Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) To Spend $7 Million on Charlotte PGA Tournament

Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC) will be spending $7 million as the top financier of Charlotte, N.C.’s PGA Tour Event.

The San Francisco based bank is hoping to keep its name relatively anonymous next week at Quail Hollow Club as several legends including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and others battle for a $6.5 million purse in front of a sold out audience.

Wells Fargo is writing the biggest check of the tournament as its leads sponsor, but viewers on TV will only hear announcer’s promote the host club’s name at the Quail Hollow Championship.

Originally, Wachovia had been sponsoring the golf tournament, which had previously placed its name all over the event, calling it the “Wachovia Championship” from 2003 to 2008. Wells Fargo continued the tradition of sponsoring the event, but Wells Fargo removed its name from the event in 2009, likely to avoid a negative image from sponsoring a golf tournament while receiving federal bailout funds.

The agreement that Wachovia inherited from Wells Fargo call for the bank to continue to provide $7 million annually through 2014, part of a contract extension Wachovia signed in 2008.

“If I was Wells, I’d say, ‘It’s my money and I’ll spend it the way I want,’ ” says Terry Hanson, an industry consultant and former PGA Tour executive to the Charlotte Business Journal. “It’s when sponsors want their names on the toilet paper dispensers that you start to worry.”