Farmers Insurance must have liked what it saw at Torrey Pines in
its 10 days as a title sponsor. It decided Monday to sign up for
the next four years, filling an important hole of title sponsorship
in the PGATour schedule.
PGATour commissioner Tim Finchem did not disclose financial
terms, saying only that the purse next year would be $5.8 million,
an increase of $500,000 from this year.
The PGATour now has 15 tournaments with title sponsor
agreements through at least 2014, with 10 others signed through
2012.
Torrey Pines is regarded a prime tournament in the West Coast
Swing because it typically is the first to be shown on network TV,
and Tiger Woodsand Phil Mickelsonhave opened their seasons there
the last several years.
Buick had been the title sponsor since 1992 until GM filed
for bankruptcy.
"This is a very solid deal financially," Finchem said. "It
will allow us to increase the purse at the tournament starting next
year, which will get it squarely into the range of purse levels at
that time of the year on the PGATour."
He said prize money will increase during the four-year
agreement, and he expects the charitable contributions to grow.
Woods has not played Torrey Pines since winning the 2008 U.S.
Open, missing one year while recovering from knee surgery and this
year during his indefinite break from a sex scandal that has kept
him out of the game for the last four months.
Ben Crane won the Farmers Insurance Open this year.
Bob Woudstra, the chief executive of Farmers Insurance, said
Woods' history at Torrey Pines was not a deal breaker.
"We did not make an evaluation on any one player within the
tournament," he said. "We obviously know that Tiger is a big force
on the tour. But, really, we looked at it with a lot of the young,
upcoming players. And it's never going to be one person that makes
or breaks something."
