Tyre manufacturer Bridgestone has reached an agreement with golf’s PGA Tour to become the title sponsor of its inaugural America’s Golf Cup.
The event will take place at Pilar Golf Club in Buenos Aires Argentina from October 20-26 and feature members of the PGA Tour Latinoamérica alongside PGA Tour stars such as Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar, Angel Cabrera (pictured) and Andres Romero.
Woods and Kuchar will represent the USA and Cabrera and Romero will play for their native Argentina in a four-ball tournament, with Peru, Guatemala, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Spain, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe and Uruguay the other eligible nations pursuing a $600,000 purse.
The agreement expands Bridgestone’s established presence in golf. It is the official tyre of the PGA Tour and Champions Tour through to 2018, while its wholly-owned subsidiary Bridgestone Golf produces golf balls, clubs and accessories. The recently completed World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational marked the company’s ninth year of title sponsorship since 2006 and its terms for that showpiece event also run through to 2018.
International golfers including Kuchar, Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Nick Price, Brandt Snedeker, Karrie Webb and Paula Creamer are sponsored by Bridgestone.
It is the title sponsor of regional club football competition the Copa Libertadores and Gabriel Asbun, president of Bridgestone Latin America Tire Division, said: “An event that captures leading athletes and exemplifies top performance is a venue through which we want Latin America to know our leading products ranging from all types of tyres to golf and other sporting goods, as well as building products.”
The terms of Bridgestone’s sponsorship for the America’s Golf Cup were not disclosed.
In other news, men’s shaving cream brand Barbasol has been announced as the title sponsor of a new PGA Tour tournament in the US state of Alabama.
Under a four-year deal, the inaugural Barbasol Championship will be held at the Grand National – Lake Course, part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, on July 13-19, 2015. The course is located near the city of Opelika, with the new event marking the first PGA Tour tournament in Alabama since the 1990 PGA Championship was held at Shoal Creek in Birmingham.