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The Constellation Energy Seniors Players Championship will move next year from Baltimore Country Club in Timonium to the newly renovated TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm near Washington, the PGA Tour announced Wednesday.
The Champions Tour event is expected to return to Timonium's Five Farms in 2011 for what will now be the final year of a four-year contract. The switch to Washington and the former home of the Kemper Open and Booz Allen Classic could be used by the PGA Tour to showcase one of its own courses. The TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm was recently was named among the best new venues in the country.
The departure of the Seniors Players Championship -- one of five major championships on the Champions Tour -- leaves the Baltimore area next summer without any professional golf tournaments for the first time in over a decade. The LPGA Championship left Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace in June after a five-year stay.
"We want to thank the membership and leadership of Baltimore Country Club for graciously agreeing to delay the one year remaining in our contract to 2011, setting up this opportunity to showcase the Champions Tour at the new TPC Potomac," Champions Tour president Mike Stevens said in a statement.
The move also help fill a void for top level professional golf in the nation's capital next year. The AT&T National, hosted by Tiger Woods, is moving to the Philadelphia area in 2010 and 2011 while Congressional Country Club in Bethesda gets ready for the U.S. Open in 2011.
"We've had a nice event the last three years at Baltimore Country Club," Seniors Players Championship tournament director Steve Schoenfeld said Wednesday. "This represents a neat opportunity for one year and we wanted to take advantage of it."
TPC Potomac general manager Mike Sullivan said it was too early to say whether the Senior Players Championship would move there for a longer run beginning in 2012. Constellation Energy will remain the tournament's title sponsor through 2011, Schoenfeld said.
"We'll have to see what happens, a lot of it is contingent on if they can find a title sponsor [after 2011]," Sullivan said. "It's not a club decision. We'll try it for a year, get some feedback from the players, test the waters a little bit."
The move doesn't come as a surprise to those who follow the PGA Tour, given the reported $25 million it spent renovating its Potomac property.
There has been speculation the past couple of years that the tour was eyeing the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm as a temporary site for the AT&T National. But that didn't happen because Woods never played the course when it was considered a second or third-tier venue, and he decided to move his event to Aronomink Golf Club in Newton Square, Pa.
That left PGA Tour officials searching for another event, and they found one in the Senior Players Championship. Baltimore Country Club general manager Michael Stott said that tour officials approached him shortly after this year's event, won by Jay Haas. Stott said that he wasn't surprised by the tour's request since Constellation Energy has a five-year commitment as title sponsor.
"You can see the logic in it since Tiger's event was not going to be in the Washington area next year," Stott said Wednesday.
It also made sense since the late-season tournament had struggled to consistently attract fans in Baltimore as well as overwhelming corporate support in a declining economy. According to Schoenfeld, the tournament raised $400,000 for local charities in each of its first two years, and is expected to go over $1 million for its first three.
With no tournament in Washington next year, it will likely draw better support. The tournament will again be played in October.
"There's no secret that Washington is bigger than Baltimore," Schoenfeld said. "We're looking at this as the best of both worlds."
Baltimore Country Club officials said they supported the one-year move.
"There are plusses and minuses, " Stott said. "But our partnership with the PGA Tour has been so good, we granted their request. It will be a great final contract year when the tournament returns in 2011."
The tournament will be going to a much different type of course.
Five Farms is considered one of the top older courses in the country, designed in the 1920s by the legendary golf architect AW Tillinghast and renovated in 2005 by Keith Foster. The renovated TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm replaces a venue that Greg Norman once suggested should be "blown up."
The renovated venue was named the 12th-best new course in the country by Golfweek magazine.
"We would like to thank the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, and we would like to thank the TPC Potomac membership for affording this opportunity to our players many of whom played there during the Kemper Open and Booz Allen Classic days and will most certainly enjoy returning to since its incredible renovation," Stevens said.
