Host Tiger Woods is not attending this week's PGA Tour Quicken Loans National near DC, and that, combined with the ending of Quicken Loans' title sponsorship after '17, is "enough potentially to threaten the future of PGA Tour golf in Washington," according to Barry Svrluga of the WASHINGTON POST. Despite not being in attendance this week at TPC Potomac, Tiger Woods Foundation President & CEO Rick Singer said that Woods "wants to know everything that's going on." Singer: "I have a long list of texts from him today." But Svrluga writes what is "not here trumps what is." As for possible host sites in the future, Singer said the Tiger Woods Foundation is “having discussions in a lot of places, and we feel good about it.” Congressional Country Club is due to host in '18 and '20, and if TPC Potomac "holds up this week -- and early indications are that it will, with ease -- it would make sense to come back in '19." The event has "fallen into a squishy spot on the golf schedule: when the top international players (and some Americans) have headed across the Atlantic to prepare for the British Open." Many of the other elite players "simply decide to rest." People in Detroit "see hometown Quicken Loans as the sponsor and say, 'Why not bring it here?'" But Singer said, "We're fully confident we're going to move forward, just like we have before" (WASHINGTON POST, 6/30). GOLF DIGEST's John Feinstein wrote this is the "third time in seven years" Woods has not played in his own event, and the tournament "needs him to be present and involved." The future of the tournament in DC "probably depends on Woods." Feinstein: "The question is this: Does Woods want to do the work needed to keep the event alive?" (GOLFDIGEST.com, 6/29).
