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 A
signature golf course by one of the
world's finest professional players.
A world-class PGA TOUR tournament facility.
Seemingly endless rolling hills of green.
It's all par for the course at Sugarloaf
Country Club. The richly diverse terrain
of the Tournament Players Club at Sugarloaf
provides an enduring golf experience
of beauty and serenity unsurpassed in
the Greater Atlanta Area.
The BellSouth Classic, the first of
back-to-back tournaments in the state
of Georgia, takes center stage, as players
fine-tune their craft heading into the
first major of the 2004 PGA Tour season,
the Masters. Most of the top names in
golf are taking the week off to prepare,
but eight of the top 25 in the world
are expected to play this event.
The purse was increased by $500,000
from last year, and now totals $4.5
million. The winner will receive $810,000,
with the runner-up getting $486,000
and the third-place finisher pocketing
$306,000.
This is the eighth consecutive year
in which the TPC at Sugarloaf is hosting
the BellSouth Classic. 7,2930-yard,
par-72 Sugarloaf course was designed
by Greg Norman, his first in the United
States.
Stewart Cink, a Duluth, Ga., resident,
recorded his fifth top 10 at this event
last year, the most of any player. Phil
Mickelson, who missed the cut in 2003,
is next with four. When Retief Goosen
won this event in 2002, he became the
fifth player since 1997 at the TPC at
Sugarloaf to hold or share the 54-hole
lead and go on to victory. Scott McCarron
was tied with David Duval for first
place after 54 holes in 1997 and went
on to victory. He also captured the
2001 event when leading after three
rounds. Tiger Woods (1998) and Phil
Mickelson (2000) also held on to win.
Duval (1999) came from one stroke back
five years ago to win.
There have been nine playoffs in the
history of the tournament, the last
coming in 2000 when Mickelson defeated
Gary Nicklaus in a weather-shortened
affair. There are six two-time winners
of this event (Bob Lunn, Irwin, Larry
Nelson, Wayne Levi, Tom Kite and McCarron).
Bob Charles won this event the first
year of its existence with a winning
score of 282, the highest total in tournament
history. Nick Price recorded back-to-back
eagles on the first hole at Atlanta
Country Club in 1996 during the first
two rounds. On Thursday, Price holed
a 116-yard wedge and Friday he holed
out from 138 yards with a 9-iron.
In 1996, Stankowski became the first
player in history to win a then-Nike
Tour event (now called the Nationwide
Tour) and a PGA Tour event in back-to-back
weeks. Stankowski, Ray Floyd and Craig
Stadler are the only players ever to
win tournaments in the same year on
different tours. |
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