Photo: Sebastian Kahnert, Getty Images
Tour naming rights are tricky. The European Tour becoming the DP World Tour is a way, through gobs of money, for Dubai Ports to formalize and legitimize the Emiratis’ connection and association with Europe and the rest of the world. But others, like Web.com and Korn Ferry, bought naming rights to increase their brand exposure and name recognition.
That was certainly true for Symetra. Let’s face it: if you didn’t get your insurance through Symetra, you’d likely never heard of it until the company sponsored the Symetra Tour, the “Road to the LPGA.”
That is not true of the latest entrant into the field. On Wednesday morning, the LPGA announced that Epson, one of the oldest and most respected office equipment brands, had taken over as the new title sponsor for the developmental tour. What was the Symetra Tour is now, and will be for the next five years, the Epson Tour.
“It’s great to have a global brand look at what we’ve been doing and say, ‘That’s something we want to be a part of,’” said Mike Nich...