ARLINGTON -- The Rangers are helping to bring professional golf to the city of Arlington.

The Texas Rangers Golf Club will be the site of the Veritex Bank Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. The joint venture was announced on Tuesday at Globe Life Park.

The tournament will be held April 16-19, 2020, with a $600,000 purse and 156 golfers expected to compete. The Korn Ferry Tour is the development phase of the PGA Tour, a la the Minor Leagues. The Los Angeles-based company took over sponsorship earlier this year after previously being known under different names, including the Ben Hogan Tour and the Nationwide Tour.

“Tournaments on the Korn Ferry Tour are truly community events,” said Alex Baldwin, president of the Korn Ferry Tour. “We are going to create a tournament that the city of Arlington can be tremendously proud of and can take ownership of. We have seen what professional golfers have done from this tour, and we are excited about their future.”

The Korn Ferry Tour is a pathway to the PGA Tour. There are 50 PGA Tour cards available through the Korn Ferry Tour. There are 25 reserved for the leading point-earners at the end of the 24-event regular season, and then 25 at the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals after the regular season.

“I can’t tell you how excited we are to be a part of this event,” said Malcolm Holland, CEO of the Dallas-based Veritex Community Bank. “I just think this region needs a tournament like this. We didn’t know where we were going to have to it, but lo and behold, here comes the city of Arlington. They do everything right in sports. They get it. This is going to be perfect.”

Five players from the Korn Ferry Tour’s Class of 2018 went on to win recent PGA Tour titles: Cameron Champ ('18 Sanderson Farms Championship), Adam Long ('19 Bob Hope Desert Classic), Martin Trainer ('19 Puerto Rico Open), Max Homa ('19 Wells Fargo Championship) and Dylan Frittelli ('19 John Deere Classic). Other notable PGA Tour players who started on the Korn Ferry Tour include Majors champions Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Bubba Watson and Zach Johnson.

“Golf is an incredible game, and that golf course is perfect for this,” said Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams. “It’s an incredible place. We all know the history of the [AT&T] Byron Nelson [tournament, held in Dallas] and the Colonial [Charles Schwab Challenge tournament, held in Fort Worth], and we want to add to it with the Korn Ferry Tour. We are looking forward to the opportunity to making this tournament special.”

The tournament will be managed by Dallas-based Anera Sports LLC and its chief operating officer, Rob Addington, who was executive director of the Texas Golf Association from 2001-2018.

“Next year, the road to the PGA Tour will run through Arlington,” Addington said.

To celebrate the announcement, a closest-to-the-pin tournament was held on the field of Globe Life Park. The winner was Rangers pitcher Taylor Guerrieri.