PGA Tour Inks Five-Year Deal Wtih Ginn Resorts For New Tourney

The PGA Tour has agreed to a five-year deal with Ginn Resorts to host a new tournament, the Ginn Classic at Tesoro, during the week of October 22-28.  Tesoro is a Ginn Resorts community in Port St. Lucie, Florida.  As part of the deal, the tournament will rotate throughout various Ginn Resorts properties.  The event, part of the Fall Schedule, replaces a tournament scheduled for Running Horse Golf & Country Club in Fresno, which is still under construction.  PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem: “Our intention, as those [construction] issues become resolved, is for Fresno to be a part of the schedule again in 2008 and beyond” (PGA Tour).  PGA Tour Senior VP & COO Henry Hughes said the Ginn Classic will have a purse of $4.5M, with $810,000 going to the winner.  He added that Ginn is “putting up the money.”  Hughes: “As we go forward over five years, we would like to have a title sponsor.  But for this year it will be Ginn Resorts.”  In West Palm Beach, Alan Tays notes the Ginn Classic will be held about 40 miles north of the site of The Honda Classic, which is played in the spring. But PGA Tour, Ginn and Honda Classic officials said that they “don’t view having two events in the same market as a problem.”  Hughes: “We typically wouldn’t put two events in a market, but we were in a bit of a difficult situation. … The Honda Classic has been very cooperative.  They understand the situation we’re in, and we just think that more golf breeds more success” (PALM BEACH POST, 6/15).  PGA Tour Senior VP/PR & Communications Bob Combs said that venues for the Ginn Classic in ’08 and beyond “won’t be decided until around the time the tournament is played this fall” (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 6/15).