PGA Tour’s long-standing Byron Nelson event gets new title sponsor replacing AT&T

Modified Sep 05, 2023 07:46 GMT

Byron Nelson event — PGA Tour's Byron Nelson Tournament

Finally, a new sponsor has been secured for the long-running Bryson Nelson tournament on the PGA Tour. The tournament was sponsored by AT&T from 2015 to 2023 and now the South Korean conglomerate CJ Group is the new title sponsor of the tournament.

On Tuesday, September 4, it was announced that the CJ Group will sponsor the competition for the ensuing ten years, beginning in May 2024.

The CJ was also associated with another PGA Tour event named the CJ Cup. It ran the first three editions of the championship which were held from 2017 to 2019 in South Korea before the tournament was relocated to the USA from 2020-22.

Speaking about their new deal, the CJ Group released a statement saying:

"Over the past three years that we've hosted our tournament in the United States, our sales and corporate image in the American market have grown exponentially. We've reached this decision to strengthen our marketing activities in the U.S. We're currently discussing ways to provide opportunities for Korean tour golfers to play at our event."

It is imperative to note that so far three South Korean players have won the Bryson Nelson Championship including Bae Sang-Moon (2013), Kang Sang-Hoon (2019) and Lee Kyoung-Hoon (2021 and 2022).

The next edition of the tournament will be held from May 2-5, 2024 and has a purse of $9.5 million.

Byron Nelson Championship's sponsors over the years

The Bryson Nelson Championship was established in 1944. It was given its name in honor of the late PGA Tour player Bryson Nelson, who also happened to be the first tournament winner.

It was initially called the Texas Victory Open and then was renamed to the Dallas Open. It went through several name changes before finally settling for the Bryson Championship in 1968.

GTE sponsored the event from 1988 until 2000, after which Verizon took over as title sponsor for a period of two years. From 2003 through 2008, EDS sponsored the event before HP took over. It was being sponsored by AT&T from 2015 to 2023.

Here are the sponsors of the Bryson Nelson Championship over the years:

AT&T Byron Nelson