PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem yesterday confirmed that the location and title sponsor for next year’s WGC-Match Play Championship "remains unknown," according to Rex Hoggard of GOLFCHANNEL.com. Accenture's title sponsorship ended with the completion of the tournament yesterday, and Finchem said, "We're looking at a lot of different options, talking to a lot of different potential sponsors." But as for "where the event could end up in 2015 the commissioner would not speculate, saying that the circuit has not ruled out potentially returning to the Tucson area or even the possibility of taking the event overseas." Finchem also "left open the possibility of a format change for the event." He "expects that by April the Tour would have something more concrete" (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 2/23). In Tucson, Greg Hansen wrote with four matches on Saturday, there were "probably 12,000 people" at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain, "most of them watching nothing." Match play is "a lot like a 'Seinfeld' plot. Nothing happens." Hansen: "When the World Golf Championship people finally arrange for a new sponsor and a new location -- although I wouldn’t be shocked if nothing happens (again) and Match Play vanishes from the PGA Tour schedule altogether -- we might realize how naïve we were to support this event" (ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 2/23). Hansen writes there is a 90% chance the tournament "leaves Tucson" and a 1% chance Accenture "remains as a WGC umbrella sponsor at perhaps" $10-15M a year. At the "annual Saturday night Accenture gala, Accenture’s presence was about half of previous tournaments." Hansen: "They’ve got both feet out the door." Finally, there is a 75% chance that TPC Harding Park in S.F. will be the tournament's "next location" (ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 2/24).
