Champions Tour Notebook: Watson is the Player of the Month for July
For the fourth time in his career, and first since July 2003, Tom Watson has been named the Champions Tour’s Player of the Month for July on the strength of a win and two top-five finishes in senior majors.
Watson opened the month by tying for third in the Ford Senior Players Championship, where he posted scores of 66-72-70-68 for a 12-under 276 total and winnings of $165,000, and ended it by tying for fifth in the U.S. Senior Open, where recorded scores of 68-65-73-71 for a 7-under 277 total and earnings of $93,100.
In between, Watson won the Senior British Open at Royal Aberdeen in Scotland. Watson posted rounds of 75-71-64-70 for 4-under 280 total and winnings of $274,240.62.
TRADITION DONATION: The Jeld-Wen Tradition Foundation will donate a total of $30,000 to all of this year’s Champions Tour major championship winners as well as 2004 Tradition champion Craig Stadler, tournament officials have announced. Each of the five major winners has chosen a charity for the proceeds to benefit.
Stadler earmarked his $10,000 to Disabled Sports USA, while Senior PGA Champion Mike Reid directed his $5,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of Utah County. Ford Senior Players Champion Peter Jacobsen returned his $5,000 to the Jeld-Wen Tradition Foundation, which supports K-12 education in the state of Oregon, while Senior British Open Champion Tom Watson sent his $5,000 to Children?s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and U.S. Senior Open Champion Allen Doyle earmarked his $5,000 to the First Tee program of Troup County in Georgia.
In the Tradition’s two-year history in Oregon, the tournament has donated $470,500 to educational programs for kindergarten through high school aged students based on partnerships and vision for improving education in Oregon by engaging students in learning.
FLORIDA EVENT GETS A NEW HOME: The Raven Golf Club in Sandestin, Fla., has been selected as the new home of the Boeing Championship at Sandestin, tour officials have announced. The $1.6 million event, formerly known as the Blue Angels Classic, will be played May 12-14, 2006.
The Boeing Company and Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort have partnered with the Champions Tour for the tournament, to be held annually Mother?s Day week in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
The tournament, also previously known as the Emerald Coast Classic, was held for the past 11 years at The Moors Golf Club in Milton, Fla., and raised over $2 million for a variety of charities in northwest Florida. Jim Thorpe is the defending champion.
Beginning in 1998, the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort has been implementing a 10-year, $400 million master redevelopment plan that kicked off with the development of The Raven Golf Club, followed by The Village of Baytowne Wharf, which completed the Sandestin resort experience with its restaurants, shops and accommodations.
The Raven GC is a Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed course that opened in March 2000 and measures almost 7,000 yards from the championship tees with a par of 71. The Raven was named “Best New Course In Florida” in 2000 and “No. 1 Course in Northwest Florida” by Florida Golf News. The course has received a four-star rating from Golf Digest’s Places To Play in 2002 and 2004.
SAS EXTENDS IN CAROLINA: SAS has extended its title sponsorship of the SAS Championship through 2009, tournament officials have announced. SAS has served as title sponsor since the tournament?s inception in 2001.
The fifth annual SAS Championship takes place Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2005, at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, N.C., where Craig Stadler is the defending champion. Prestonwood will continue to host the event through 2009.
The players will play for a purse of $1.9 million in 2005 and $2 million starting in 2006, giving this event one of the largest non-major purses on the senior circuit.
SOUTH OF THE BORDER: The Champions Tour and ClubCorp are teaming up for a new senior circuit event next spring in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, tour officials have announced. The event, to be called the Puerto Vallarta Championship, will be played Mar. 30-Apr. 2, 2006, on the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course at Vista Vallarta Golf Club.
The 54-hole stroke-play tournament will feature a 78-player field and official prize money of $1.6 million, with the winner collecting $240,000. The official competition will be preceded by two days of pro-am play sponsored by First Data Corp., and the three days of competition will air on the Golf Channel.
Vista Vallarta Golf Club is managed by ClubCorp. It opened for play in 2001 and hosted the 2002 WGC-EMC World Cup, which the Japanese team of Shigeki Murayama and Toshi Izawa won.
The Champions Tour currently has 28 tournament agreements in place for the 2006 season, the same number of tournaments that are on this year?s schedule.