More top Champions Tour pros commit to 2008 Bank of America Championship
For Immediate Release, May 12, 2008:
CONCORD, Mass., May 12, 2008 — Some of the world’s best golfers continue to commit to competing in this year’s PGA TOUR’s Champions Tour Bank of America Championship, according to tournament director Tracy West, and the latest commitments include Ray Floyd, Scott Hoch, Tom Kite, Jerry Pate and Gary Player.
Floyd, Kite and Player’s commitments bring the number of World Golf Hall of Fame members in the twenty-eighth annual Bank of America Championship field to five. The field also includes 15 of the top 20 money winners on the Tour so far this year.
Floyd counts four majors among his 22 PGA TOUR victories and four majors among his 14 Champions Tour wins. He and Sam Snead are the only players to have won official events in four different decades and in 1992, he became the first player to win on the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour in the same year. Hoch has 11 PGA TOUR victories and three Champions Tour wins, two of them this season, during which he also has racked up five top-tens. He is second on the Tour’s money list this year.
Kite has won 19 times on the PGA TOUR, including the 1992 U.S. Open Championship and nine times on the Champions Tour, including the 2000 JELD-WEN Tradition. He finished seventh on the Tour’s 2007 money list without winning a tournament. Pate counts the 1976 U.S. Open Championship among his eight PGA TOUR victories. He has won twice on the Champions Tour, including this year’s Turtle Bay Championship and ranks twelfth on the Tour’s money list this year.
Player has logged more than 150 victories worldwide, including 24 on the PGA TOUR and 19 on the Champions Tour. Among these victories are nine PGA TOUR and six Champions Tour majors. He also has won three Senior British Opens.
The other World Golf Hall of fame members in the 2008 Bank of America Championship field so far are Nick Price and Curtis Strange. In addition to Hoch (2), Haas (3), Pate (12), Price (14) and Kite (20), this year’s money list leaders in the field include Denis Watson (4), John Cook (6), Mark Wiebe (7), Loren Roberts (9), Craig Stadler (13), Lonnie Nielsen (15), Scott Simpson (16), Tom Jenkins (17), Jeff Sluman (18) and Allen Doyle (19).
So far, nearly 60 of golf’s top players, including Jay Haas, the tournament’s 2007 champion and 2006 Senior PGA Championship winner, are now committed to the 2008 Bank of America Championship, which takes place June 16-22 at Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord. “If our field keeps growing in this way,” West said, “we’re well on our way to having one of our most competitive tournaments ever.”
The Bank of America Championship is the longest running 54-hole event on the PGA TOUR’s Champions Tour and the only Champions Tour tournament played in New England. The tournament has donated more than $4.8 million to local charities in the past 27 years. Tournament information, tickets and volunteer opportunities are available at 1-866-559-GOLF or www.bankofamericachampionship.com.
Contact:
Nick Ingala, Bank of America Championship, Office, 508-238-2800, njingala@comcast.net
