Friday, November
15, 2002
Tour returns to
Boston on Labor Day
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
The PGA Tour is returning
to the Boston area for the first time in five years with a $5
million event that will end on Labor Day and feature Tiger Woods,
whose foundation will get the charitable proceeds.
The tournament will
be called the Deutsche Bank U.S. Championship and will be played
at the TPC of Boston for at least the first two years of the four-year
contract, the PGA Tour and IMG announced Thursday.
While Woods will
not be the tournament host in the same fashion as Jack Nicklaus
(Memorial Tournament) or Arnold Palmer (Bay Hill Invitational),
the world's No. 1 player will be heavily involved through his
foundation.
"We are confident
the tournament will be well-received," PGA Tour commissioner
Tim Finchem said.
The Associated Press
first reported on the new Labor Day tournament four weeks ago
as negotiations were ongoing with IMG and the TPC at Boston.
Most tournaments
have four-year contracts with a golf course. Officials with IMG
and the PGA Tour said they wanted to keep their options open,
which could mean the West Coast is still a possibility, because
it would put golf on prime-time television.
ABC Sports will broadcast
the final two rounds on Sunday and Monday.
The PGA Tour was
last in the Boston area in 1998, when the CVS Charity Classic,
held at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Sutton, Mass., ended a
30-year run.
The Deutsche Bank
U.S. Championship will cap off three straight weeks of high-profile
tournaments on the calendar, following the PGA Championship and
a World Golf Championship event.
The new tournament
replaces the Air Canada Championship in Vancouver, British Columbia,
which began in 1996 but was unable to find a title sponsor when
Air Canada failed to renew.
Deutsche Bank already
has a strong relationship with Woods. The Germany-based company
is title sponsor of a European tour event that Woods has played
in every year since 1999 and has won three times. Woods receives
about $2 million in appearance money for playing in Germany.
"I am thrilled
that Deutsche Bank has selected the Tiger Woods Foundation to
be the beneficiary of this new PGA Tour event," Woods said
in a statement.
Woods established
his foundation in 1996 with hopes of making golf more accessible
and affordable for children of various social and economic backgrounds.
For Deutsche Bank,
the estimated $30 million investment as a title sponsor on the
PGA Tour will help raise the profile of its brand in the United
States.
Woods already has
his own tournament, the Target World Challenge at Sherwood Country
Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The unofficial event offers $1 million
to the winner, and the 16-man field consists of 12 top players
from the world rankings and four players selected by his foundation.
Woods said last month
he would not be the host of an official PGA Tour event like Nicklaus,
Palmer and Byron Nelson.
"As far as having
my own event and running it like those guys do, I'm not interested
in that," he said. "I know the politics that go on,
how tough it is running my own tournament."
Still, his presence
and the Labor Day time slot for television probably will make
the Deutsche Bank U.S. Championship one of the top tournaments,
once the major championships are over.
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