Standout courses will join fabled La Quinta Country Club
as sites for first event on the 2016 PGA Tour west coast swing
LA QUINTA, Calif. – The TPC Stadium Course, annually recognized as one of the top golf courses in the United States, and its PGA WEST sister course – the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course – will serve as two of the three courses for the CareerBuilder Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation PGA TOUR event in 2016. The announcement was made today by Desert Classic Charities (DCC), the host organization that has managed the tournament (formerly the Bob Hope Classic and Humana Challenge) since its inception in 1960.
The two PGA WEST courses will join long-time tournament mainstay La Quinta Country Club beginning with the 2016 CareerBuilder Challenge, continuing the event’s recent tradition of being played solely within the city of La Quinta. The 2016 tournament, the first with CareerBuilder as title sponsor, will be held during the week of Jan. 18 with official rounds scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 21 through Sunday, Jan. 24.
“This will be the 56th year Desert Classic Charities has hosted a PGA TOUR event and throughout those years it has been played on some of the Coachella Valley’s most dynamic courses,” DCC President John Foster said. “This latest move reflects that perfectly. We take great pride in our history of challenging, interesting and diverse courses and we look forward to this latest chapter in our rich history, especially with our new title sponsor on board.”
The TPC Stadium Course, which will serve as the host course and site of the tournament’s final round, has a rich history all its own. The Pete Dye-designed course was built in 1986 and immediately vaulted into the ranks of the nation’s most unique and exciting courses. The TPC Stadium Course became not only a popular destination course, but a mainstay for professional golf events almost from its inception, including having been a part of this event in 1987 (when it was known as the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic).
The TPC Stadium Course has played host to the Skins Game (1986-1991), the PGA Club Professional Championship (1990), the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf on the Champions Tour (1995-96) and along with the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course next door, the finals of PGA TOUR Qualifying School (1986, 1988, 1989, 2002, 2006 and 2008).
Its most famous and iconic moment came in 1987 on its signature hole – the par-3 17th. The short hole, named “Alcatraz” because of its island green that nearly mimics the same hole on the Dye-designed TPC Sawgrass – home of THE PLAYERS Championship, has bedeviled golfers much like its Florida counterpart. But it didn’t unnerve Lee Trevino, who aced the hole to win a $175,000 skin during the 1987 Skins Game.
The TPC Stadium Course is currently ranked No. 40 on Golf Digest’s “100 Greatest Public Courses.” Its 17th hole is ranked No. 2 and the par-4 16th hole is ranked 12th among The Desert Sun’s “Top 100 Golf Holes in the Desert.” The Nicklaus Tournament Course is a highly regarded and beautiful course in its own right. It played host to the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in 1992 and 1993; its tricky par-5 15th hole is ranked 84th on the “Top 100 Golf Holes in the Desert.”
“Having the iconic and fan-pleasing TPC Stadium Course as our host course lets us offer a number of exciting new hospitality venues and spectator areas,” Foster said. “The three closing holes are just spectacular, especially with the island green 17th shaping up as an incredible place to watch the greatest players in the world take their best shots. Earlier this month, we saw the excitement the 17th island green of the TPC Sawgrass course generated for fans at THE PLAYERS Championship. We can’t wait to showcase our own island green in January.”
Special early commitment opportunities for the hospitality offerings, including the exciting new Club 17 venue overlooking the island green, are available to businesses and individuals for a limited time. To learn more, contact Bob Marra at bob@DesertClassicCharities.com or 760-861-4242.
“We are delighted to continue our long-standing relationship with Desert Classic Charities and the PGA TOUR,” said Paul Cherrett, Managing Director of La Quinta Resort & Club and PGA WEST. “The TPC Stadium and Jack Nicklaus Tournament courses at PGA WEST have a rich history hosting great tournaments. We welcome the tournament back to these world-class courses; courses that the public will be able to play as they walk in the footsteps of the pros.”
About CareerBuilder
CareerBuilder is the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and attract great talent. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 24 million unique visitors and 1 million jobs. CareerBuilder works with the world’s top employers, providing everything from labor market intelligence to talent management software and other recruitment solutions. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.CareerBuilder.com.
About the Clinton Foundation
The Clinton Foundation convenes businesses, governments, NGOs, and individuals to improve global health and wellness, increase opportunity for women and girls, reduce childhood obesity, create economic opportunity and growth, and help communities address the effects of climate change. Because of our work, 26,000 American schools are providing kids with healthy food choices in an effort to eradicate childhood obesity; 36,000 farmers in Malawi have improved their incomes by more than 500 percent; 248 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions are being reduced in cities worldwide; more than 5,000 people have been trained in marketable job skills in Colombia; 8.2 million people have access to lifesaving HIV/AIDS medications; $200 million in strategic investments have been made, impacting the health of 75 million people in the U.S.; and members of the Clinton Global Initiative have made nearly 3,200 Commitments to Action to improve more than 430 million lives around the world. Learn more at http://www.clintonfoundation.org, on Facebook at Facebook.com/ClintonFoundation and on Twitter @ClintonFdn.
About Desert Classic Charities
Since its inception, Desert Classic Charities, the charitable entity that organizes the PGA TOUR event in the Coachella Valley, has contributed more than $56 million to a wide range of Coachella Valley charitable organizations and Eisenhower Medical Center. The scope of giving is broad and includes support for structured and mentoring programs for children, social services, and food and safe shelter for the less fortunate. Desert Classic Charities is dedicated to continuing its mission to serve human needs in the Coachella Valley and beyond by generating funds and opportunities every year through the event.
About PGA TOUR
The PGA TOUR is the world’s premier membership organization for touring professional golfers, co-sanctioning more than 130 tournaments on the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour, Web.com Tour, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR China.
The PGA TOUR’s mission is to entertain and inspire its fans, deliver substantial value to its partners, create outlets for volunteers to give back, generate significant charitable and economic impact in the communities in which it plays, and provide financial opportunities for TOUR players.
Worldwide, PGA TOUR tournaments are broadcast to more than 1 billion households in 226 countries and territories in 32 languages. Virtually all tournaments are organized as non-profit organizations in order to maximize charitable giving. In 2014, tournaments across all Tours generated a record $140.5 million for local and national charitable organizations, after surpassing $2 billion in all-time charitable contributions early in the year.
The PGA TOUR’s web site is PGATOUR.COM, the No. 1 site in golf, and the organization is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.
Contact:
Brian Robin (818) 462-5610
