Event could take Austin’s spot on schedule in 2024

The Cadence Bank Houston Open, which was unscheduled this fall in hopes of securing a more favorable spot on the PGA calendar, is set to replace the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event that was played in late March at the Austin Country Club since 2016.

Austin’s American statesman reported that the future of the match play event was “on a breathing machine” due to a dispute between the Austin Country Club and the PGA Tour over the amount that the club would receive to host the event. The tour paid the ACC $2 million last year and had offered $3 million this year, but it was rejected by the club. Negotiations have broken down and the parties have not met since August.

Golfweek described Astros owner Jim Crane as playing hardball in hopes of bringing the Houston event back to the regular schedule. The Astros Golf Foundation took over the Houston stop in 2019 and moved it to Memorial Park.

“We’ve always made it very clear with the PGA Tour that we want to be in the spring,” Giles Kibbe, president of the Astros Golf Foundation, told The Chronicle after the conclusion of the 2022 Houston Open in November. “Chances are we will be in spring sooner rather than later. But there are no guarantees at this point. We will just keep working towards that goal and hope to get there soon.

“Our main goal is to be one of the best events on the PGA Tour in the spring,” added Kibbe. “If it happens in 2024, great. If it’s 25 or 26, that’s fine too.

The Houston event was not on the fall 2023 schedule, which would make sense if Houston were to host in the spring of 2024.