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 News from Around the Americas | December 2005 
Champions Tour's 2006 Schedule Features 29 Events and a $52m Purse
 PGA.com
| | The Puerto Vallarta Championship will be played March 27-April 2 at the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course at Vista Vallarta Golf Club in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. |
The 2006 Champions Tour schedule will feature 29 official Charles Schwab Cup events, tour officials have announced. Official prize money will total at least $52.75 million, with the average tournament purse growing to a record $1.82 million.
The Champions Tour will play in 17 states in the United States, plus Mexico and Scotland.
"The thing that stands out most about the 2006 Champions Tour schedule is its strength and continuity of our sponsorships," said Champions Tour president Rick George. "Within the last two years, many of our title sponsors have signed multi-year tournament extensions. As a result, the Champions Tour enjoys a very strong underpinning, with some contracts extending as far out as 2010."
The Champions Tour's 27th season gets underway again in Hawaii on Jan. 20-22, with back-to-back events, the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai and the Turtle Bay Championship. The season will come to a close in late October at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Sonoma Golf Club in California, where many of the season's award winners will be determined.
The major championship schedule includes new sites in the middle of the country for the Senior PGA Championship (Oak Tree Golf Club in Edmond, Okla.) in late May and the U.S. Senior Open Championship (Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan.), which moves a few weeks earlier to the first full week of July.
The Ford Senior Players Championship returns to the Tournament Players Club of Michigan in Dearborn in July and the Jeld-Wen Tradition is back at The Reserve Vineyards & Golf Club outside Portland, Ore. in August. The Champions Tour's other major championship, the Senior British Open, makes its sixth visit to Ailsa Course at the Westin Turnberry Resort on Scotland's west coast in July.
The Champions Tour welcomes one new tournament in 2006, the Puerto Vallarta Golf Classic in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It will be played Mar. 30-Apr. 2 at the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course at Vista Vallarta Golf Club.
Also, the tour's West Florida event has a new title sponsor and new home. The Boeing Championship at Sandestin will be played at The Raven Golf Club at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Destin, Fla., in May. Boeing now titles two Champions Tour events, with Boeing's Commercial Airplane Division having signed on with the inaugural Boeing Greater Seattle Classic in 2005.
The tour's Birmingham, Ala., event also has a new title sponsor and a new site. The Regions Charity Classic will be played at the Robert Trent Jones Trail at Ross Bridge. The Allianz Championship returns to its original venue, Glen Oaks Country Club in West Des Moines, Iowa. The newly renamed Greater Kansas City Golf Classic welcomes a partnership of local companies that includes Sprint Nextel, HCA, Garmin and Cerner.
All 29 official Charles Schwab Cup events will be televised, with 24 airing on The Golf Channel, the tour's exclusive cable television home. Six events will be televised on ABC (two), CBS (one) and NBC (three). The Golf Channel (Saturday) and NBC (Sunday) will split the weekend telecasts of the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach.
The Charles Schwab Cup, the Champions Tour's year-long, point-based championship worth $2.1 million in annuities, enters its sixth year with Tom Watson defending the Cup for the second time. The Charles Schwab Cup, designed to identify the tour's leading player, will continue to be featured prominently in all Golf Channel telecasts next year.
The 2006 Georgia-Pacific Grand Champions competition for players age 60 and over will feature five events leading to its culminating event, the Georgia-Pacific Grand Champions Championship in Atlanta, Ga. in September.
Here is the complete 2006 Champions Tour schedule:
| Date | Tournament | Location | | Jan. 20-22 | MasterCard Championship | Hualalai GC in Ka'upulehu-Kona, Hawaii | | Jan. 27-29 | Turtle Bay Championship | Turtle Bay Resort in Kahuku, Hawaii | | Feb. 6 | Wendy's Champions Skins Game | Wailea Resort in Wailea, Hawaii | | Feb. 17-19 | ACE Group Classic | Club at TwinEagles in Naples, Fla. | | Feb. 24-26 | Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am | TPC of Tampa Bay in Lutz, Fla. | | Mar. 10-12 | AT&T Classic | Valencia CC in Valencia, Calif. | | Mar. 17-19 | Toshiba Classic | Newport Beach CC in Newport Beach, Calif. | | Mar. 31-Apr. 2 | Puerto Vallarta Golf Classic | Vista Vallarta GC in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico | | Apr. 21-23 | Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf | Westin Savannah Harbor in Savannah, Ga. | | Apr. 28-30 | FedEx Kinko's Classic | The Hills CC in Lakeway, Texas | | May 5-7 | Regions Charity Classic | RTJ Golf Trail in Birmingham, Ala. | | May 12-14 | Boeing Championship | Raven GC in Destin, Fla. | | May 25-28 | Senior PGA Championship | Oak Tree GC in Edmond, Okla. | | June 2-4 | Allianz Championship | Glen Oaks CC in West Des Moines, Iowa | | June 9-11 | Bank of America Championship | Nashawtuc CC in Concord, Mass. | | June 22-25 | Commerce Bank Championship | Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, N.Y. | | June 30-July 2 | Greater Kansas City Golf Classic | Nicklaus GC in Overland Park, Kan. | | July 6-9 | U.S. Senior Open | Prairie Dunes CC in Hutchinson, Kan. | | July 13-16 | Ford Senior Players Championship | TPC of Michigan in Dearborn, Mich. | | July 27-30 | Senior British Open | Westin Turnberry Resort in Ayrshire, Scotland | | Aug. 4-6 | 3M Championship | TPC of the Twin Cities in Blaine, Minn. | | Aug. 17-20 | Boeing Greater Seattle Classic | TPC at Snoqualmie Ridge in Snoqualmie, Wash. | | Aug. 23-27 | Jeld-Wen Tradition | Reserve Vineyards in Aloha, Ore. | | Sept. 1-3 | Wal-Mart First Tee Open | Pebble Beach GL in Pebble Beach, Calif. | | Sept. 8-10 | Georgia-Pacific Grand Champions | Hawks Ridge GC in Ball Ground, Ga. | | Sept. 15-17 | Constellation Energy Classic | Hayfields CC in Hunt Valley, Md. | | Sept. 29-Oct. 1 | Greater Hickory Classic | Rock Barn GC in Conover, N.C. | | Oct. 6-8 | SAS Championship | Prestonwood CC in Cary, N.C. | | Oct. 13-15 | Administaff Classic | Augusta Pines GC in Spring, Texas | | Oct. 20-22 | AT&T Championship | Oak Hills CC in San Antonio, Texas | | Oct. 26-29 | Charles Schwab Cup Championship | Sonoma GC in Sonoma, Calif. | | Nov. 13-20 | Champions Tour Q-School | TPC at Eagle Trace in Coral Springs, Fla. |
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