U.S. Bank is one of the finest banks in the United States of America. U.S. Bank offers a wide range of services to its customers. Like many other organizations the U.S. Bank is a big name for supporting and hosting sports events. US Bank provides a wide array of financing and commercial banking services to auto, marine, and recreational vehicle dealers. US Bank is part of U.S. Bancorp. The most regular feature of the US Bank is the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee which is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played every year in July in the Milwaukee suburb of Brown Deer, Wisconsin.
The venue of the tournament is the Brown Deer Park Golf Course. The main sponsor of the tournament is U.S. Bancorp. The U.S. Bank Championship tournament is run by Milwaukee Golf Charities, Inc. All the proceeds from the tournament go to a range of Wisconsin charities. Professional golf in Milwaukee started from time to time with events in 1940 and 1951 and then for seven years from 1955-1961.
A strong reappearance of the tournament on the Tour was made in 1968. it was because the Greater Milwaukee Open competed against the British Open by offering a $200,000 purse with a $40,000 first prize. And also because, in order to help the reborn tournament, the 1968 U.S. Open winner, Lee Trevino, decided to play in the Greater Milwaukee Open instead of the British Open. U.S. Bank signed on as title sponsor in the year 2004. U.S. Bank and Milwaukee Golf Charities Inc. announced in 2006 that U.S. Bank will remain the sponsor for at least three more years.
The tournament has been played at the following golf courses in the Milwaukee area:
North Hills Country Club, Menomonee Falls, 1940, 1951, 1960-61
Blue Mound Golf Club, Wauwatosa, 1955
Tripoli Country Club, Milwaukee, 1956-9, 1971-72
North Shore Country Club, Mequon, 1968-70
Tuckaway Country Club, Franklin, 1973-93
Brown Deer Park Golf Course, Brown Deer, 1994-present.
Since 1989, the U.S. Bank Championship tournament has been nationally televised. Four days after winning his third consecutive U.S. Amateur title, Tiger Woods made his professional debut at the Milwaukee tournament on August 29, 1996.
As the U.S. Bank has announced that it will not renew its sponsorship after the 2009 event therefore the future of the tournament is in doubt. Aurora Health Care, the Secondary sponsor, has also announced that it will substantially cut back on its financial involvement. The organizers think and they do believe that it is not possible to carry on the tournament for more than the year if they lose the sponsorship of the U.S. Bank. The reasons given by U.S. Bank for pulling out of the event were low attendance, TV ratings and also its current slot on the PGA Tour schedule against the British Open. The U.S. Bank states that the championship is not getting much of an audience for the tournament as it is declining every year. Secondly, the ratings of the championship on the TV have also lowered.
This was a great thing that US Bank was doing for the promotion of sports. It should not have stopped supporting the U.S. Bank Championship as it would certainly discourage the local players of Milwaukee. Not only that, it would definitely create negative sentiments among the golf lovers and the general public about the US Bank. Although there have been others who have been donating generously to the championship, but still there was a sort of permanent source of finance. There was one philanthropist who donated generously for the championship and for golf before US bank started donating regularly.
