WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Greenbrier officials know their PGA event will be shifting away from the week of July 4 next year. They’re just not sure what the new date will be.
“The date is definitely changing,” tournament director Habibi Mamone told MetroNews “Talkline” on Thursday. “Rumor has it we might be the last week of September or the first week in October. But we don’t know.”
With the unveiling of next season’s PGA Tour schedule expected within days, the anticipation is growing — accompanied by anxiety over how sponsorships and volunteers would be impacted by direct competition with college football and the NFL.
If the recently renamed Military Tribute at the Greenbrier shifts to the fall, it technically would mark the start of the 2019-20 season.
The inaugural Greenbrier tournament in 2010 was staged in late July, and in 2012 it moved to the week of Independence Day, where it has remained ever since.
Regardless where the new date lands, Mamone said “we’re looking forward to a bigger and better tournament next year.” She suggested the fall date could open up the field to high-profile players who currently are preparing for the British Open.
PGA rules official Slugger White, a Beckley native, said the scheduling move could remove the deterrent of summer-time heat. Temperatures climbed into the 90s during Wednesday’s pro-am.
“The weather would be perfect — you know how nice it is here in the fall,” White said. “They’ve got a good volunteer base and hopefully everybody would come back.”