GM to return to pro golf sponsorship - sources

Tue, Nov 30 10 12:46 AM

General Motors Co will return to sponsoring professional golf after severing its ties with the sport during its 2009 financial crisis, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Monday.

GM's luxury brand Cadillac will sponsor a golf event at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa near Miami, the sources said.

The event will be played on the Blue Monster course at Doral, once the site of the Doral Open, a PGA golf tournament location until 2006.

An announcement of the pairing of GM and a World Golf Championship event will came later Monday, according to the sources, who were not authorized to speak about the deal before the announcement.

In August 2009, GM ended its sponsorship of two major Professional Golf Association tournaments, the Buick Invitational and the Buick Open.

GM also dropped Tiger Woods as a pitchman in a cost-cutting move in November 2008.

GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick, hired from Hyundai Motor Co early this year, has said he wants to bring the automaker back as a sponsor for some of the high-profile events that it dropped during its financial crisis, including golf and football's Super Bowl.

GM returned as a listed company earlier this month with a $23 billion initial public offering of stock that paid back some of the U.S. government's investment in the company.

Source: Published>