of-its-kind competition will see the top player at the end of the PGA Tour and LPGA season receive $1m (€848,000) each. Aon will become the official risk, retirement and health advisor of the PGA Tour and the official professional services firm of the LPGA.

The Aon Risk Reward Challenge will be promoted by the CBS network and Golf Channel, as well as PGA Tour and LPGA digital platforms. Aon will be given the chance to take clients and colleagues to exclusive experiences and business networking events as part of the agreement.

The competition will run across 28 PGA Tour and 30 LPGA regular-season tournaments, with final details on scoring and the schedule of holes to be released later this year.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said: “The Aon Risk Reward Challenge is an authentic fit for our sport that will resonate with players and fans while providing Aon an intuitive way to reinforce how their firm creates value for its clients.”

LPGA commissioner Mike Whan added: “The Aon Risk Reward Challenge will bring an exciting new season-long competition to our Tour with a very significant $1m prize for our winner. The fact that Aon is providing equal prize money for the men and women has made a huge statement to our players, and we couldn’t be more appreciative.”