Champions Tour gets set for 30th year with Hawaii opener

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Ben Crenshaw will make his 130th Champions Tour start next week.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The Champions Tour kicks off its 30th season when the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai opens the 2009 season next week at the Hualalai Golf Course on the Big Island of Hawaii, Jan. 19-25.

2009 schedule
List of rookies

Mitsubishi Electric takes over as the new sponsor of the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. The 54-hole event features Champions Tour major championship winners of the last five years, other tournament winners of the last two years and sponsor invitees World Golf Hall of Fame members Ben Crenshaw, Gary Player, Curtis Strange plus Bruce Lietzke, a seven-time winner on the Champions Tour.

The stellar 34-player field has won a total of 483 victories on both the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour, including eleven players who have 32 major championships to their credit on the PGA TOUR.

In addition to Lietzke, and World Golf Hall of Fame members Crenshaw, Player, and Strange, four other Hall of Fame members, Tom Watson, Bernhard Langer, Tom Kite and Hale Irwin are also in the field.

The Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai will be Watson's first official competition after undergoing left hip replacement surgery last October 2. Langer, a three-time winner last season and the Champions Tour's 2008 Rookie and Player of the Year, will be making his second appearance at Hualalai hoping to better his T3 finish last season.

Kite, a past winner at this event (2002), is making his ninth appearance at Hualalai coming off his 10th win on the Champions Tour at the 2008 Boeing Classic.

Watson

However, Irwin, a two-time winner of this event (1997, 2007), has the current record for most appearances at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. Irwin, who has amassed an astonishing record of 45 victories on the Champions Tour, will be making his 14th appearance in this event.

Fred Funk, a two-time winner in 2008, will be unable to defend his Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai title due to recent surgery on his right knee.

Hawaii is one of 15 states in the U.S. to host the Champions Tour in 2009. In addition to the U.S., players will compete in the Dominican Republic and England for a minimum of $51.4 million in official prize money.

The Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai will be played at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Hualalai Golf Course in Ka'upulehu-Kona, Hawaii. GOLF CHANNEL will provide live prime-time coverage in high definition on GOLF CHANNEL HD of each day's action (Jan. 23 from 6:30 -- 9 p.m. ET and Jan. 24 & 25 from 7:30 -- 10 p.m. ET).

Joining Mitsubishi Electric as a new Champions Tour title sponsor, Triton Financial is the new sponsor in Austin, Texas.

The ACE Group Classic hosted by Peter Jacobsen will move to a new home in 2009 to the TPC Treviso Bay in Naples, Fla. for the tournament's 22nd season in Southwest Florida.

Three of the Champions Tour's major championships go to historic venues in 2009. The Senior PGA Championship is scheduled for the Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, Ohio (May 18-24). The Champions Tour was last at Canterbury for the 1996 U.S. Senior Open won by Dave Stockton.

For the first time, the Senior British Open will be played at Sunningdale Golf Club's Old Course in Berkshire, England (July 20-26). The following week, the U.S. Senior Open will be contested at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind. (July 27-August 3).

In 2009, the Champions Tour will welcome several former PGA TOUR winners to its ranks. Among the exempt players eligible to debut in 2009 are major winners Tom Lehman (March 7), Bob Tway (May 4) and 2009 Presidents Cup Captain Fred Couples (October 3).

Jones

Steve Jones, winner of the 1996 U.S. Open, turned 50 at the end of 2008, but is not expected to debut until sometime this spring or summer following some recent injuries. Also joining the mix will be Olin Browne (May 22), Keith Clearwater (Sept. 1) Tom Pernice, Jr. (Sept. 5), David Frost (Sept. 11) and Tommy Armour III (Oct. 8).

This year also marks the 25th anniversary for the AT&T Championship at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio, Texas and Liberty Mutual begins its 32nd season as sponsor of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf in Savannah, Ga., the longest-running sponsor on the Champions Tour.

The season once again concludes at the $2.5 million Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Sonoma, Calif. Many of the season's award winners will be determined in Sonoma, including the $2.1 million Charles Schwab Cup. Last year, Jay Haas edged Funk by a mere 12 points in the closest race in the eight -year history of the competition.

All 26 events will receive national television coverage. GOLF CHANNEL will air 19 tournaments (plus early round coverage of five others) and seven will air on NBC (5), ABC (1) or CBS (1). All five major championships will air on network television.

GOLF CHANNEL will also telecast a one-hour Champions Tour Season Preview, Thursday, Jan. 22 at 8 p.m. ET.