As part of a new title sponsorship deal, Dell Inc. will bring the World Golf Championships-Match Play event to a yet-to-be announced Austin-area golf course starting in 2016, according to a Tuesday announcement from theInternational Federation of PGA Tours.
As part of the deal, the event will be rebranded as the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play. Round Rock-based Dell is already an official sponsor of the 2015 World Golf Championships-Cadillac Match Play, set for April 29 through May 3 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.
The 2016 event will be held the week of March 21 through March 27 — right after the South By Southwest music, film and technology festival. According to the announcement, a host course will be revealed in the near future.
Austin has not hosted a PGA-level event since 2009, when it hosted the Triton Financial Classic at The Hills Country Club in Lakeway. That event had called Austin home since 2003, when it was founded as the Kinko’s Classic of Austin. Before that, Austin was also host of the Legends of Golf tournament from 1978 through 1994.
Dell is relatively new to the world of golf sponsorship, but it has in the past sponsored Formula 1 teams and America’s Cup sailing teams. The company was a big sponsor of U.K.-based Caterham racing from 2012 until late in 2014 when the race team folded under fiscal strain. As of October, Caterham owed Dell more than $1.1 million.
The lure of a PGA-level event is also one of the selling points behind a 700-acre golf courseproposed to be built at Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park in East Austin. No word yet on how the presence of a PGA golf event in Austin might impact that proposal.
