Fred Couples Makes Champions Tour Debut Among Golfing Legends
(LAHAINA, HI) – Ka’anapali Golf Resort’s Royal Ka’anapali Course – managed by Billy Casper Golf – will host the 23rd Wendy’s Champions SKINS Game, January 16-17, for the third consecutive year, with PGA TOUR legends competing for a $770,000 purse.
Golf legend Fred Couples will make his Champions Tour and SKINS Game debut alongside tournament mainstays Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Fuzzy Zoeller, Loren Roberts, Ben Crenshaw and Nick Price.
For the fifth 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 27 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. EST and Sunday, February 28 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST (check local listing for air time in your area).
The SKINS Game – open and free to the public – will kick-off at 9 a.m. on both Saturday, January 16 and Sunday, January 17. Saturday’s play is followed by a free Junior Clinic at the driving range hosted by Zoeller and Crenshaw.
“We’re honored to again provide a gorgeous stage for the Wendy’s Champions SKINS Game at Ka’anapali Beach Resort,” says Chip Bahouth, President of the Ka’anapali Beach Resort Association and General Manager of the Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa. “This is the perfect setting for families to come relax and enjoy watching some of golf’s greatest players compete.”
“Ka’anapali is ecstatic to welcome the Champions Tour to our golf course,” says Ed Kageyama, PGA General Manager of Ka’anapali. “This incredible group of players – as they do each year – will undoubtedly provide a wonderful show of skill, charisma and camaraderie.”
Zoeller and Crenshaw return to Royal Ka’anapali to defend their title against 2007 champions, Nicklaus and Watson. Couples will partner with Price – also competing in his first Champions SKINS Game – and Roberts 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
Widely respected as a high-performance, full-service owner/operator of golf courses, BCG manages more than 110 properties in 25 states and outside the U.S. The company provides turnkey club operations for public-agency and private owners, developers and investors. Founded 20 years ago in cooperation with golf legend Billy Casper, BCG is based in Vienna, VA with regional offices strategically convenient to courses’ locales.
BCG’s best-of-breed infrastructure shows clients favorable returns on investments. Critically-acclaimed by industry leaders and media, BCG economies of scale help daily-fee, municipal, resort and private courses make and save money while delivering a personal touch.
Buffalo Communications – a division of BCG – is America’s foremost golf-specialty publicity, media-relations and marketing-communications agency. In addition to creating PR and implementing programs for BCG courses, Buffalo represents many of golf’s top brands (products, resorts, destinations and communities) worldwide.
For more information about Billy Casper Golf/Buffalo Communications: www.billycaspergolf.com, www.buffalocommunications.com, 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
