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Conover, NC / Ponte Vedra Beach, FL -- The PGA TOUR and Rock Barn Golf & Country Club announced today that the Conover, NC property will host an official Champions Tour event, the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn, this September
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Photo: David Crosby |
The Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn will be played September 22-28 with a purse of $1.5 million and first prize of $225,000. A 54-hole, stroke-play event, it also will award Charles Schwab Cup points to the top 10 (and ties) finishers. The official competition will be preceded by Pro-Ams and other special events throughout the week for spectators and sponsors.
All three rounds of the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn will be televised on The Golf Channel.
The 1,300-acre Rock Barn development was established in 1969. Rock Barn Properties, Inc. acquired the property in 1997 and has made extensive improvements including a new 25,000-square-foot clubhouse, pro shop, pool and tennis facilities and the new 18-hole Robert Trent Jones, Jr. course. Rock Barn also has an 18-hole Tom Jackson golf course for a total of 36 holes of championship golf. A 20,000-square-foot spa and health center is under construction.
Rock Barn is the centerpiece of a residential community bearing the same name that features a variety of home sites. Donald C. Beaver, owner and CEO of Rock Barn Properties, Inc., has significant interests in minor-league baseball and is a minority owner and member of the Board of Directors of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He also has interests in the health care industry and other real estate investments.
"It is with great pleasure and excitement that Rock Barn will be hosting this Champions Tour event," said Mr. Beaver. "This is a can-do community and we have had very good support from sponsors. We expect the tournament to raise significant contributions that will benefit various charities. This is truly an opportunity for the community to join together and make a tremendous impact on the greater Hickory area."
"The Champions Tour looks forward to bringing its high-level competition and fan-friendly platform to the greater Hickory area and Rock Barn in 2003," said PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem. "Our players will be treated to a first-rate golf course and facilities when they get to Rock Barn. We're confident it will be a favorite among the players, and the business community and area golf fans will fully support the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn."
Rock Barn's new 18-hole golf course was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., designer of many highly-acclaimed courses throughout the United States and abroad, including Poppy Hills and Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, CA, Southern Highlands in Las Vegas, NV, Sun Valley, ID, The Windsor Club, FL and the Prince Course at Princeville, Kauai, HI. Jones also designed Wentwood Hills Golf Course at Celtic Manor Resort, site of the 2010 Ryder Cup in Wales.
"Rock Barn represents my first design in the Carolinas and I consider it one of the finest of the 200 courses I have designed," said Jones. "The elevation changes and beautiful, clear stream with which we worked, offered a unique design challenge. Utilizing this feature to its fullest gives each hole at Rock Barn its dramatic feel and playing character. Every inch of fairway and rough was covered with 120 acres of TifSport Bermuda sod to insure the best possible playing surface under the able care of the Rock Barn greens staff. The greens are a 50/50 blend of A1 and A4 bent grass, ideal for those players who like fast greens," said Jones.
"I played the Robert Trent Jones, Jr. golf course a month ago and it is one of the best we will see on the Champions Tour," said Champions Tour player and native of Winston-Salem, NC Walter Hall. "Word will spread quickly about the quality of the course and it won't be long before the players will begin committing to play Rock Barn. I, for one, have already been talking about the facility to fellow Champions Tour members."
A reception will be held in January 2003 to kick off the tournament and introduce the sponsors. Also, a tournament office will open in the near feature and a tournament staff named.
Information about tickets and sponsorships will be announced at a later date.
The greater Hickory area is the fourth-largest MSA in North Carolina and many of the nation's leading furniture manufacturers are located there. It is home to the largest concentration of retail furniture outlets in the United States with 186 retail stores and two-million square feet of showroom space. Rock Barn, located off Interstate 40, is set in the foothills of the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains, only a 45-minute drive to Blowing Rock, NC and the Blue Ridge Parkway, and an hour's drive to the cultural centers of Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem and Greensboro.
The Champions Tour is one of the PGA TOUR's three professional golf tours (PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour), and features the world's premier golfers age 50 and up. Known as the Senior PGA Tour since its inception in 1980, it was renamed the Champions Tour this fall as part of a rebranding in which the three Tours were aligned more closely under the umbrella of the PGA TOUR. Champions Tour events also generate significant sums of money for charity. Earlier this year the Champions Tour and its tournaments surpassed $100 million in contributions to charity since 1980.
A number of Champions Tour members have ties to North Carolina as a result of birth, residence, or college, including David Eger (UNC), Raymond Floyd (Ft. Bragg), Hall (Winston-Salem), Morris Hatalsky (Fairview), Joe Inman (Wake Forest), Walter Morgan (Cornelius), Jay Overton (Pinehurst, Duke/Campbell Univ.), Arnold Palmer (Wake Forest Univ.), Jay Sigel (Wake Forest Univ.), Leonard Thompson (Wake Forest Univ.), Jim Thorpe (Roxboro) and Lanny Wadkins (Wake Forest Univ.).
The Champions Tour tested a series of fan-enhancement programs in 2002. Designed to deliver fans and sponsors a unique new experience both on site and at home, the initiatives will be fully implemented in 2003. Well received by spectators, sponsors and tournaments, the Champions Tour is developing a distinct identity as the most accessible, approachable and fan friendly of all major-league sports. The initiatives involve three platforms; "Inside The Ropes", Game-Improvement and Structural (eligibility, formats, venues, etc.). Hickory area fans will be treated to many of the new enhancements when the Champions Tour comes to Rock Barn in September.
For more information about Rock Barn, visit www.rockbarn.com
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