Said Constellation Energy chairman, president and CEO Mayo Shattuck III, "We are pleased that this prestigious tournament will once again be held in and for the benefit of our home state of Maryland."
The Champions Tour event is expected to return to Timonium's Five Farms in 2011 for what will now be the final year of a four-year contract. The switch to Washington and the former home of the Kemper Open and Booz Allen Classic could be used by the PGA Tour to showcase one of its own courses. The TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm was recently was named among the best new venues in the country.
The departure of the Seniors Players Championship -- one of five major championships on the Champions Tour -- leaves the Baltimore area next summer without any professional golf tournaments for the first time in over a decade. The LPGA Championship left Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace in June after a five-year stay.
"We want to thank the membership and leadership of Baltimore Country Club for graciously agreeing to delay the one year remaining in our contract to 2011, setting up this opportunity to showcase the Champions Tour at the new TPC Potomac," Champions Tour president Mike Stevens said in a statement.
The move also help fill a void for top level professional golf in the nation's capital next year. The AT&T National, hosted by Tiger Woods, is moving to the Philadelphia area in 2010 and 2011 while Congressional Country Club in Bethesda gets ready for the U.S. Open in 2011.
"We've had a nice event the last three years at Baltimore Country Club," Seniors Players Championship tournament director Steve Schoenfeld said Wednesday. "This represents a neat opportunity for one year and we wanted to take advantage of it."
TPC Potomac general manager Mike Sullivan said it was too early to say whether the Senior Players Championship would move there for a longer run beginning in 2012. Constellation Energy will remain the tournament's title sponsor through 2011, Schoenfeld said.
"We'll have to see what happens, a lot of it is contingent on if they can find a title sponsor [after 2011]," Sullivan said. "It's not a club decision. We'll try it for a year, get some feedback from the players, test the waters a little bit."
The move doesn't come as a surprise to those who follow the PGA Tour, given the reported $25 million it spent renovating its Potomac property.
There has been speculation the past couple of years that the tour was eyeing the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm as a temporary site for the AT&T National. But that didn't happen because Woods never played the course when it was considered a second or third-tier venue, and he decided to move his event to Aronomink Golf Club in Newton Square, Pa.
That left PGA Tour officials searching for another event, and they found one in the Senior Players Championship. Baltimore Country Club general manager Michael Stott said that tour officials approached him shortly after this year's event, won by Jay Haas. Stott said that he wasn't surprised by the tour's request since Constellation Energy has a five-year commitment as title sponsor.
"You can see the logic in it since Tiger's event was not going to be in the Washington area next year," Stott said Wednesday.
It also made sense since the late-season tournament had struggled to consistently attract fans in Baltimore as well as overwhelming corporate support in a declining economy. According to Schoenfeld, the tournament raised $400,000 for local charities in each of its first two years, and is expected to go over $1 million for its first three.
With no tournament in Washington next year, it will likely draw better support. The tournament will again be played in October.
"There's no secret that Washington is bigger than Baltimore," Schoenfeld said. "We're looking at this as the best of both worlds."
Baltimore Country Club officials said they supported the one-year move.
"There are plusses and minuses, " Stott said. "But our partnership with the PGA Tour has been so good, we granted their request. It will be a great final contract year when the tournament returns in 2011."
The tournament will be going to a much different type of course.
Five Farms is considered one of the top older courses in the country, designed in the 1920s by the legendary golf architect AW Tillinghast and renovated in 2005 by Keith Foster. The renovated TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm replaces a venue that Greg Norman once suggested should be "blown up."
The renovated venue was named the 12th-best new course in the country by Golfweek magazine.
"We would like to thank the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, and we would like to thank the TPC Potomac membership for affording this opportunity to our players many of whom played there during the Kemper Open and Booz Allen Classic days and will most certainly enjoy returning to since its incredible renovation," Stevens said.
Said Constellation Energy chairman, president and CEO Mayo Shattuck III, "We are pleased that this prestigious tournament will once again be held in and for the benefit of our home state of Maryland."
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