The Chubb Classic has an extension, will have another new home in Naples and has new leadership.
The PGA Tour Champions event announced a three-year extension with title sponsor Chubb. The 2021 tournament in February will not return to The Classics at Lely Resort for a third straight year but has a new venue in the works.
Doing the work to secure that will be someone else besides Octagon for the first time since 1999. Then named Advantage International, the company helped save the tournament with the pairing of then-named ACE Group, and that relationship continued through name changes for each.
But no longer.
Nevertheless, that new blood has a familiar name leading the way — Tim Erensen, who was the tournament director for Naples’ event for a couple of years, and remained with Octagon after that.
“It was one of the events that I hated walking away from 10 years ago when we kind of went out on our own and hung our own shingle and started our own business,” said Erensen, who is the managing partner for Eiger Marketing Group, where he’s been since 2010. “I’m very close and connected to the Naples community. My wife and I got married at LaPlaya.
“When the opportunity came for us at Eiger to get back involved, it was both personally and professionally a rewarding one for me.”
Eiger is a global marketing and event management agency that owns and/or operates professional golf tournaments in Los Angeles, Tampa Bay, and Atlantic City. Eiger also operates a number of other sporting and lifestyle events throughout the year and manages the sponsorship portfolio for several blue-chip clients.
“Florida’s Paradise Coast is the perfect fit for PGA Tour Champions, and the Chubb Classic is an integral component of the Tour’s early-season schedule,” said PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady in a release. “Chubb is a tremendous partner and I look forward to building on the rich history of professional golf in Naples.”
Erensen hopes to announce the 2021 venue in the next month or so. Nine different courses have hosted the tournament, with The Classics at Lely Resort doing so the past two years and in 1996.
“We have a three-year deal with the tour and a three-year deal that kind of matches that with Chubb,” he said. “We do not have a venue deal done yet.”
Next year will be the 34th tournament in Naples, the longest stretch of a Champions Tour event in one metropolitan area. The tournament, which started in 1988 at The Club Pelican Bay, has been by the likes of Gary Player, Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples, and Lee Trevino. Scott Parel is the 2020 champion. Chubb has been the title sponsor since 1999, and the purse remains at $1.6 million for 2021.
“We are pleased to extend our long-term sponsorship of the Chubb Classic,” said Chris Maleno, Senior Vice President, Chubb Group, Division President, North America Field Operations, in a release. “This event has grown over the years to become an important venue for us in hosting business sessions and meetings with some of our most important clients and distribution partners. The Naples community has embraced this event since it began in 1988, the players on tour look forward to playing it every year, and we are honored to be a part that tradition.”
Eiger has hired Scott Reid to run the Chubb, as well as the company’s LPGA Tour event, the Pelican Women’s Championship in the Tampa area.
“I’ve been in this kind of tour tournament world since 2006,” Reid said. “I started as a director of sales for the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. From there I’ve ran some different PGA Tour events and Champions Tour events.”
Reid comes to Eiger after running the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, and was working on the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island when Eiger made its offer.
“Tim and I have known each other for years and he just kind of had an opportunity, too good of an opportunity to pass up,” Reid said.
“Scott’s been a friend for a long time,” Erensen said. “He’s a guy that, from our business, we’ve kind of had on a short list to have an opportunity to have on the team.”
Reid is starting to look at moving to Southwest Florida, a place he said he’s somewhat familiar with through a few seasonal residents he’s visited over the years. And he knows the importance of the event he’s taking over.
“It definitely has a reputation of one of the best events on the PGA Tour Champions,” Reid said. “For as long as it’s been around, it really speaks volumes.
“I know the players really enjoy the Naples area. February is a great time of the year there. It’s a neat place. It’s obviously a golf destination and a lot of people that I come across at some point talk about Naples. It’s going to be exciting to be down there full time.”