Bank of America Championship
 
     
   
 

PGA TOUR's Champions Tour

To learn more about the Champions Tour and its players, please view this video.

THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN 2008
 

  • The Champions Tour begins its 29th competitive season with 29 official events. Prize money will be $55.5 million, with the highest average purse ever ($1.91 million per official event).

  • The Champions Tour will welcome several former major champions to its ranks during the season as well as a number of former multiple winners on the PGA TOUR. Among the exempt players scheduled to debut in 2008 are:

    Player           
    Sandy Lyle
    Ian Woosnam
    Joey Sindelar
    Mike Hulbert
    Hal Sutton
    Gary Hallberg
    Dan Forsman
    Ken Green
    Larry Mize
    Blaine McCallister

    Birthdate
    February 9
    March 2
    March 30
    April 14
    April 28
    May 31
    July 15
    July 23
    September 23
    October 17

    		 First eligible event
    The ACE Group Classic
    Toshiba Classic
    The Cap Cana
    Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am
    FedEx Kinko’s Classic
    Bank of America Championship
    3M Championship
    U.S. Senior Open
    SAS Championship
    AT&T Championship

  • There will be one new event on the calendar in 2008. The Cap Cana Championship will be held at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Punta Espada Golf Club in the Dominican Republic from March 31-April 6.

  • Liberty Mutual will title sponsor the Legends of Golf event for the 30th straight year, the longest-running title sponsor on the Champions Tour and one of the longest in all of professional sports. This year’s Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf returns to a team better-ball format in the Legends Division for the first time since 2001 and will count as an official victory and official money for the first time for each team member.

  • The Champions Tour will play in 16 different states in the United States in 2008.

  • This year’s Senior PGA Championship will be played at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, NY, the site of the 1984 U.S. Senior Open. The 2008 U.S. Senior Open returns to the state of Colorado for the first time since 1993 and will be played at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. For the third consecutive year, the Senior British Open will be held in Scotland and this year will be played for the first time at Royal Troon, the event’s sixth different venue.


  • In 2008, 29 international players will have full or partial exemptions on the Champions Tour and 15 countries will be represented besides the United States.

  • GOLF CHANNEL will provide coverage of all rounds at 23 Champions Tour events in 2008, including all four rounds of the JELD-WEN Tradition, a major championship, and all four rounds of the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship. NBC will televise four official events, with ABC and CBS airing one Champions Tour event each.

  • Jay Haas will try to become the first player ever to earn Champions Tour Player of the Year honors three consecutive years. When Haas received his second straight Jack Nicklaus Trophy last year, he joined Jim Colbert (1995, 1996) and Hale Irwin (1997,1998) as back-to-back recipients of the honor. Lee Trevino was the first three-time Player of the Year (1990, 1992, 1994) and Hale Irwin earned his third Jack Nicklaus Trophy in 2002.

  • Jay Haas will also try to become the first player ever to claim three straight Arnold Palmer Awards as the Champions Tour’s leading money-winner. Last year, Haas joined Miller Barber (1981-82), Don January (1983-84), Bob Charles (1988-89), Dave Stockton (1993-94), Jim Colbert (1995-96) and Hale Irwin (1997-98) as players who have won back-to-back Palmer Awards.  January also won the first-ever money title in 1980 and Irwin was the circuit’s top money-winner in 2002. They are the only two players to collect three Palmer Awards in their careers. 

  • Last year, Loren Roberts claimed his second straight Byron Nelson Trophy for lowest scoring average, a first on the Champions Tour since Gil Morgan (2000-2001). Hale Irwin (1996, 1997, 1998) and Lee Trevino (1990, 1991, 1992) are the only players to claim three consecutive Nelson Trophies since the inception of the award in 1988.

  • Loren Roberts has an opportunity to become the first player to repeat as the winner of the Charles Schwab Cup. Last year, Roberts edged Jay Haas, the 2006 Schwab Cup winner, by 165 points in the season-long competition.

  • Jim Thorpe will try to extend his streak of years with at least one official victory. Thorpe’s win last year at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship marked his eighth straight season with at least one victory on the Champions Tour. Hale Irwin won at least one tournament in 11 straight seasons and both Miller Barber and Gil Morgan claimed titles in nine straight years.

  • Hale Irwin enters 2008 with an all-time record 45 career victories, including 19 wins after age 55. He will have an opportunity to become the oldest winner in Champions Tour history after he turns 63 on June 3. Mike Fetchick currently holds the mark as the circuit’s oldest winner, claiming the 1985 Hilton Head Seniors International on his 63rd birthday. Should Irwin win a tournament after April 30 this year, he would eclipse Gary Player’s all-time record for longest time between his first Champions Tour victory and his last (12 years, 9 months). Irwin’s first Champions Tour win came at the 1995 Ameritech Senior Open on July 30.

  • Hale Irwin has also finished among the top-10 on the money list for 12 straight seasons. Irwin is just five top-10s short of 200 for his Champions Tour career. Bob Charles holds the record for career top-10s on the Champions with 203.

  • Gil Morgan looks to extend his run of million-dollar seasons. Morgan has eclipsed the seven-figure mark in official earnings 11 straight years, an all-time record on the Champions Tour.

  • Will there finally be a repeat winner at The Principal Charity Classic? There have been seven different champions in Des Moines.

  • Bob Gilder starts the 2008 season with a streak of 93 consecutive starts. The last event Gilder missed was the 2004 Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn. Dana Quigley holds the all-time record for consecutive events played with an amazing 264 in a row.

  • Dale Douglass is just eight appearances shy of 600 in his Champions Tour career. Miller Barber is the only player to play in at least 600 events (603).

  • Jim Colbert needs to play in just five more tournaments to reach 1,000 combined career starts. Only eight other players have competed in at least 1,000 official PGA TOUR/Champions Tour events in their professional careers.

  • Loren Roberts kicks off the 2008 season riding a streak of 13 straight sub-par rounds while Fred Funk and Tom Kite will play in their first Champions Tour events in 2008 having strung together 10 straight sub-par rounds. D.A. Weibring starts his 2008 season with a streak of 17 consecutive par/better rounds dating back to the start of the 2007 SAS Championship. Mark O’Meara begins 2008 with a current streak of seven consecutive sub-70 rounds.

  • Mark Wiebe will start the season with a string of 234 consecutive holes without a three-putt.  He did not have a three-putt in any of his four starts.


  • The Champions Tour has had at least 20 different winners per season in 15 of the last 17 years and there has been at least five first-time winners every season since 1997. Rookies

  • Bernhard Langer, John Cook, and Mark Wiebe captured their first Champions Tour wins in ’07. With players like Jeff Sluman and Joey Sindelar playing their first full season on the Champions Tour as “rookies” and players like Mark O’Meara and Nick Price still searching for their first Champions Tour wins, will this trend continue? 

  • In five of the last six years, there have been a double-digit number of winners over the age of 55. The only exception was in 2006 when only eight tournaments were won by players 55 or older. The Champions Tour has also had a player over age 60 win an event in three of the last four years.


  • World Golf Hall of Famer Gary Player will begin his 55th season as a professional golfer. The winner of 163 titles worldwide, including 19 on the Champions Tour, Player turned professional in 1953 and won his first professional title in 1955, the East Rand Open in South Africa. His first PGA TOUR victory came at the 1958 Kentucky Derby Open.

Visit www.pgatour.com for more information about the Champions Tour.