(Duluth, GA, March 13, 2006) — Rory Sabbatini, the PGA TOUR’s leading money winner, and Luke Donald, winner of this past week’s Honda Classic, have committed to play at the 2006 BellSouth Classic. The 38th annual PGA TOUR event will be played March 27th — April 2nd at TPC at Sugarloaf in Duluth. They add further luster to a field that includes nine of the top 18 in the current World Rankings. Among those are Retief Goosen, Chris Dimarco, David Toms and defending champion Phil Mickelson. The 144-player field will compete over 72 holes for a first prize check of $954,000 and a total purse of $5.3 million. Here are some quick facts on Sabbatini and Donald:
Sabbatini:
â?¢ The South African native and Texas resident has elevated his game, and career, to a far higher plane in the early going this year. He opened the season with second place tie at the Sony Open. After three straight top 20 finishes, he bagged a solo second at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and then a big win at the Nissan Open in Los Angeles. It was the third win of his career and the first since 2003.
â?¢ With earnings of $2,219,294, he is less than $300,000 behind his single-season career high of $2,500,397 in 2004. Needless to say he is faring well in the 2006 statistical categories ranking first in top 10 finishes (4), second in scoring (68.78), and seventh in birdie average (4.76) and par breakers (26.9%)
â?¢ He has rebounded in a big way from 2005 when he dropped to 89th on the money list, lowest since his rookie year of 1999. His 11 missed cuts were also his most since that first year.
Donald:
â?¢ Yesterday’s big win at the Honda Classic was the second of Donald’s career and jumped him to sixth on the money list with $1,409,603. He also moved to 12th in the World Rankings. Earlier this year he tied for 7th at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and for ninth at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
â?¢ Donald’s career has been a continuing series of incremental jumps upward. In 2005 he finished 17th on the final list with $2,480,562. In 18 events he missed just one cut and had five top 10s including ties for second at the Buick Invitational and The Players Championship, a tie for third at The Masters, a sixth place tie at the WGC-NEC Invitational and a tie for ninth at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
â?¢ He concluded 2005 in a big way, firing a final round 64 to win the Target World Challenge after trailing by six strokes after 54 holes. The $1.3 million check was the largest of his career.
â?¢ He is a native of England and now makes his home in Chicago where he attended college at Northwester University. While there he won the 1999 NCAA Championship and was named college player of the year that year. He also played on two Walker Cup teams for the Great Britain/Ireland squad.
â?¢ Donald played on the victorious 2004 European Ryder Cup team and also won twice on the European Tour that year.
Tournament note:
Restricted sponsor exemptions to this year’s BellSouth Classic include Larry Mize and Duffy Waldorf. Unrestricted exemptions have been granted to Franklin Langham, Matt Kuchar, Scott Dunlap and Nick Cassini.
Contact:
John Marshall
Media Director
(770) 436-2643
Brent Fowler
BellSouth Corporation
(404) 249-2839
