The Valero Texas Open announced a 10-year renewal for its title sponsor on Wednesday, a deal that will run through 2028 and will see the San Antonio event join the “spring sequence of events” preceding the Masters beginning in 2019.
Valero Energy Corporation has sponsored the event at TPC San Antonio since 2002, and now that partnership will extend for the next decade. The renewal also covers the tournament’s 100th anniversary in 2022, and ensures it remains the PGA Tour’s oldest event that has remained in the same city since its inception.
The renewal also includes an important date change, as the tournament will be held the week before the Masters in 2019. While it has shifted dates from March to May in recent years, it has directly preceded the season’s first major only once, when Martin Laird won in 2013.
“Valero is excited to renew its partnership with the PGA Tour through the next decade while securing a desired spot among the events leading up to the Masters Tournament,” said Valero president and CEO Joe Gorder in a release. “The tournament has provided a wonderful platform to rally San Antonio, and Texas as a whole, around a common goal of giving back.”
Valero’s move is one of many pieces that will shuffle with the re-worked schedule in 2019. That’s the year that the Players Championship will move from May to March, with the PGA Championship shifting from August to May. More changes are expected to follow as the PGA Tour considers a calendar shift that could see the season-ending Tour Championship played over Labor Day weekend.
It remains to be seen what impact Valero’s move will have on the Houston Open, which has been held the week before the Masters 10 of the last 11 years and will again hold that spot on the schedule in 2018. The tournament lost its title sponsor, Shell, this year and the host course, Golf Club of Houston, sustained significant flood damage during Hurricane Harvey.
Source: Internet
