PGA TOUR Champions and Big Cedar Lodge announced two new events that will be contested as part of the Tour’s new combined 2020-21 schedule. The Charles Schwab Series will feature back-to-back 54-hole tournaments played over a nine-day period in August at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri. Both events will feature $3 million purses and will be broadcast on GOLF Channel.
The Charles Schwab Series at Bass Pro Shops Big Cedar Lodge will be held August 19-21 at the Buffalo Ridge Golf Course, while the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National will be played August 24-26 at Ozarks National Golf Course. Golf Digest selected Ozarks National as the Best New Public Course in the world last November in the publication’s annual rankings list and Buffalo Ridge was ranked the No. 1 course you can play in Missouri in Golfweek’s “2019 Best” issue. The venues represent two of the five award-winning nature golf courses at Big Cedar Lodge, which hosted the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf from 2014 through 2019.
“We are excited to once again partner with Johnny Morris and the great team at Big Cedar Lodge to bring the excitement of PGA TOUR Champions golf back to the Ozarks,” said PGA TOUR Champions President Miller Brady. “Our players have terrific memories tied to this amazing property, and I know Buffalo Ridge and Ozarks National will be tremendous venues for our fans watching around the world on GOLF Channel.”
The Buffalo Ridge Golf Course was designed by renowned course architect Tom Fazio in collaboration with Morris and served as co-host of the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf throughout the duration of the event. Ozarks National Golf Course opened in 2018 after being designed by the noteworthy duo of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and showcases true nature golf in the Ozarks.
“This is our seventh year hosting the PGA TOUR Champions, and we are very happy to welcome these incredible players and friends back to Big Cedar Lodge,” said Johnny Morris, noted conservationist and founder of Bass Pro Shops and Big Cedar Lodge. “We continue to take great pride in this special place and our continued enhancements, including the grand opening of Ozarks National last year and the debut of the full Payne’s Valley course later this year. We look forward to providing a challenging, memorable experience to all of the players and are very grateful to our friends at the PGA TOUR for helping us showcase the beauty and wonder of the Ozarks with the world.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, PGA TOUR Champions previously announced that its tournaments in 2020 and 2021 would combine to form one season, with the next Charles Schwab Cup champion to be crowned in November 2021 at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
The Tour will restart its season at The Ally Challenge presented by McLaren, to be held in Grand Blanc, Michigan, the week of July 27 – August 2. The back-to-back events at Big Cedar Lodge will immediately follow the Tour’s second restart event, the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS Championship in Akron, Ohio, the week of August 10-16.
At the time of golf’s suspension of play due to the coronavirus in mid-March, three World Golf Hall of Fame members were inside the top six in the Charles Schwab Cup standings: Bernhard Langer (1), Ernie Els (3) and Fred Couples (6). Els was one of the year’s highly touted rookies on PGA TOUR Champions, with players like Jim Furyk, Mike Weir and K.J. Choi also expected to make their debuts in 2020.
Both Charles Schwab Series events at Big Cedar Lodge will be operated by PGA TOUR Champions without tournament Pro-Ams and no spectators allowed in attendance. Practice rounds for both events will be held the two days prior to competition.
For more information on PGA TOUR Champions, please visit PGATOUR.com.
About PGA TOUR Champions - PGA TOUR Champions is a membership organization of professional golfers age 50 and older, including 33 members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. The Tour’s mission is to provide financial opportunities for its players, entertain and inspire its fans, deliver substantial value to its partners, create outlets for volunteers to give back and generate significant charitable and economic impact in tournament communities. All events are televised in the United States, with most receiving complete coverage on Golf Channel, the exclusive cable-television partner of PGA TOUR Champions. Internationally, telecasts air in excess of 170 countries and territories, reaching more than 340 million potential households, and distributed in 15+ markets via GOLFTV. Follow PGA TOUR Champions online at PGATOUR.com, at facebook.com/PGATOURChampions, on Twitter @ChampionsTour and on Instagram @pgatourchampions.
About Big Cedar Lodge - Located in the heart of Missouri’s Ozark Mountains, Big Cedar Lodge is America’s premier wilderness resort. A passion of Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, the 4,600-acre lakeside retreat connects families to the outdoors with a variety of nature-based experiences including
fishing, boating, hiking, spa and wellness offerings, hosting 2.4 million guests annually. Signature attractions include Top of the Rock, home to world-class golf, dining, and entertainment; and Dogwood Canyon Nature Park, a 10,000-acre nonprofit wildlife nature park. Named “Number One Resort in the Midwest” by the readers of Travel + Leisure, the resort offers genuine Ozarks hospitality and a convenient location just south of Branson. Learn more at www.bigcedar.com.
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