Breaking News: Champions Tour schedule changed
Come 2011, the annual Champions Tour, one of the most prestigious golfing events at Hickory, will have a very familiar name but a very different spot on the golfing calendar.
The event, which usually occupies the late-summer/early-fall space, will now be moving to June 6-12th, next year. This move is part of rearranging the Champions Tour schedule this coming season. The move may also end
up benefitting the event, which has seen its best season so far in 2010.
The name of the tour will change back to the “Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn presented by Kia Motors.” An interesting point to notice at this moment is that Ensure, the title sponsors, have not renewed their agreement. The
most prominent reason for this seems to be corporate cost-cutting. Jim Correll, the tournaments executive director, recently revealed that the company has expressed an interest in returning in the 2012 period and onwards.
Overall, Correll seems to be very optimistic about the changes and the tournament in general. "We don't have much time but that's the only negative," says the executive director. "The new date is in the middle of golf season. It's
after the Masters and the Wells Fargo Championship and the week before the U.S. Open, so we won't be competing with football season. Our field could be even better next year." Indeed, things seem to be looking up for the tour and it just might so happen that
the next season is even better than 2010, which was the best year the tour has seen to date.
This year saw the event with the strongest field. Leading the field were players of the year, Bernhard Langer and Fred Couples. However, Gary Hallberg, the former Wake Forest golfer walked off the field with a tournament win in
his pocket. The tournament added a very colourful feather to the golfer’s hat and we do not doubt that his win will have been the subject of much table talk for days to come.
Mr. Correll, the executive director, also revealed that Ensure’s decision to back out of the 2011 tour was mainly due to massive product recalls by Abbot Nutrition. Abbot Nutrition is the parent company that manufactures Ensure
among many other products. In fact the tournament officials were quite optimistic about the deal pulling through, as the indications from the company had been highly positive to begin with. However, they received the news that they would be without a title
sponsor shortly before Thanksgiving.
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