PGA Tour's Season-Opener Getting New Name

Mercedes has been the title sponsor of the PGA Tour's winners-only season-opener in Hawaii since 1994, first as the Mercedes Championship, more recently as the Mercedes-Benz Championship.

But Mercedes' sponsorship is at an end. Beginning in 2010, SBS International - a division of the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) - takes over sponsorship of the season-opener.

It's a nice "get" for SBS, which was dumped earlier this year by the LPGA Tour as the LPGA's Korean broadcasting partner. SBS had long been the sponsor of the LPGA's season-opener in Hawaii, but when the LPGA signed a TV rights deal with a different Korean network, SBS' president said his company was finished sponsoring the LPGA event.

The renamed SBS Championship will continue to be played at Kapalua's Plantation Course, and SBS' sponsorship runs through 2019. The tournament field is limited only to tour winners from the previous season.