The PGA Tour has announced a new multi-year renewal deal with its official marketing partner, United Airlines.
With this new deal, the firm will now also be labelled as the official airline of the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour until 2025.
This collaborative extension will also broaden the pledge to yearly award more than $500,000 in grants to 55 golf teams at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), shared evenly among the schools, to fund commute for golf tournaments and recruiting efforts. United will prize these organisations a total of $1.5 million in grants over the course of the multi-year renewal.
Executive Vice President, Corporate Partnerships, Brian Oliver, said, “On behalf of the PGA TOUR, I’m grateful to our longtime partner United Airlines for their continued support of our players and Tour as well as HBCU golf programs across the country. Partnering with a global leader like United has allowed us to make significant steps towards diversifying the landscape of competitive golf and enhancing the overall student-athlete experience.”
The HBCU grant programme, which was formed in early 2021 by the Tour’s HBCU task force, aims to boost the Tour’s partner network in order to recoup the financial stress that many HBCU golf programmes face. Student-athletes from all over the nation will also have direct exposure to United employees for mentorship and career coaching.
Jennifer Entenman, United’s Managing Director of Global Sponsorship and Inclusive Partnerships, commented, “We are immensely proud to continue our work with the PGA Tour to help remove barriers for collegiate athletes at HBCUs so that they can be given the same opportunities to fulfil their potential and pursue their dreams. United is committed to driving racial equity and inclusion and we have seen the profound impact these grants have on the communities we serve.”
Prairie View A&M Golf Coach, Mesha Levister, said, “Even in the short time that I’ve been at Prairie View A&M, United has saved us a tremendous amount of time and money just to be able to have access to go to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston to fly. Just to reduce costs of travel helps tremendously because now we can use those funds to give them a better experience as a student-athlete and a college golfer.”
United’s travel grants will benefit 55 existing HBCU golf programmes through the PGA Tour’s HBCU Grant Program.