PGA Tour Announces Honda Replacement After Longest-Serving Sponsor Walks Away

Following the news earlier this year that Honda would be ending its long-time association with the Classic, the PGA Tour announced on Tuesday that Cognizant would be taking over the south-Florida based tournament as title sponsors.

The IT services company - based out of Teaneck, New Jersey - has signed a six-year contract which starts in 2024, when the newly-named Cognizant Classic takes place between February 29 and March 3 at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Last year's tournament - which was won by Chris Kirk in a thrilling playoff against PGA Tour rookie, Eric Cole - took place in between two 'Elevated Events', the Genesis Invitational and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and was widely skipped by many of the big names as they opted to prepare for the latter and the Players Championship with a week's rest.

Yet the Seminole Pro-Member, which took place in its traditional slot of the Monday after what was the Honda Classic, featured nine more of the world's top-20 players at the time than the event at PGA National the week prior.

Patrick Cantlay returned to defend the trophy he won in 2022, while Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and his dad, Gerry, Xander Schauffele, Max Homa, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau, Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young, Sungjae Im, Billy Horschel, and Shane Lowry all teed it up at Seminole Golf Club as well.

To ensure more events have a fair chance at attracting more of the world's top talent, Signature Events - as they will be known in 2024 - have been spaced out more evenly and take place almost once a month.

Despite Honda's association with the PGA Tour coming to an end, the company remains the sponsor of the Honda LPGA Thailand, which it first sponsored in 2006.

Honda is not the only big business to walk away from the PGA Tour recently, with Wells Fargo announcing it would no longer be sponsoring its self-titled championship past the end of next season.

The Wells Fargo Championship, which will serve as one of eight Signature Events in 2024, has held the name since 2011 but was forced to walk away due to the increased costs of hosting premier events on the PGA Tour.

According to the Sports Business Journal, Wells Fargo made an offer in excess of $20m to host the tournament and even proposed dropping to a regular Tour event, rather than a signature event, to maintain its title sponsorship.

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