Greg Norman Joins PGA Legends Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Others
(LAHAINA, HI) – Ka’anapali Golf Resort’s Royal Ka’anapali Course – managed by Billy Casper Golf – will host the 22ndWendy’s Champions SKINS Game, January 17-18, for the second consecutive year, with PGA TOUR legends competing for a $770,000 purse.
International golf legends Greg Norman and Bernhard Langer will make their SKINS Game debuts alongside tournament mainstays Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Fuzzy Zoeller, Peter Jacobsen and Jay Haas.
For the fourth consecutive year, players will compete in the alternate-shot, team event, ensuring memorable shot-making and tee-to-green excitement over two days and 18 holes. The event will be televised on ESPN (tape delay) on Saturday, February 28 and Sunday, March 1 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. EST (1 p.m. to 3 p.m. PST and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. HST).
“We’re excited to again host the Wendy’s Champions SKINS Game at Ka’anapali Beach Resort,” says Shelley Kekuna, Executive Director of the Ka’anapali Beach Resort Association. “The 2008 event was incredible, and many of the 11 properties within our resort have attractive packages for visitors to book their trip to Maui during tournament time.”
“Ka’anapali is thrilled to welcome this outstanding field of golfers to our course,” says Ed Kageyama, PGA General Manager of Ka’anapali. “We look forward to a wonderful weekend of unforgettable golf, staged by true legends of the game in this gorgeous setting.”
Zoeller and Jacobsen return to Royal Ka’anapali to defend their title against 2007 champions, Nicklaus and Watson. Normanwill partner with Haas, who returns for his third consecutive tournaments, and Langer teams with Player to round out the formidable field.
Each hole is a tournament within itself, as prize money carries over if no player wins a hole outright. The total purse is broken down to $30,000 for each of the first six holes, $40,000 for each of the middle six holes, $50,000 for holes 13 through 17 and $100,000 for No. 18.
The Royal Ka’anapali Course, a Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design, opened in 1962 and has tested the skills of professional and amateur golfers. A par-71, 6,700-yard layout, the Royal Course combines wide fairways and undulating greens, making it distinctive, demanding and exciting, hole to hole. With more than 45 years of tournament history, the Royal Course has hosted many of golf’s greatest legends: Arnold Palmer, Player, Nicklaus, Billy Casper, Jan Stephenson and Nancy Lopez.
The resort underwent a $13 million renovation in 2005-2006 and was given a 4.5-star rating (out of five) by Golf Digest in the magazine’s recent “Best Places to Play” guide. Ka’anapali was selected by The Golf Channel to host “Big Break Ka’anapali” that aired in 2008.
For more information about Ka’anapali or to reserve a tee time, visit www.kaanapaligolfresort.com or call 808.661.3691.
About Wendy’s Restaurants
Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers Restaurants was founded in 1969 by Dave Thomas and is the third largest quick-service hamburger restaurant chain in the world, with more than 6,250 restaurants in the United States, Canada and international markets.
About ESPN Regional Television
ESPN Regional Television (ERT) is the nation’s largest producer and distributor of collegiate sports programming, producing more than 1,000 sporting events per year. In addition to event sponsorship, ERT produces 800 events for national, regional and local networks, serves as the exclusive syndication rights-holder for college conferences (Big 12, Big Ten and BIG EAST) and exclusive marketing rights-holder for select schools (Kansas, Oregon, South Florida and Iowa State). In recent years, ESPN, Inc. has created or acquired events it owns, markets and televises to increase its value to advertisers and affiliates.
About Billy Casper Golf
Headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, Billy Casper Golf was co-founded by Robert Morris and Peter Hill in 1989 along with professional golf legend Billy Casper, the Masters and two-time U.S. Open winner who ranks seventh all-time with 51 PGA Tour wins. The company manages 100 golf courses in 23 states, the District of Columbia and Costa Rica. Combined withBuffalo Communications, the golf-lifestyle PR division of BCG, 24 of their courses were honored in the recent Golfweek’s “America’s Best” state-by-state rankings.
For more information about Billy Casper Golf, visit www.billycaspergolf.com or call 703.761.1444.
Contact:
Nick Lashinsky
Billy Casper Golf / Buffalo Communications
703.891.3324
nlashinsky@billycaspergolf.com
www.buffalocommunications.com
www.billycaspergolf.com
Melissa Ludwig
Ka’anapali Golf Resort
808.357.7248
mludwig@kaanapaligolfresort.com
