Subers Brings More Than 22 Years’ Experience Directing PGA Tour, Champions Tour And LPGA Tour Events, Including A Wealth Of Knowledge In Jump-starting Inaugural Events.
HAMMOCK BEACH, Fla., July 27, 2006 – John Subers, formerly of Executive Sports International and Fore!Kids Foundation, was named tournament director of the inaugural Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach. The announcement was made by Kent Atherton, President & COO of Ginn Sports Entertainment LLC. The Champions Tour event will be played March 26-April 1, 2007 and will feature a $2.5 million purse, second only to the U.S. Senior Open at $2.6 million.
"We are excited to have John Subers join the Ginn team," said Atherton. "He did a marvelous job in New Orleans and we commend him for his efforts in staging a first class event in 2006 following Hurricane Katrina and assisting the many charitable organizations in need."
"I am thrilled to return to Florida and the challenge of staging a new Champions Tour event for Ginn Sports Entertainment," said Subers. "With the great field that we anticipate and a spectacular Tom Watson-designed championship course to challenge them, we are very excited at what lies ahead for us and the golf fans of north and central Florida."
A graduate of Florida State, Subers earned his bachelor’s in Marketing/Business before going to work for Executive Sports International in 1984. Then, in 1991, Subers moved from tournament and operations manager at ESI into the role of tournament director, facilitating successful launches of both the then-inaugural Atlanta Women’s Championship in 1991, which eventually became the LPGA Chick-Fil-A Charity Championship, and the BellSouth Senior Classic in 1994.
Subers then moved through vice president, tournament director of the Royal Caribbean Golf Classic – ESI’s flagship tournament – and eventually reached the president’s office in 2002, taking on the challenge of retaining ESI’s widespread client base and employees during a key ownership transition.
Then, in July of 2003, after 19 years at ESI, Subers took the helm as president/CEO of Fore!Kids Foundation in New Orleans, and, among other things, led his team to present the first televised sporting event in New Orleans – the Zurich Classic of New Orleans – following the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005.
The Golf Channel will air all three rounds of the Ginn Championship, which will take place the week before the Masters, and two weeks before the LPGA Ginn Clubs & Resorts Open in Reunion, Fla.
The Champions Tour continues to grow in popularity and the class of 2007 will see the addition of Mark O’Meara and Nick Price to the great fields that include Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Curtis Strange, Jay Haas, Loren Roberts, Hale Irwin, Greg Norman, Peter Jacobsen, Craig Stadler, Jerry Pate, Larry Nelson, Fuzzy Zoeller and the recently turned 50 Fred Funk to name a few.
Located in Palm Coast, a few miles south of St. Augustine, Fla., the Conservatory at Hammock Beach features Tom Watson’s second golf course design in Florida. His first is at another Ginn community, Reunion Resort & Club of Orlando.
The five-year agreement between Ginn Clubs & Resorts and the Champions Tour ensures that a first-class professional championship to highlight the game’s greatest players will be located at Hammock Beach in Northeast Florida for years to come.
In May, Ginn Clubs & Resorts and the Champions Tour announced that another Ginn property, Quail West in Naples, FL, would be the new host venue of the 2007 ACE Group Classic.
About Ginn Clubs & Resorts
Ginn Clubs & Resorts is a privately-held resort development and management firm which specializes in exclusive leisure lifestyle and vacation destination communities across the U.S. From private residential communities to resort destinations offering unparalleled ownership and vacation opportunities, the common denominator throughout Ginn Club & Resorts communities is service. The company’s principals have more than three decades of experience in creating extraordinary large-scale, recreation-oriented communities. Current Ginn Clubs & Resorts communities include Cobblestone Park in Columbia, S.C. as well as Belvidere Club & Resort, which encompasses RiverTowne Country Club, The Cottages on Charleston Harbor and Patriot’s Point Golf Course in the Charleston area. The company also owns and operates Hammock Beach, The Conservatory at Hammock Beach and Yacht Harbor Village near St. Augustine, Fla., Reunion Resort & Club of Orlando, Bella Collina north of Orlando and Tesoro and Tesoro Preserve in Port St. Lucie on Florida’s historic "Treasure Coast." The company also owns and operates Mahogany Run Golf Course in St. Thomas and has several projects under development in North Carolina, Vermont, Colorado and in the Bahamas. www.ginnclubsandresorts.com
About The Champions Tour
The Champions Tour is a tax-exempt membership organization of professional golfers age 50 and older. Conceived in 1980 as the Senior PGA Tour, it started with just four events and purses totaling $475,000. The Champions Tour now has 29 official events offering a minimum of $52.55 million in prize money in 2006 and its highest average purse ever of $1.82 million. The Champions Tour’s primary purpose is to provide significant competitive and earnings opportunities for players age 50 and older; to protect the integrity of the game; and to help grow the reach of the game in the U.S. and around the world. In addition to providing competitive opportunities for its membership, Champions Tour events also generate significant sums of money for charity. On October 30th, 2005 the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour and their tournaments announced they had reached the $1 billion milestone in charitable donations dating back to the first recorded donation in 1938. The commissioner of the PGA TOUR is Tim Finchem. Rick George is president of the Champions Tour. TOUR headquarters is in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Our web site address is www.PGATOUR.com.
Contact:
Ryan Julison
Ginn Clubs & Resorts
(321) 939-4705
Steve Brener
Brener Zwikel & Associates
(818) 344-6195, Ext. 103