Buick ended more than 50 years of PGA Tour sponsorship Tuesday when it announced that it no longer will sponsor golf tournaments in Michigan and California because of the court-ordered restructuring of parent General Motors.
The decision came two days after Tiger Woods won the Buick Open in Grand Blanc, Mich. Woods acknowledged the end of the tournament, which he won for the third time, by heaving his golf ball toward a massive gallery after his final putt.
The additional blow came with the end of the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, where Woods has won a record six times. The Buick Invitational is among the top tournaments in the early part of the PGA Tour schedule because it typically is the first event on network TV and has the highest TV rating because of Woods.
“While this is disappointing news, both the PGA Tour and Buick remain in discussions regarding future sponsorship possibilities,” Buick and the tour said in a statement.
The Buick Open will be replaced on the schedule next year by a new tournament at The Greenbrier in West Virginia, according to two officials with knowledge of the deal. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the tour does not plan to announce the new event until Wednesday. Golfweek was the first to report on The Greenbrier getting a tournament.
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