Sponsor Could Be Secured This Week For PGA Tour San Diego Open

Prospective Title Sponsor For San Diego Open Likely Looking For Just A One-Year Deal

It is still possible that a title sponsor "could be secured as early as this week" for the PGA Tour San Diego Open at Torrey Pines, according to Tod Leonard of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Century Club General Chair & President Tom Wornham yesterday said that he "still is in negotiations with corporations that would likely agree to sponsor the tournament for only" this year's event from January 28-31. Wornham: "We're still working on it, and I still believe there will be a sponsor. Obviously, this is not where I wanted to be [currently without a title sponsor]. Nor is it where I expected to be. But we're going to make the best of it. We have the financial backing to pull off the tournament in 2010." Wornham indicated that financial help from the PGA Tour as well as Century Club sales of corporate hospitality and pro-am spots have "been good enough to bring the tournament to a break-even point for this year, even if a title sponsor is not found." Tournament Exec Dir Tom Wilson said that $500,000 in hospitality "has been sold over the past couple of weeks." Leonard notes title sponsors generally invest between $7-10M annually in a regular tour event, "including paying for commercials during the TV broadcast, buying pro-am spots and putting up about 60[%] of the purse." But with "so little run-up exposure for a potential San Diego sponsor, the price tag figures to come at a deep discount now." Wornham: "A company is still going to benefit from the national presence and national TV audience. The whole tournament value proposition has not gone away. The question is where is that value?" Leonard writes the event "figures to get plenty of national attention in the wake of the Tiger Woods scandal." Woods, who regularly plays in the event, "will be missing" this year, but the tournament "marks the season debut" of Phil Mickelson (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/5).