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Senior Players Championship returning to Fox Chapel
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Tom Watson was only one of the players to rave about the Fox Chapel Golf Club as the site for the Constellation Senior Players Championship this past summer. But the eight-time major champion merely reflected what many on the Champions Tour believed -- they wanted to come back for another year.
They are getting their wish.
The Champions Tour will announce today that the Senior Players Championship, one of the tour's five major tournaments, will return to Fox Chapel for the next two years.
The tournament will be played the last week of June in 2013 and '14.
"That's really, really good for us," said Brian Goin, the PGA Tour's vice president of championship management.
Fox Chapel had only six months to prepare for this year's tournament because of the uncertainty surrounding a pending merger involving Constellation, the title sponsor. The club agreed to be the host of the event for one year.
But when the Seth Raynor-designed course was so overwhelmingly received by the players, and the event was widely supported by Western Pennsylvania, Constellation agreed with the tour to return the tournament to the same site.
Watson called Fox Chapel "an unsung jewel. ... People should wake up and realize what a great golf course this is, because that's what it is."
The arrangement is only for two years because the Champions Tour does not want the event to conflict with the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont and the corporate sales that lead up to the tournament.
"Knowing we're coming back, and having more time to build on what we already established, will make the event even better next year," Goin said.
First Published November 2, 2012 12:00 am
