PGA Tour comes to Daniel Island

Called the PalmettoPride Classic, the tour’s newest event will be held Oct. 16-22 at the Daniel Island Club. PGA Tour and PalmettoPride announced the event last week after reaching a five-year agreement to bring the tour to Charleston, starting with next season.

The Nationwide Tour is part of the PGA Tour family and was founded in 1990. The top 20 players on the Nationwide Tour graduate to the PGA Tour annually, and through the 2005 season, former players have won 175 PGA Tour titles.

The PalmettoPride Classic will offer a $500,000 purse with the winner taking home $90,000.

The tournament will be held at the Daniel Island Club, which boasts 36-holes of golf — the Beresford Creek course designed by Tom Fazio and the Ralston Creek course designed by Rees Jones. A decision on which course will be used for the event will be determined later.

"We’re really excited about getting this tournament," said Greg Keating, vice president of club operation at the Daniel Island Club. "I’m confident that this facility will be a tremendous host for the players, their wives and family members."

Keating expects that players and their families will enjoy Daniel Island’s businesses and various amenities. He said that volunteers would be needed to help stage the event.

Proceeds will benefit PalmettoPride, a non-profit organization established to keep South Carolina clean and beautiful.

In 2006, the Nationwide Tour will visit 22 states, as well as Panama, Australia and New Zealand with 31 tournaments playing for nearly $17 million in prize money.

At season’s end, the Top 20 money winners on the Tour graduate to the PGA TOUR for the following season.

Among Nationwide Tour alumni are Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, David Toms, Tom Lehman, John Daly, Stewart Cink, Chris DiMarco, Jason Gore and many others. In fact, exactly half of the top 50 money winners on the PGA Tour in 2005 were alumni of the Nationwide Tour.

"We are pleased to be coming to Charleston, an area steeped in golf history," said Bill Calfee, Chief of Operations for the Nationwide Tour. "We think Charleston is a great market for the Nationwide Tour and we expect to have a great event in 2006."

The PalmettoPride Classic will be the next-to-last full-field event of the 2006 Nationwide Tour season and can be expected to draw a strong field of competitors as players jockey for position in the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship.