MasterCard Championship at Hualalai

(Ponte Vedra Beach, FL)  --  The first of 29 official Charles Schwab Cup tournaments, the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai, kicks off the Champions Tour's 2006 season next week on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Dana Quigley, the 2005 Player of the Year/Jack Nicklaus Trophy winner, is the defending champion. 

The Championship is a 54-hole event that will be played on Jan. 20-22 at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Hualalai Golf Club in Ka'upulehu-Kona, HI.  It features major championship winners of the last five years and other tournament winners of the last two years, plus sponsor invitees, Ben Crenshaw, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Lanny Wadkins.  The Golf Channel will provide live prime-time coverage of each day's play (Jan. 20 & 21 @ 7:30 - 10:30 p.m. ET and Jan. 22 @ 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. ET).

The following week, Jan. 23-29, the Tour moves to the island of Oahu for the Turtle Bay Championship where Hale Irwin will seek a fifth consecutive win.  The Golf Channel will also air live prime-time coverage from Turtle Bay on Jan. 27-29.

Four Champions Tour players - Jay Haas, Peter Jacobsen, Loren Roberts and Craig Stadler - are getting a head start on their 2006 seasons.  They are entered in this week's PGA TOUR Sony Open in Honolulu.  All four are then expected to compete in the MasterCard and Turtle Bay events. 

In 2006 the Champions Tour will play in 17 states in the U.S., plus Mexico and Scotland, for a minimum of $52.65 million in official prize money. 

There is one new event on the schedule, the Puerto Vallarta Golf Classic in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. 

Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (Destin, FL), Regions Financial (Birmingham, AL) and the partnership of Sprint Nextel, HCA, Garmin and Cerner (Kansas City) join the Champions Tour family of sponsors. 

New venues in 2006 include Vista Vallarta Golf Club (Mexico), The Raven Golf Club at Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort (Destin, FL), Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Ross Bridge (Birmingham, AL), Glen Oaks Country Club (West Des Moines, IA), in addition to three major championship sites, Oak Tree Golf Club (Senior PGA Championship), Prairie Dunes Country Club (U.S. Senior Open Championship) and The Westin Turnberry Resort/Ailsa Course (Senior British Open Championship).

The season concludes in late October at Sonoma (CA) Golf Club with the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.  Many of the season's award winners will be determined at Sonoma, including the $2.1 million Charles Schwab Cup competition.

All 29 events will receive national television coverage.  The Golf Channel will air 24 events with ABC (two), CBS (one) and NBC (three, including shared weekend coverage of the Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach) televising six others.