The PGA Tour event at Colonial Country Club in May will be named the Ft. Worth Invitational, as Dean & DeLuca has officially "pulled out of its title-sponsor commitment several years early," according to Mac Engel of the Ft. Worth STAR-TELEGRAM. Colonial is "still looking for a long-term solution to secure its future on the Tour." The last time the tournament "did not have a title sponsor" was '95. The "Ft. Worth Invitational" name was a "thank you to the city, and specifically Mayor Betsy Price, for their efforts to secure the money necessary to hold an event" that began in '46. Price was a "big player in recruiting companies American Airlines, XTO, AT&T and BNSF to be contributing sponsors to keep The Colonial, by any name, intact for this year." Sources said that those four respective companies "all contributed" $2M each to "help make" the '18 event possible. Colonial is "picking up a large amount of the final sum, too." But all four of those companies said that their contributions to Colonial is a "one-time instance." For '19, the club has a "pair of potential title sponsors in mind, and Tour officials are working in conjunction with Colonial to keep The Colonial on its regularly scheduled location on the spring calendar, sometime in May." This year's event is scheduled for May 24-27. Club officials and Tour leaders were "still negotiating with representatives of D&D as long as possible in hopes that a middle ground could be reached." But club officials "could not even reach D&D representatives, and eventually gave up and just waited for the breach of contract date to arrive to officially change the name of the event" (STAR-TELEGRAM.com, 3/8).
