GOLF – Champions Tour's Total Purse Increase To $54 Million – October 9, 2006

The representatives of the Champions Tour held a meeting this week-end in Ponte Vedra Beach. They announced that the 50-and-over Tour will play 29 official events next season, with the total purse growing to $54 million for a record average of $1.86 million per tournament.

The next season is likely to be thrilling with many top players such as Mark O'Meara, Nick Price, Nick Faldo, Jeff Sluman, John Cook, Seve Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer, who will turn 50 in 2007.

All 29 events will be aired on national television, with 22 tournaments airing on The Golf Channel. Five events will be broadcast Saturday and Sunday on NBC, with ABC and CBS each televising one tournament. The five majors will be on network TV. Besides twenty four of the 29 tournaments on the 2007 schedule are already committed through at least 2008, while other are even extended as far as 2010 and 2011.

For the 11th times in a row, the tour will open in January with the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai and the Turtle Bay Championship on Oahu in Hawaii. The season will end in late October with the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Sonoma in California.

The Tour made several changes. For instance the Principal Charity Classic will be played in June at Glen Oaks in the Des Moines and the Allianz Championship, formerly played in Des Moines, will have a new home at the Old Course at Broken Sound in Boca Raton. In addition the Tour added two championships, the $2.5 million Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach and the Dick's Sporting Goods Open.

Eventually the tour will have again five majors, starting with the Senior PGA Championship in May at Kiawah Island in South Carolina. In June, the U.S Senior Open is planned for Whistling Straits in Wisconsin and the Senior British Open will be played at Muirfield.