LAHAINA, Hawaii (Nov. 14, 2005) — With the close of the PGA TOUR’s official money season at the TOUR Championship, the field is now set for the 2006 season-opening, winners-only Mercedes Championships January 2-8, at Kapalua’s Plantation Course. There are 32 PGA TOUR professionals qualified for the $5.4 million tournament that awards $1,080,000 and the keys to a new 2007 Mercedes-Benz S550 to the winner.
Two-time defending champion Stuart Appleby will try for an unprecedented third-straight Mercedes Championships title against a field that will include world’s number one and two, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh, who have been close to winning at Kapalua the past two years.
The competition should be even more intense this year as well, thanks to Kapalua’s major improvements to The Plantation Course this past summer. Most importantly, The Plantation Course’s greens now feature Ultradwarf TifEagle® grass that has received extremely favorable comments from the guests. Renovations were also made to the tees and fairway bunkers on The Plantation Course, and to the pro-shop and The Plantation House Restaurant that overlooks the first tee and the 18th fairway.
The following are the players and the tournaments that won to qualify for the 2006
Mercedes Championships:
Player
Tournament(s) Won
1
Stuart Appleby
Mercedes Championships
2
Vijay Singh
Sony Open in Hawaii, Shell Houston Open, Wachovia Championship, Buick Open
3
Tiger Woods
Buick Invitational, Ford Championship at Doral, The Masters, British Open, WGC – NEC Invitational, WGC – American Express Championship
4
Justin Leonard
Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, FedEx St. Jude Classic
5
Phil Mickelson
FBR Open, AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, BellSouth Classic, PGA Championship
6
Geoff Ogilvy
Chrysler Classic of Tucson
7
David Toms
WGC – Accenture Match Play Championship
8
Padraig Harrington
The Honda Classic, Barclays Classic
9
Kenny Perry
Bay Hill Invitational presented by MasterCard, Bank of America Colonial
10
Fred Funk
THE PLAYERS Championship
11
Peter Lonard
MCI Heritage
12
Tim Petrovic
Zurich Classic of New Orleans
13
Ted Purdy
EDS Byron Nelson Championship
14
Bart Bryant
The Memorial Tournament, THE TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola
15
Sergio Garcia
Booz Allen Classic
16
Michael Cambell
U.S. Open
17
Jim Furyk
Cialis Western Open
18
Sean O’Hair
John Deere Classic
19
Jason Bohn
B.C. Open
20
Ben Crane
U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee
21
Retief Goosen
The INTERNATIONAL
22
Vaughn Taylor
Reno Tahoe Open
23
Brad Faxon
Buick Championship
24
Olin Browne
Deutsche Bank Championship
25
Mark Calcavecchia
Bell Canadian Open
26
Jason Gore
84 LUMBER Classic
27
Robert Gamez
Valero Texas Open
28
K.J. Choi
Chrysler Classic of Greensboro
29
Wes Short, Jr.
Michelin Championship at Las Vegas
30
Lucas Glover
FUNAI Classic at WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort
31
Carl Pettersson
Chrysler Championship
32
Heath Slocum
Southern Farm Bureau Classic
Tickets for the Mercedes Championships are available through Ticketmaster at 1-866-GOLFTIX (toll free), or visit www.pgatour.com or www.ticketmaster.com. For further questions, please call toll free 1-866-669-2440.
Kapalua is a 23,000-acre master-planned resort community set amidst a working pineapple plantation on Maui’s northwest coast. The resort is renowned for its three world-class golf courses – The Bay, The Village and The Plantation Courses; nine residential communities; two premier hotels – The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua and the Kapalua Bay Hotel; a villa rental program, The Kapalua Villas; a luxury home rental program, Kapalua Luxury Homes; a tennis complex; three white sand beaches; and a myriad of restaurants and shops. For more information, call toll-free 1-800-KAPALUA or visit the web site at www.kapaluamaui.com.
Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA), headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey, is responsible for the sales, marketing and service of all Mercedes-Benz and Maybach products in the United States. In 2004, MBUSA achieved an all-time sales record of 221,610 new vehicles, setting the highest sales volume ever in its history and achieving 11 consecutive years of sales growth. More information on MBUSA and its products can be found on the Internet at www.mbusa.com and www.maybachusa.com.
Contact:
For Kapalua Resort
Tracy Johnson
808-669-0244
tjohnson@kapaluamaui.com
For Mercedes-Benz USA
Glenn Hudson
704-223-0385
mbsportspr@aol.com
