Safeway, the supermarket chain, has signed a five-year contract to replace Frys.com as title sponsor of the PGA Tour’s annual season opener on the North Course at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa.
The tournament, in which rookie Emiliano Grillo defeated Kevin Na in a playoff last Sunday, will be known as the Safeway Open beginning in 2016.
“This is great news,” said tournament host Johnny Miller, the NBC golf analyst and 25-time winner on the PGA Tour. “I am thrilled the tournament will remain at Silverado where I lived for many years with my family on the North Course, and have developed so many special lifelong friends and memories.”
Fry’s Electronics had sponsored the tournament since 2007, first at CordeValle Resort in San Martin, near San Jose, and then when the event moved to Silverado last year.
At some point, the tournament was expected to be move to The Institute, a private club in Morgan Hill owned by Fry’s Electronics founder John Fry. However, the course’s clubhouse is not yet compete and a Frys.com spokesman said the company is taking a break from golf sponsorship, but might return in the future.
Safeway served as title sponsor of the LPGA Tour event in Portland, Ore., from 1996-2013 and its parent company, Albertsons, is title sponsor of the Albertsons Boise Open on the Web.com Tour.
