One new tournament and two events with earlier dates highlight the 2010 US PGA Tour schedule announced Tuesday as a troubled economy caused some major turnover in sponsorships.
The Greenbrier Classic, replacing the Buick Open after the US carmaker dropped its backing of the Michigan event, will be staged at the site of the 1979 Ryder Cup from July 29-August 1 at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
The Tour has moved the FBR Open in Phoenix to the last week of February, a week after the World Golf Championships Match Play Championship in nearby Tucson as well as a US PGA Tour stop in Mexico.Also shifting will be the Turning Stone Resort Championship, which joins the regular schedule from the late-autumn line-up following the Tour Championship.
The Verona, New York, event will be played on August 5-8 while the world's top players take part in the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.Milwaukee's US Bank Championship lost its sponsor and folded, being replaced in the week opposite the British Open by the Reno-Tahoe Open, which had previously been staged opposite the Bridgestone Invitational.
Seoul Broadcasting System took over sponsorship of the season-opening PGA event in Hawaii, signing a 10-year deal as title sponsor for the winners-only event at Kapalua.The US Tour play-off format will remain the same as this year, when Tiger Woods captured the overall crown despite US rival Phil Mickelson claiming victory in the season-ending Tour Championship.
The play-offs begin two weeks after the PGA Championship with the Barclays in New York in late August, followed by the Deutsche Bank in Boston and BMW Championship in Chicago before an off-week ahead of the Tour Championship in Atlanta, which falls a week before the Ryder Cup in Wales.April brings the Masters to Augusta National, with the US Open at Pebble Beach in June, the 139th British Open at St. Andrews in July and the PGA in August at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
Woods will stage his PGA National at Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia in 2010 and 2011 while Congressional Country Club in Washington is renovated for its host role for the 2011 US Open.It remains on the US Independence Day holiday weekend and two weeks before the British Open.
