Defending champ Haas to team with Strange

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SAVANNAH, Ga. - Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf's two-time defending champion, Jay Haas, met with local media on Monday in Savannah and announced that he will pair up with former Wake Forest teammate Curtis Strange when the 31st annual tournament returns to the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa as an all-team, official money event on April 21-27, 2008.

Jay Haas is the reigning Player of the Year and the 2008 Arnold Palmer Award winner. (Badz/PGA TOUR)

Haas has been on a hot streak since joining the Champions Tour in 2004, capturing 10 wins, including one major (2006 Senior PGA Championship), and successfully defending his crown last year in Savannah. After posting four victories in each of the last two seasons, Haas earned the Player of the Year honor and the Arnold Palmer Award as the Champions Tour's leading money-winner both years. The Greenville, S.C. resident is also winner of the 2006 Charles Schwab Cup season-long points race, earning a $1-million annuity for the feat, and has nine PGA TOUR career titles.

Fellow Demon Deacon Strange is considered one of the premier player of the 1980s, earning 16 of his 17 career PGA TOUR victories in that decade highlighted by back-to-back U.S Open wins in 1988-89. His best year on TOUR came in 1988 when he claimed four titles, including an 18-hole playoff defeat over Nick Faldo at the U.S. Open at The County Club in Brookline, Mass. The 2007 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee has played on five American Ryder Cup squads (1983, 85, 87, 89, 95) and served as captain for the U.S Ryder Cup team in 2002. Strange's best finish since joining the Champions Tour in 2005 is a T3 at the 2005 Constellation Energy Classic.

With the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf returning to its historic roots and becoming an all-team event again for the first time since 2001 which will count as an official win and official money in the Legends Division, Champions Tour players have begun declaring their partners. As of March 3, the following teams have been announced:

Legends Division (ages 50+):
-Andy Bean/Jerry Pate
-Brad Bryant/Lonnie Nielsen
-Allen Doyle/Dana Quigley
-Fred Funk/Scott Hoch
-Jay Haas/Curtis Strange
-Bruce Lietzke/Bill Rogers
-Larry Nelson/Jim Thorpe
-Loren Roberts/Scott Simpson
-Jay Sigel/Dave Stockton
-Jeff Sluman/Craig Stadler
-Des Smyth/Denis Watson
-Bobby Wadkins/Lanny Wadkins

Raphael Division (ages 50-69):

-Stewart Ginn/Bob Charles
-Tony Jacklin/Larry Laoretti

Demaret Division (ages 70+):

-Tommy Aaron/Don Bies
-Butch Baird/Bobby Nichols
-Lee Elder/Doug Sanders
-Doug Ford/Billy Maxwell

Tickets are on sale now at Kroger Super Markets throughout Savannah, Ga., Waycross, Ga., Brunswick, Ga., Hilton Head, S.C., Myrtle Beach, S.C. and Beaufort, S.C. starting at $25 for a daily pass (The price of single day tickets increases to $30 at the gate). Weeklong Emerald Club passes are $75 ($65 for age 60+). Emerald Club passes include admission into the National Car Rental Emerald Club Pavilion Wednesday-Sunday. Tickets may also be purchased by calling toll free, 877-942-1123 or visiting the tournament's website at www.libertymutuallegends.pgatour.com.

The Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf is part of the Champions Tour's "The Road to the Charles Schwab Cup", a season-long points race that kicks off in Hawaii with 29 official events and culminates in Northern California at Sonoma Golf Club October 27 -- November 2, with $2.1 million in payouts awarded to the season's top five leading performers.