(SEASIDE, Calif.) – Bayonet and Black Horse Golf Club, located on the famed Monterey Peninsula, has been selected to host the 45th PGA Professional National Championship presented by Club Car and Mercedes-Benz, June 24-27, 2012.
In selecting the 36-hole, all bentgrass facility to stage the prestigious event, the PGA of America cited Bayonet Black Horse’s award-winning redesign by Gene Bates (2008), recent history of hosting professional tournaments, and PGA TOUR-caliber practice facilities. In 2010, the courses hosted PGA TOUR and Champions Tour Qualifying School, as well as U.S. Open Qualifying and the Monday qualifier for the Frys.com Open.
“The PGA of America is proud of its tradition of taking our PGA Professional National Championship to many of the best venues in the country,” said PGA of America President Allen Wronowski. “It is exciting that we will now have some of our finest playing PGA Professionals display their skills to a national audience with the backdrop of the spectacular Monterey Peninsula. We look forward to working with Bayonet and Black Horse’s staff in presenting the 45th PGA Professional National Championship to the country.”
“We are honored to be selected as the host of the 2012 PGA Professional National Championship, and we welcome the country’s premier PGA Professionals,” said Dick Fitzgerald, Director for Seaside Resort Development, which operates Bayonet Black Horse. “By hosting the PGA Professional National Championship, Bayonet and Black Horse continues to cement its reputation as a home for professional championship golf and one of the great golf venues on the Monterey Peninsula.”
Bayonet Golf Course will host the final two National Championship rounds in 2012, which will be televised by Golf Channel.
About The PGA Professional National Championship
Begun in 1968, The PGA Professional National Championship provides additional playing opportunities for PGA Professionals. In over four decades, it has become the showcase event for PGA Professionals, featuring some of the finest players in the Association. Formerly a 360-player field, and contested after the golf season had ended across much of the United States, the PGA Professional National Championship was first converted to a 156-player field from 1997-2005. The Championship now presents a 312-player field representing 41 PGA Sections competing at the peak of their games, and with its 20 top finishers earning a berth in the PGA Championship.
The 44th PGA Professional National Championship, presented by Club Car and Mercedes-Benz, offers a total purse of $550,000, and will be conducted June 26-29, 2011, at Hershey (Pa.) Country Club.
The National Championship was first televised live by Golf Channel in 1997 to viewers across the U.S., Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Latin America, Malaysia, the Middle East, Scandinavia and Singapore. This year’s PGA Professional National Championship has a potential audience of 110 million.
The PGA Professional National Championship has been conducted in 14 states in its previous 43 years: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
About The PGA of America
Celebrating its 95th year, The PGA of America has maintained a two-fold mission of its founders: to establish and elevate the standards of the profession and to grow interest and participation in the game of golf.
By establishing and elevating the standards of the golf profession through world-class education, career services, marketing and research programs, The PGA enables its professionals to maximize their performance in their respective career paths and showcases them as experts in the game and in a multi-billion dollar golf industry.
By creating and delivering dramatic world-class championships and exciting and enjoyable promotions that are viewed as the best of their class in the golf industry, The PGA of America elevates the public’s interest in the game, the desire to play more golf, and ensures accessibility to the game for everyone, everywhere. The PGA of America brand represents the very best in golf.
About Bayonet and Black Horse Golf Club
Bayonet and Black Horse re-opened in December, 2008 after a $13 million renovation by Bates Golf Design Group (Gene Bates). Both courses underwent dramatic view-shed alterations and hole re-routings to reveal new, breathtaking ocean vistas and improved playing options (including new bentgrass greens). They were included in Golf Digest’s “Best New Courses” issue for 2009 in the ultra-competitive “Remodel” category.
Bayonet, with its narrow playing corridors and steep, penal bunkering, has long been considered the most difficult test of golf on the Monterey Peninsula. The par-72, 7,104-yard course has retained its famous bite after the recent renovation by award-winning architect Gene Bates, but playability and strategic options have been greatly improved. The uphill, dogleg right, 476-yard, par-4 ninth hole exemplifies the course’s significant challenge.
Black Horse, a 7,024-yard, par-72 layout, features sweeping vistas of the Pacific and is highlighted by fescue-framed fairways, bunkers with distinctive, serrated edges and slickly-contoured greens. The par-3 15th, created during the renovation, faces the bay and is sure to emerge as one of the great holes on the Peninsula.
Contact:
Glenn Gray
Buffalo Communications
703.891.3511
ggray@buffalocommunications.com
