Tournament information | |
---|---|
Location | Orlando, Florida, U.S. |
Established | 2017 |
Course(s) | Tranquilo GC at Four Seasons |
Tour(s) | PGA Tour Champions |
Format | Stroke play - 54 holes (no cut) Modified Stableford |
Prize fund | $750,000 |
Month played | January |
Tournament record score | |
Aggregate | 104 points Woody Austin (2017) |
Current champion | |
Scott Parel |
The Diamond Resorts Invitational was a PGA Tour Champions Challenge Season event and celebrity golf tournament, played at Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons in Orlando, Florida, and benefited Florida Hospital for Children. [1] The tournament began as a celebrity-only tournament in 2013 and in 2017, the tournament was made a PGA Tour Champions Challenge Season event. [2] The 2018 event featured a field of 28 PGA Tour Champions and 4 LPGA Tour professionals, and 50 celebrity amateur golfers. The tournament was a no cut 54-hole event, and used the Modified Stableford scoring system. [3] Over the years, the tournament helped raise more than $3.1 million for Florida Hospital for Children. [4]
In March 2018, tournament sponsor Diamond Resorts announced it was changing the tournament for 2019 to an official LPGA Tour event called the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions. [5] The new tournament was the LPGA's 2019 season opener with $1.2 million in prize money. [6] The 26-player pro field included only those LPGA players who had qualified by winning in the previous two seasons. [7] They competed alongside 45 sports and entertainment celebrities.
In 2013, PGA Tour professional, Brian Gay, offered to lend his name to the inaugural Diamond Resorts-sponsored golf invitational in an effort to help raise money for Florida Hospital for Children. More than 300 golfers, celebrities and spectators attended the event. The tournament also hosted a celebrity-only golf tournament with a $40,000 purse. PGA Tour professional Nick O'Hern won the Professional Golf Division and retired NFL player Mark Rypien was the celebrity champion. [8]
In its second year, the Diamond Resorts Invitational was held at Isleworth Country Club in Windermere, Florida from December 11–14, 2014. More than 400 people participated in the weekend event, which included a celebrity/amateur golf tournament and private concert by country music artist Colt Ford. [9] PGA Tour professional J. B. Holmes won the PGA Tour Division, shooting a 9-under 63. The celebrity champion was former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz, who defeated the President of Baseball Operations for the Atlanta Brave, John Hart, in a one-hole playoff, for the first of his three victories in the event (including the successor tournament).
In 2016, the golf event was named Diamond Resorts Invitational benefiting Florida Hospital for Children and was nationally televised on the Golf Channel with an 81-person field, 54-hole celebrity tournament. It was held January 12–17, 2016 at The Golden Bear Club in Windermere, Florida and featured a Stableford scoring format with a $500,000 purse. After three days of play, former professional American tennis player, Mardy Fish, claimed victory. [10] The celebrity lineup included Super Bowl MVPs Jerry Rice, Marcus Allen, Richard Dent and Mark Rypien; Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame pitcher of Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine; ESPN college football expert and former NFL quarterback Danny Kanell; baseball legends Reggie Jackson, Roger Clemens and Gaylord Perry; and celebrity entertainers Larry The Cable Guy, Jake Owen and Colt Ford.
In 2017, the tournament became a PGA Tour Champions Challenge Season event. It was held Jan. 13-15 at Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons Resort Orlando. It had 27 PGA Tour Champions players, three LPGA players and 48 other amateur celebrity players. The players were organized into threesomes of one professional and two celebrities, and competed side-by-side in a Modified Stableford scoring format for separate purses totaling $1.25 million. PGA Champions Tour player Woody Austin won the professional division [11] and MLB pitcher Mark Mulder won the celebrity division. [12]
The tournament was a PGA Tour Champions Challenge Season event again in 2018 and held Jan. 12-14 at Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons Resort Orlando. The professional field featured 28 PGA Tour Champions players and four LPGA players, including Brittany Lincicome and Brooke Henderson, competing for a $750,000 purse. The celebrity field featured 50 sports and entertainment players competing for their own $500,000 purse. All three days of the tournament were again nationally televised on Golf Channel. Former top-ranked American tennis player Mardy Fish took home the $100,000 first place prize money in the celebrity division, while PGA TOUR Champions standout Scott Parel pocketed $125,000 by winning the professional division after a first hole playoff, his second victory in the event. Fish and John Smoltz share the record at three wins, as Smoltz (2019-20) and Fish (2021) have won the successor tournament.
Year | Professional golf division | Celebrity division |
---|---|---|
2013 | Nick O'Hern | Mark Rypien |
2014 | J. B. Holmes | John Smoltz |
2016 | – | Mardy Fish |
Year | PGA Tour Champions division | Celebrity division |
2017 [13] | Woody Austin | Mark Mulder |
2018 [14] | Scott Parel | Mardy Fish (2) |
The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite women professional golfers from around the world.
The Big Break is a reality television program broadcast by the Golf Channel. The show's premise was to award an aspiring professional golfer exemptions into selected events or full-season exemptions on lower-level tours. The series debuted on October 6, 2003.
The QBE Shootout was a team golf tournament that took place on the PGA Tour as an unofficial money event. It was originally played during the off-season.
Stableford is a scoring system used in the sport of golf. Rather than counting the total number of strokes taken, as in regular stroke play, it involves scoring points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole. Unlike traditional scoring methods, where the aim is to have the lowest score, under Stableford rules, the objective is to have the highest score.
