The PGA TOUR announced the tournament schedule for the 2011 Champions Tour season and the 32nd season of the Champions Tour will be played in 14 states and three countries outside the U.S.A, including Canada, England and South Korea.
The most significant developments for the 2011 season are venue changes and adjustment of dates for two major championships -- the Constellation Senior Players Championship and the Regions Tradition. Both tournaments appear on the schedule earlier than they did last year.
Regions Financial Corporation elevated its involvement with the Champions Tour, becoming the new title sponsor of the first major championship of the 2011 season. The Regions Tradition (May 2-8), previously played in mid-August, relocates from Sunriver, Oregon to Shoal Creek, just outside Birmingham, Alabama.
Shoal Creek previously hosted two PGA Championships, in 1984 and 1990, along with the 1986 U.S. Amateur Championship.
After conducting successful events at Baltimore Country Club, and a one-time visit to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship relocates to the Westchester Country Club in Harrison, New York, marking the first time Westchester has hosted a Champions Tour event. The club previously hosted the PGA TOUR for 41 years from 1967 until 2007. The event will be played August 15-21 in 2011.
"We're excited about the momentum we gained coming out of 2010 and we look forward to continuing that momentum in 2011," said Mike Stevens, President of the Champions Tour. "To add prestigious venues like Shoal Creek and Westchester speaks to the rise in stature of the Champions Tour. We anticipate some thrilling competition from our world-class players next season."
The official 2011 season kicks off on the Big Island of Hawaii at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai (Jan. 17-23), with the first full-field event coming three weeks later at the Allianz Championship (Feb. 7-13), in Boca Raton, Florida. The season will again conclude with the Charles Schwab Cup Championship (Oct. 31-Nov. 6) at the newly-named TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. TPC Harding Park was the site of last year's Charles Schwab Cup Championship and the 2009 Presidents Cup.
The AT&T Championship (Oct. 10-16) will remain in San Antonio as the last full-field event of the season but will relocate to the TPC San Antonio AT&T Canyons Course for the 2011 event after nine consecutive years at Oak Hills Country Club. The TPC San Antonio AT&T Oaks Course hosts the PGA TOUR's Valero Texas Open.
The Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa in Savannah, Ga., will once again serve as host to the Champions Tour's and PGA TOUR's longest-running event with a single sponsor, the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (Apr. 18-24), which enters its 34th year. The Legends Division remains a two-man better ball event counting as an official win and for official prize money for each team member.
The season's second major, the Senior PGA Championship (May 23-29), takes place at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, Valhalla was the site of the United States Ryder Cup team victory in 2008 and previously hosted the 2004 Senior PGA Championship. Walton Heath Golf Club in London, England is set to host the Senior British Open (July 18-24) for the first time, while the U.S. Senior Open (July 25-31) returns to Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, where Bruce Lietzke captured the title in 2003.
The Champions Tour National Qualifying Tournament (Nov. 14-20) is scheduled for TPC Scottsdale (Champions Course), in Scottsdale, Arizona.
