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GREENSBORO -- Officials with the Wyndham Championship are close to completing a deal that would end the PGA Tour event's 30-year run at Forest Oaks Country Club and likely return it to Sedgefield Country Club for this year's event.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said an agreement between the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation, the nonprofit group that runs the Wyndham, and the Nisshin Corp., which owns Forest Oaks, is expected to be announced in February.

The sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations, said time is rapidly becoming an issue in the deal with this year's tournament eight months away (Aug. 14-17). The sources say that, because of Sedgefield's image and proximity to Greensboro and Winston-Salem, tournament officials think they can sell significantly more corporate sponsorships to companies than they have at Forest Oaks.

A deal "needs to be done and done soon if we want to capitalize on the momentum," one source said.

Neither Bobby Long, chairman of the nonprofit group that runs the tournament, nor tournament director Mark Brazil could be reached Tuesday for comment. Club owner Tadashi Hattori did not return phone calls seeking comment, but he is scheduled to travel from New York to meet with the Forest Oaks board Thursday.

Sources say the last remaining hurdle to the deal is money -- how much would the nonprofit foundation have to pay to break its long-term contract with Forest Oaks? That figure could top $3 million because of a complex lease that runs through 2022.

The contract is long by PGA Tour standards. Charlotte's Wachovia Championship, for example, is in the midst of a five-year arrangement with Quail Hollow Country Club that expires in 2010.

The Greensboro Jaycees agreed to the Forest Oaks deal in 2003, shortly after a failed attempt to build a golf course in eastern Guilford County. Two years ago, the Jaycees turned over control of the struggling tournament to a nonprofit group of area business leaders, who inherited the contract.

The foundation's contract is structured so the group essentially pays no rent to Forest Oaks until 2013. Instead, the foundation must make installment payments -- roughly $200,000 a year -- on its share of Forest Oaks' $4 million redesign costs. Nisshin Corp. absorbed nearly 60 percent of those costs.

The final 10 years of the contract call for a traditional rent payment. Long and Brazil have declined to reveal the amount of those annual payments.

Sources at the foundation have said that because the tournament has struggled financially in recent years, the group can't afford to buy out the remaining balance of the contract. But foundation members, some of them among the wealthiest business leaders in the Triad, have a history of using their own money to support the tournament.

When Chrysler announced it was ending its sponsorship of the tournament two years ago, civic and private groups pledged a $25 million line of credit to the PGA Tour to sponsor the event in 2007-10 if a new title sponsor could not be found. Wyndham, which operates hotel and resort properties, replaced Chrysler as title sponsor in 2007 with a four-year agreement.

Several clubs in the Triad have expressed interest in playing host to the Wyndham, sources said, but they noted that Sedgefield remains the leading contender.

Sources said Long brought PGA Tour member David Toms to Greensboro last month to play the Donald Ross-designed course, which underwent a $3 million renovation last year.

Sedgefield officials have said they are interested in getting the tournament back. The club was host or shared that role at the Greater Greensboro Open for 26 of its first 36 years before the event moved to Forest Oaks in 1977.

Steve Mitchem, a spokesman for Sedgefield, said foundation officials have not talked with club officials since the fall.

"We want Sedgefield, but nothing's set in place," a source said. "There's been a lot of interest the past few months."

One longshot is Cardinal Country Club, which is coming off a redesign of its own -- more than $5 million worth to the clubhouse and the Pete Dye-designed course.

Cardinal owner John McConnell said Tuesday that he has had informal talks with Long: "I told him if they want to talk about another venue, I'd certainly be willing to listen."

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com