The Reno–Tahoe Open, sponsored as the Barracuda Championship since 2014, is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in California. Founded in 1999, it is an alternate event played annually in August. Previously held at Montrêux Golf and Country Club outside Reno, Nevada, the tournament moved west in 2020 to Tahoe Mountain Club's Old Greenwood course in nearby Truckee, California.
The Sanderson Farms Championship is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, played annually in Mississippi. It moved to the Country Club of Jackson in Jackson in autumn 2014, early in the 2015 season.
The Shriners Children's Open is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour in Nevada. Founded 41 years ago in 1983, it is the fourth event of the Tour's 2019–20 wrap-around season and is played annually in October in Las Vegas. It is currently held at the TPC Summerlin, west of central Las Vegas at an approximate average elevation of 2,700 feet (820 m) above sea level.
The Dana Open is a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour. It was founded 40 years ago in 1984 and has been played yearly, except in 1986 and 2011, in Sylvania, Ohio, a suburb northwest of Toledo. The tournament is televised by Golf Channel.
Alexis Noel Thompson is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. At age 12 in 2007, she was the youngest golfer ever to qualify to play in the U.S. Women's Open, since broken by Lucy Li who was 11 in 2014. She turned professional in June 2010 at age 15. On September 18, 2011, Thompson set a then new record as the youngest-ever winner of an LPGA tournament, at age 16 years, seven months, and eight days, when she won the Navistar LPGA Classic. Three months later she became the second-youngest winner of a Ladies European Tour event, capturing the Dubai Ladies Masters by four strokes on December 17, 2011. She won her first and only major championship at the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship at the age of 19 years, 1 month and 27 days, making her the second youngest LPGA golfer to win a major.
The American Century Championship is a celebrity golf tournament that takes place at Edgewood Tahoe Resort, on the shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada, United States. The tournament is held annually, during the weekend after the second full week of July. It has a number of traditions, including the Long Drive Challenge, Charity Chip Challenge, and the Korbel Hole-In-One Contest. American Century Investments is the current title sponsor of the tournament, which previously was known as the Celebrity Golf Tournament, the Isuzu Celebrity Golf Championship, and the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship.
Tiburón Golf Club is a golf club located in Naples, Florida. It has two courses, Gold and Black, both designed by Greg Norman, twice the winner of the Open Championship and formerly the top-ranked player in the world. From Australia, Norman's nickname on the PGA Tour was the "Great White Shark", and tiburón is the Spanish word for shark.
The PGA Tour is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, as well as the PGA Tour Champions and the Korn Ferry Tour, as well as the PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour Latinoamérica, and formerly the PGA Tour China. The PGA Tour is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, a suburb southeast of Jacksonville.
The Indy Women in Tech Championship was a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour, played in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Diamond Resorts is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilton Grand Vacations. Diamond Resorts was an independent timeshare and vacation ownership company until it was purchased by HGV in 2021. Following the purchase, Diamond's resorts became part of HGV's resort portfolio, and Diamond itself became a brand and subsidiary of HGV. The majority of Diamond Resorts have been or will be rebranded as Hilton vacation Club properties, however the original brand will continue to exist as some resorts are slated to retain the Diamond Resorts name.
The Pure Silk Championship was a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour, played in Williamsburg, Virginia. The 72-hole tournament was held on the par-71 River Course at Kingsmill Resort, set at 6,340 yards (5,797 m) in 2013.
Michael A. Flaskey, known as Mike Flaskey, is an American businessman and the current CEO of Hornblower Corporation. Flaskey is also the founder & chairman of the board of Mike Flaskey Entertainment, and former chief executive officer of vacation ownership company Diamond Resorts. He is the founder and is the former executive director of the Diamond Resorts Invitational and the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, and the founder of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, which is held annually in Orlando, Florida. Flaskey is also the founder of the Invited Celebrity Classic golf tournament, a PGA Tour Champions-sanctioned event.
The Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions is a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour in Florida. It debuted in 2019 at the Four Seasons Golf & Sports Club Orlando in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The tournament field is limited to winners on LPGA Tour events in the previous two years. As is the case in the past, there is also a pro-am and celebrity tournament, like its predecessor. The top amateurs during the midweek pro-am are invited to play in the main tournament. Each professional is paired with two celebrities or amateurs in the groupings, and celebrities change per round. A Stableford-based system is used for the celebrities and amateurs.
Vincent Oliver Norrman is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He won the 2023 Barbasol Championship, as well as the 2023 Horizon Irish Open. As an amateur, he was part of the Swedish team winning the 2019 European Amateur Team Championship.
The 2022 LPGA Tour was the 73rd edition of the LPGA Tour, a series of professional golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world. The season began at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, on January 20, and ended on November 20, at the Tiburón Golf Club in the CME Group Tour Championship at Naples, Florida. The tournaments were sanctioned by the United States–based Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).
The 2023 LPGA Tour was the 74th edition of the LPGA Tour, a series of professional golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world. The season began at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, in Orlando, Florida on January 19, and officially ended on November 19, at the Tiburón Golf Club in the CME Group Tour Championship at Naples, Florida, not counting the unofficial December 10 Grant Thornton Invitational. The tournaments were sanctioned by the United States-based Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).