Quicken Loans, PGA Tour near deal to bring event to Detroit in 2019

Quicken Loans said Tuesday the company is close to a deal that would bring the stars of the PGA Tour to Detroit.

Aaron Emerson, a spokesman for Quicken Loans, said via email that the company "is in the late stages of finalizing an agreement with the PGA TOUR to bring an event to Detroit beginning in 2019."

The home mortgage company based in Detroit and led by Dan Gilbert had been the main sponsor of The National tournament, played at Congressional Country Club near Washington, for the last four years but that deal ended after 2017.

There is no title sponsor for this year's event, according to the Washington Post, which will be played June 28-July 1 in Potomac, Md. The tournament is hosted by and benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation.

The Post reports that Woods wants to keep the event in the Washington area. In September, the PGA Tour released a schedule for 2018 which had The National slated for June 25-July 1 at a location to be announced.

Requests for comment from Detroit Golf Club and the PGA Tour have not been successful.

More: Could beefing up facilities bring the PGA Tour back to Detroit?

Where would the tournament be played?

Tom Gillis, a longtime PGA Tour player from Lake Orion, told the Free Press last month the Detroit Golf Club, just north of Highland Park, would be his best guess.

“I think if Gilbert is involved in anything, he would say it has to be in Wayne County,” Gillis said. “I don’t think he’d be interested in anywhere else. And the only logical place down there is Detroit Golf Club. PGA Tour facilities are so big. There’s a lot of infrastructure that you need, and the Detroit Golf Club’s got a big enough clubhouse."

In 2016, Quicken Loans tried to host a prime-time exhibition between Rickie Fowler, one of their pitchmen, against Rory McIlroy at Detroit Golf Club. But that never materialized.

But, Detroit Golf Club does not have a practice area and driving range suitable for hosting a PGA Tour event.

The PGA Tour has not visited Michigan in nine years when the Buick Open ended its run at Warwick Hills in Grand Blanc, where the golf pros played once a season from 1958-69 and again from 1977-2009.

Woods won the final Buick Open, his third time winning at Warwick Hills.