Players approach Silverado's 11th hole during the first round of the 2021 Fortinet Championship. Photo: Stan Badz,PGA Tour
Deals that come together this fast are as rare as three-hour rounds in majors.
The agreement between the PGA Tour and Fortinet, one of the world’s leading cyber-security companies, took less than two months to complete. It created the Fortinet Championship, being played this week at the Silverado Resort in Napa, California, and, over the past year, spurred an acceleration of that company’s commitment to golf. It is the story of two sides eager to come together, of a tech company that saw a golf tournament as much larger than just a sporting event and, in the end, of perfect timing.
“It took 58 days, start to finish,” said Jay Voelker, the tour’s senior vice president of development. “The main contact at Fortinet, Jim Overbeck, and I never met face to face until the signing. That’s really unusual.”
First contact was January 2021. The deal was signed in March.
“There was another company that was alre...