The North Carolina General Assembly is offering up to $40M in an “attempt to keep the Wyndham Championship in the top tier” of the new two-tiered alignment the PGA Tour is moving to in 2028, according to Elizabeth Egan of the TRIAD BUSINESS JOURNAL. The General Assembly “plans to appropriate an additional” $30M over the next three fiscal years, on top of the $10M already appropriated in the recently passed 2026-27 state budget, provided that the “requirements of the agreement are met.” The bill states that the PGA Tour would “have to enter into a binding agreement with the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation,” which runs the Wyndham Championship, requiring the tour to “hold at least four annual ‘qualifying events.’” The bill notes that among those events is a “PGA Tour Championship Series Event that is held for the highest tier ranking of professional golfers.” The latest funding comes as the future of the Greensboro tournament has “been put into question” after the PGA Tour announced changes to its structure in late June (TRIAD BUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/28).
CHECK-OUT TIME: SBJ’s Josh Carpenter notes Wyndham’s sponsorship of the tournament has been one of the longest on the PGA Tour, with next week’s event being its 20th year as title. But the company is not expected to renew heading into next year, and sources indicated the tour is close to lining up a new partner. Should a new sponsor come aboard and the Greensboro event be elevated to the Championship level, it likely would follow the same path as the newly sponsored Sompo tournament. That event will be a full-field tournament in 2027 with 144 players, followed by a Championship Series event in 2028. In addition to the host course Sedgefield Country Club, industry chatter has been that the tour could potentially look at other Greensboro-area options. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has not shied away from stark change to the schedule, and it’s also not out of the realm of possibility to see the tournament moved to a different part of the calendar. The tournament in some years has been plagued by rainy conditions, in addition to North Carolina’s hot and humid August climate. The event moved to August in 2003, whereas in prior years it was staged in April or May (Josh Carpenter, SBJ).