Frozen food specialist Sanderson Farms has sealed a three-year title sponsorship of the PGA Tour event at Annandale Golf Club in Madison, Mississippi following a successful trial at the 2013 edition.
The prize fund for the tournament will increase from $1m (€758,000) to $4m and officials have also announced that the Sanderson Farms Championship will move from its July slot to a late October berth at the early stages of the PGA Tour’s 2014-15 schedule, the same week as the World Golf Championship competition in China.
The switch means the event will not be contested on the 2013-14 calendar. For the past three years it has taken place during the same week as The Open, the second of golf’s four annual major championships.
Andy Pazder, the PGA Tour’s chief of operations, said: “In regard to moving to the front of the schedule, we anticipate a number of players will use this as an opportunity to get out of the gates fast and strengthen their early standing in the FedExCup.”
Sanderson Farms plans to increase its activation around the tournament through hospitality, signage and branding on tee markers, while the sponsorship also allows an expansion of its charity work with Friends of Children’s Hospital – a non-profit organisation aiding the Blair E Batson Hospital for Children at the University of Mississippi Medical Centre.
PGA Tour veteran Woody Austin is the tournament’s defending champion having won the event in July.