NEWS & NOTES
Week of August 23, 2010
Nine Weeks and Counting – The inaugural Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open is only nine weeks away….Oct. 18-24.
TPC Staff Prepping “Dye’s Valley” for Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open – Once the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open was announced last fall, the PGA TOUR made a commitment to enhance the host Dye’s Valley Course for the competition, spectators and audience that will be watching on Golf Channel in the U.S. and outlets abroad. The work being done on Dye’s Valley includes the following:
- Fairway and approach lines have been pinched (from 30 to 22 acres)
- The rough height will be approximately 2.5”
- 2.8 miles of drainage has been added throughout the landing areas
- Collars will feature a 6-foot pass around the green
The work is being supervised TPC Sawgrass superintendent Tom Vlach.
Open Qualifying Sites / Dates – Of the 144 spots in the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open, 14 will be available via an Open Qualifying event that will be played on Monday, Oct. 18th. The host sites for it will be Marsh Creek Country Club and St. Johns Golf & Country Club, both in St. Augustine. Open Qualifying, which is conducted by the local PGA Section (North Florida Section), is open to all professional golfers and amateurs with handicaps of two or less, regardless of where they are from. The cost to enter is $350. In the 21-year history of the Nationwide Tour, 19 Open Qualifiers have gone on to win the event they qualified for, the most recent being Kyle Reifers at the 2006 Chattanooga Classic. For more information on the Open Qualifiers, please contact the PGA Section North Florida Section, 386-322-0899.
Impact on the FedExCup – Eighty-four of the 125 players who qualified for the 2010 PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup on Thursday are Nationwide Tour alumni. This is an increase of six over last year. Note: Due to withdrawals and one disqualification, 121 players will tee off tomorrow.
This Week on the Nationwide Tour – The Tour is in Knoxville, Tennessee for the Knoxville News Sentinel Open (Aug. 26-29) for the first of 10 straight events that will complete the season.
Did You Know? – Annually, the leading money winner on the Nationwide Tour receives an invitation to play in THE PLAYERS Championship the following year. This year’s No. 1 will compete in PGA TOUR-sanctioned events on both the Dye’s Valley (Oct. 2009) and THE PLAYERS Stadium (May 2010) courses at TPC Sawgrass within a seven-month window. Jamie Lovemark is the current No. 1.
KEY TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
- Oct. 18-24
- Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass at PGA TOUR headquarters, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
- Final full-field event of 2010 (28th of 29 events)
- 144 players
- $600,000 purse / $108,000 first prize
- Dole Pro-Am, Wed. Oct. 20, Dye’s Valley & PLAYERS Stadium courses, 108 teams
- Golf Channel coverage – Thursday through Sunday (10 hours live, 10 hours of re-air)
- Tickets via PepsiCo TICKETS Fore CHARITY™, www.winndixiejacksonvilleopen.com
